For the last couple years, the Jonathan Alder music department has gained quite the reputation; they have proved themselves able to handle both action packed adventure musicals and deeper, more complex musicals .On Oct. 25, this year’s musical, ‘Hadestown,’ was announced, along with the news that Alder would be participating in the CAPA Marquee awards, something possible because of this capable reputation.
“Hadestown” is a modern retelling of what is likely the oldest tragedy written, that of Orpheus and Eurydice.
Set in a Roaring 20s environment with a jazz and folk inspired score, the musical explores themes of love, sacrifice, and the struggle against fate as Orpheus ventures into the underworld to rescue his beloved Eurydice from Hades. The story intertwines with the lives of other mythic figures, including Persephone and Hades. Ultimately, it highlights the power of hope and the consequences of choices in a world that often feels predetermined.
Putting on this show is an undertaking because it’s one of the first high school performances, so the cast and crew won’t really have anything to base it off of.
“It’s gonna be hard, definitely it’s gonna be difficult,” says junior Samantha Pauly, “but I’m really excited and I think it’s gonna be a really good show because we have a really good group of people.”
Nick Mayes, the choir and musical director, chose this musical because he knew that it was going to be a challenge; he knew that the cast would be going into this blind and it wouldn’t be like previous musicals where actors could just look up a previous production to memorize.
“I chose ‘Hadestown’ because it was available and I thought to myself, wouldn’t that be crazy if we got approved for this? And so, us and a bunch of other schools started a ratrace of sorts to get approved and low and behold, we got approved,” says Mayes.
Other options were certainly on the table, but as time went on, Mayes decided Alder was going to pioneer this musical.
“I think I was still in the development process, but when it became available…it just kind of trumped everything,” he says. “I don’t think anything came as close as ‘Hadestown.’”
In addition to getting the rights to a relatively new musical, Alder is also participating in the CAPA Marquee awards.
“CAPA Marquee awards is a prestigious competitive organization,” says Mayes. “It’s basically the Ohio Tony awards.”
These awards take the best of the best from Ohio and have a judged competition to see who’s the best, and not just any school can participate.
“You submit an application,” says Mayes. “You have to have a really recognized program to be in it.”
Even without a proper theater–just an “auditeria,” the Alder musical program has proven themselves capable of these awards. “Hadestown,” being new, has made this year a good opportunity to get started in CAPA Marquee.
“I think what stopped us from doing it earlier was that we had a misunderstanding of what was required of us and that it had to be all student run, but that was not the case,” says Mayes. “There was also a fear of going competitive: was it going to change the atmosphere?”
Ultimately, most of the CAPA Marquee competition is not compared to other programs, but recognition for the program itself and the individuals within it.
“There’s a lot of paperwork of course,” says Mayes. “We have judges that come to the show randomly. They rate us based on ourselves, so they don’t rate us against other schools; that’s a misconception.”
So with the musical being a premier, and the fact that we are now doing CAPA Marquee, Mayes made sure that students would have plenty of time to practice and get ready for auditions.
“On November 26th we’ll do a dance walk through,” says Mayes. “Then a week later on December 3rd we’ll do all of the auditions, then on the 5th we’ll do callbacks.”
Sign up sheets are outside the choir room, and the show itself will be March 13-16.
“I’m really excited,” says junior Claire Freyhof. “It’s one of my favorite musicals, but I do think it’s gonna be challenging; it’s gonna take a lot of work, but I think it’s gonna turn out amazing.”
