With the fall season beginning, as does the annual fall musical. Under the direction of Sam Dollins, the choir teacher, along with the help of acting director Jeff Yarnell, technical director Tyler Lasche, and choreographer Chad Alexander, thirty students have spent countless hours rehearsing Hadestown.
“It’s a story of Orpheus and Eurydice, based on Greek mythology,” Dollins said. “Eurydice gets banished to Hades because she dies, and Orpheus, because he’s so in love with her, goes down to Hades to bring her out. It’s really a show about love and justice and everything that we come to relate to now.”
Rights for high schools to perform ‘Hadestown’ only came out late last spring, making Blue Valley’s one of the earliest productions of the musical.
“I had gone to New York with my daughter and we got the chance to see a bunch of Broadway shows,” Dollins said. “‘Hadestown’ just stood out as such a touching and incredible show, and I knew that it had to be what we did next. Being one of the first high schools to perform this show is such an amazing opportunity for the students in the cast.”
Despite how new and unique ‘Hadestown’ is compared to previous musicals Dollins has directed, the rehearsal process is largely the same. Every day, after school, the cast has spent countless hours working on a myriad of tasks, from choreography to emotional connection in character work.
On the technical side, however, this show is unlike any other for Blue Valley.
“The tech aspects have been different from anything we have done,” Lasche said. “The last couple of musicals we have done a wing and drop set. This set is going to be a unit set, meaning it doesn’t move. We are trying something new for Blue Valley [as] we will have a motorized turntable. A newer show like this is harder because the only people to do this show have been on Broadway or on a tour of Broadway. We are trying to make it our own without copying what Broadway has done.”
Luckily, Lacshe is not alone in designing the set for ‘Hadestown.’ As usual, he has a crew of students helping build the set, but unlike in previous years, students are designing it as well.
“I have always wanted to get students involved with designing sets for the shows here at BV,” Lasche said. “This year Sarah Tonkin and Elise Johnson have stepped up big-time. With their help, we can now be up for a Blue Star Award for set design.”
With limited references to draw inspiration from, senior Sarah Tonkin has put in effort to combine her own ideas with previous sets and outside influences of New Orleans.
“I’m [working on] the aesthetic side rather than the technical side,” Tonkin said. “One cool thing about ‘Hadestown’ is the set isn’t fixed. It’s been fun to take bits and pieces from each different set.”
Tickets for ‘Hadestown’ will be available for the performances on Nov. 14, 15 and 16, both online and at the door.
“I definitely feel like you won’t want to miss this one,” Dollins said. “It’s just such a raw and emotional show, and it deals with so much love and devotion that the audience should take to heart. It honestly may be my favorite musical I’ve gotten the chance to direct here.”
