We Made it Beautiful
In September of 2019 my friends and I started on our Heathers journey. Now, a year and a half later, I can finally say I directed my first show. I am so grateful for everyone that rallied together to put this show on. We faced a million challenges and a global pandemic, but this talented group of cast and crew were able to put this together and create something beautiful.
Leann O’Dell, Sarah Heller, & Zoe Smith as the Heathers.
When the pandemic started I knew I would have to put this dream on hold, but as the months grew longer and scarier, we all thought this journey would never come to a happy ending. Lizzy Falk, my stage manager, and I were determined to see this show through. We came up with every contingency plan imaginable; we were serious about keeping the cast and crew safe while giving everyone an outlet to be creative in a time where theatre felt obsolete. When the theatre faculty saw our mountains of prep work, they once again gave us their blessing to put on Heathers. When we were finally all back together, the energy was electric. We were all so thrilled to see each other and create show that we all loved. Don’t get me wrong, things felt very different; we were in masks, outdoors, singing into stand mics, and spaced apart, but we were on stage performing. This cast choose to stay with a show they had to so painfully say goodbye to a year ago, their perseverance and love for the this journey was inspiring. Every night, from the 2020 rehearsals & the 2021 run, this cast showed love and encouragement for each other. I can’t believe I was so lucky to direct this amazing group of people.
I got to test out my problem solving skills with this show. When I was studying different director challenges I could come across before we started Heathers back in 2019, I never knew how many creative solutions to seemingly simple scenes it would take to pull this show off. For example, the question I got most often from cast and our awaiting audience was “How in the world are we going to do Dead Girl Walking?”. The biggest lesson I learned from this show is don’t overthink things. With a simple sheet, a flashlight, and some choreographed silhouettes from our actors, we had our Dead Girl Walking effect. Every night before this effect happened I could hardly breath. “Would they get it?” I kept thinking. And every night, the audience’s hoots and hollers of approval were my cue to finally breath again.
Another big challenge we had to face was masks. We knew we needed them but we had to problem solve the logistics of singing and acting with a mask on. They needed to fit with the each character’s aesthetic, have enough fabric to allow the actor to open their mouth to belt while not having too much fabric so it gets in their mouth, as well as something safe. AC, my costume designer, was taking on this major challenge. She tried every combination of materials and designs imaginable until finally we had a prototype. We had Zoe Smith, who played Heather McNamara, sing Lifeboat with it on and the moment we all realized that it worked felt like we’d won the Tony awards for costume design. We were simply ecstatic.
I can’t say enough about how happy I am that I finally got to have a happy ending to my Heathers journey. I can finally say I directed Heathers the Musical and was a student director. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this adventure over the past year and a half. Thank you to those who decided to join this cast in 2021 and take on the challenge of learning the show in just 4 weeks. And a big thank you to my stage managers Lizzy Falk and Katie McSweeny. I could have never done this without you girls. And to the next student director, break a leg!
“Let’s make this beautiful.”
My goofballs.