I'm Directing Heathers the Musical...

When Rachel Chavkin won her tony for best direction of a musical earlier this year, she described how heartbreaking it was to be the only female director that season. When I attended Circle in the Square over the summer, this idea was reiterated for women to take charge and become directors. Since Chavkin’s call to women, every class I’ve been in since has felt like a rally of feminism in the theatre. This is what started me on my path to becoming a director.

I had planned to start classes at Eckerd and tell one of my professors of my new goal when my friends Pickett and Lizzy asked me to direct a show they wanted to do, Heathers. I was so excited, it felt like the stars were starting to aligned! So in our theatre production class we all vowed to do our best to put on a student run musical.

Rachel Chavkin accepting her Tony for Best Direction of a Musical, the speech that inspired me to start directing.

So, Why Heathers?

On the first day of classes, my friends and I made a pact to do whatever we can to put on a show this year. After looking through many MANY scripts, we decided that Heathers has the most interest. Heathers is about Veronica Sawyer, a girl who just wants to survive her senior year of high school. When she is offered to hang with the main mean girls, three girls named Heather, Veronica became part of the popular girls. When she meets JD, an attractive yet sociopathic new student, she falls in love and the two cause chaos. The universal themes of love, popularity, and the constant longing for finding somewhere you belong have brought people who don’t like musicals to the stage.

Pickett, Lizzy and I have had countless meetings, conference calls, email chains and a couple sleepless nights trying to get this approved. We originally had the idea to have auditions in December, work through Christmas and Winter Term (month of January), and put this on in February. We had a schedule, fundraisers, sides picked out for auditions, and acquired the rights all before our meeting with the theatre faculty. When we presented this, however, they were worried about our timeline and asked us if we’d reconsider. We didn’t really know what they meant when suddenly they asked if we’d consider putting our show on the main stage and have it be the official spring semester show.

We love our theatre department, but we know many people at Eckerd just aren't excited for theatre anymore. So Pickett, Lizzy and myself made it our mission to get the whole school excited about the shows we do here. I am so proud of my friends coming together to become a production team, an all female production team! We know that our generation is the future of theatre and we want to show the world we are ready.

Lets

make this beautiful