BALTIMORE (Map, News) - For fans of grainy, black-and-white movies typically starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, you know the scene where the hero decides to raise his fortunes with a shout, “Hey, let’s put on a show!”

Yeah, right, only in the movies.

Well, nobody bothered to tell Howard County native Kristen Lewis, 23, that “putting on a show” is something only dreams are made of.

“Most people at age 23 are in New York City working two jobs and sitting on their couch, hoping that their dream will come to them. Kristen did what most people don’t dare to dream,” said friend and fellow actor Dan Shaked.

Yes, Lewis has put on a show — an off-Broadway play — to be exact Adam Rapp’s “Stone Cold Dead Serious,” the story of how a video game- crazed teenager helps his troubled family rise above their own dysfunctions. The play ran through Feb. 18.

For Lewis, the idea began while still a drama student at New York University.

“I had done a scene from the play, and the teacher gave us the most incredible feedback, even telling other classes about how amazing it was,” she said. “After I graduated, I ran into the guy that I did the scene with, and we recalled how well the scene had gone and I thought, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s put it on.’ ”

“She set her mind to this and went for it,” said her father, Tim Lewis, chief financial officer and chief operating officer with The Becker Group, an experiential marketing solutions company. “After securing the playwright’s permission,” she found a theater and recruited a promotions company. She found a 501-3C sponsoring organization, Fractured Atlas, to facilitate a means of raising money for the show.

“She recruited the director and the balance of the cast with the help of the network she created. And she has been planning and managing the budget, raising over 80 percent of the funds.”

“This was our chance to showcase something we knew deep down could become the start of our name to fame,” Shaked said.

For Lewis, who began performing her own scenes, songs and dances at family holiday gatherings in preschool, “Stone Cold Dead Serious” is more than just a show to put on, it might describe her attitude toward her art.

“I feel confident; it’s a learning experience. I’m learning so much about the business, and my director is teaching me so much about getting into the mind of the character, tapping into emotions you don’t get to every day,” Lewis said.

She plays the role of Shaylee Ledbetter, a former high school track star fighting a drug addiction. In addition, the play is a vehicle to market herself and her fellow actors to casting directors and agents “which will hopefully lead to other work and representation by an agency,” she said.