Colored lights fill the theater. An audience waits with anticipation. Then, the actors take the stage.
The Prosper Theatre Varsity Musical class performed “Hadestown: Teen Edition” in the Black Box Theater at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 17, 18, 19, 24, 25 and 26. Hadestown is a musical modern retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus, played by senior Aiden Hansen, and Eurydice, played by senior Mary Freitas.
Varsity Musical students auditioned for roles in the production in the first week of school.
“We were required to sing two different songs from different characters from the show in our auditions,” Hansen said. “It came hard for people because there are very few principal roles in the show. At least, an issue for me was fitting in some multiple different characters, but I liked it because it pushed us out of our comfort zones.”
The cast started rehearsing for the musical two months before the show began.
“Throughout the process, every day after school, we would get together and go through the choreographies,” Freitas said. “We focused on relaying the emotions in every scene to the audience.”
Students choreographed most of the production.
“We had a choreographer from New York helping us with a couple of dance numbers, but the rest we did ourselves,” sophomore Zachary Thompson said. “Everyone was great at keeping up their choreography skills and remembering their dances.”
Hadestown marks the first time a student has served as Musical Director, with Hansen filling the role.
“Music directing a whole ensemble was very challenging at first, especially just getting the respect of everyone, and I think respect is earned, not given,” Hansen said. “Once we found our groove, we started moving through the music fast.”
Having played more strong or villainous characters in previous productions, Freitas said she was excited to play a new kind of character.
“I personally have never played a love interest, and I had to learn how to act like that with someone else,” Freitas said. “It was difficult, but me and Aiden are good friends, so it was easier in that aspect.”
Hansen said this is the most he’s grown in preparing and performing a show.
“The thing about Orpheus that I had never really realized in any other role I’ve played is that with him, in the story, he’s supposed to be this amazing singer who, just with his voice, can make things happen,” Hansen said. “With that, there’s this pressure of sounding perfect. I always put that pressure on myself in any role I play because I want to sound good. It was only through Orpheus that I realized it matters more about sounding real and raw than sounding angelic and ethereal.”
Judges from Texas Thespians chose Prosper Theatre’s “Hadestown: Teen Edition” to be performed on the Main Stage at the Texas Thespians State Festival in Grapevine on Nov. 22.
“Generally, Main Stage is a privilege almost exclusively given to private fine art schools,” senior Annabelle Nugent, Prosper Theatre co-president and stage manager for the show, said. “The fact that a public school like Prosper is getting Main Stage is fantastic. Simply, it means that we are at the level of schools which specifically draft for stuff like fine arts and singing and dancing ability, and it’s really a compliment to our actors and our technicians.”
Even after the Black Box performances finished, the actors and stage crew were preparing for their upcoming performance.
“During the application process, a lot of what we talked about was how we made the set transportable to move it to the venue, but now I’m noticing that we didn’t make the lighting or sound as transportable as we could have,” Nugent said. “We’re going from a smaller venue where we had zero microphones to a much larger venue with microphones for the actors. So, we’re putting in a lot of work now in the days leading up to the festival to shift the set completely, and the actors are still practicing to be their best at Main Stage.”
This opportunity gave Prosper Theatre a final chance to perform Hadestown.
“This show just means so much to me, and I was sad that that weekend, the show could have been over,” Hansen said. “We would’ve already had our closing show, but now we get to keep doing it until the end of November and go and perform it at the state level.”
