Hi! A few moths ago I posted to this sub and shared some photos of our production of Hadestown teen edition that you guys all seemed to love. That production just closed and I thought I'd share a few updates and videos with you guys. Overall these were genuinely phenomenal shows each got better than the last. Audiences were incredible and I'm so grateful to them. These aren't all the videos (I will upload more i didn't know about advanced YT features.) but here are some of my faves
One of the biggest shocks to me was how much audiences loved the song How Long. It is one of my absolute favorites in the show but all three times I've seen it (twice on tour once on broadway)the audience seemed slightly checked out at that moment which always makes me so sad. At all four performances it got some of the biggest applause of the night which makes me so happy. One of my other favorite audience moments was the reaction to Nothing Changes. Each show there were about three-ish seconds of total silence after it ended and then the audience absolutely exploded, so special. My personal favorite though was Our Lady of The underground closing night (I uploaded opening). The audience applauded for about a minute straight and it made me very emotional, I've been so blessed with this role. The audience felt so captured by this show which is honestly the goal. All 8 lead performances were beautiful but so incredibly uplifted by the phenomenal ensemble. My god their harmonies were so tight. Unfortunately incredible moments like Chant, Wait for Me and Doubt Comes In were nearly impossible to film because of their staging which involved the actors roaming throughout the entirety of the house, which was reportedly insane for audiences to experience (again reportedly I wasn't in the audience so maybe everyone was lying). All the live musicians were incredible and big shout out to Rob our conductor for trusting me to go rubato and play with timing and expression of lyrics.
Fave things about this production rapid fire!
* The set pieces were minimal so the audience's focus would be on the actors creating stage pictures with their bodies and movement throughout the whole house.
* In Epic I we have two dancers portray young Hades and Persephone and they do the same choreo as They Danced, ouch.
*A lot of Livin' it Up on Top was just me and Eurydice dancing which was my absolute favorite. She is so good.
*Our Eurydice focused a lot on her vulnerability and struggle to open up and man it always hit me hard.
* Our Hermes is the most incredible piano player and played in a lot of key moments (Chips are Down, Our Lady of the Underground, Word to the Wise and Road to hell Reprise.)
* All my costumes man. I wear the gold one in chant (2 minute quick change out of and into shoes, tights, wig, jewelry and costume while running up to a balcony) and man it is crazy I love it. I also have a light green that I wear for the majority of act 2 that is probably my favorite.
*The fates invented a new form of bullying called fan bullying and it is fantastic, just smacking people with these huge black fans it is fantastic.
* We used blood for papers and man it looked so cool. It got all over Orpheus's face which was a haunting visual. In addition he did an amazing job making it sound like he was actually hurt during that song which love that. The choreo on that song was also insane.
* The theater we are in has three levels of balconies and during If It's True I stood on the third level. Orpheus sitting on the stage, delivered the line "who are they to say" directly to me which was a great acting moment.
* Me and Hades agreed on wedding rings, each our single piece of gold jewelry (we both wore a lot of rings lol). Both me and Hades take off our rings during chant and he leaves his off, putting it back on during Wait for me Reprise. We both kinda ponder the rings during Epic III. Our director did a lot to center Hades and Persephone's romance in her direction, giving us a lot of freedom to follow where these characters take us. My favorite was Epic III. Me and Hades were placed center and were given the direction to really feel what the song was saying about their relationship. We played Epic III in a way where it was not just that Hades had to be convinced to let the workers go Persephone had to be convinced to give Hades another chance. I honestly think that that and They Danced was the highlight of the show.
*Hades (literally one of my best friends on the plant) had the most real feeling facial expressions especially during They Danced and His Kiss the Riot. His voice is insane adore you man.
* As Orpheus turned around we had petals drop from the celling both onstage and in the house, also ouch. The way that our actors say "Its you", "Its me" might have been the best part of the whole show.
To get personal for a sec this is my senior show with a director I have worked with since the 4th grade and it has been highly emotional for me. Getting to play Persephone has been such a blessing in my life and I'm so thankful to everyone who made this production possible. Maybe my favorite thing I have ever done?