The final bow brewed tears in many’s eyes. Weeks of hard work ended as an audience erupted in applause, congratulating all those involved. Anastasia was a hit in the eyes of hundreds who came to watch.
Seven shows in two weeks, a two-hour-long performance with days of music learning, choreography, rehearsal, set building, and much more hidden behind it.
Over ninety students came together as actors, techs, and a live orchestra to make this show possible.
Playing the lead character Anya, an orphan girl lost in life, Taylor Nichols had a chance to play one of her dream roles. Her first dreamed-about lead role came into play during middle school, in MSM’s production of The Little Mermaid as Ariel.
Anastasia means a lot to Nichols, a childhood movie stuck with her through the years, “I first got into Anastasia by watching the movie. It’s a fire friggin’ movie.”
Playing Anya caused a shift in her perspective of the character, “She’s a lot more complicated [than I originally thought], she doesn’t remember anything.”
Explaining, “Anastasia specifically is just kind of complicated to get into. I don’t know what it’s like to forget my whole past and walk across Russia on foot. It’s a hard character to relate to.”
Gyovani Andrade-Angel played the role of Dmitry, the con artist’s romantic counterpart to Anya, as his first role in a musical ever. As a seasoned choir practitioner, having started in 6th grade, it wasn’t surprising to anyone that Andrade-Angel received a lead role.
However, who it was did come as a surprise. “I thought I was going to get Vlad,” he says, the plucky partner-in-crime to Dmitry.
He had little interest in the movie until he found out about the musical this year, so he played the part that showed him who the character is rather than how he’s different.
To play Dmitry, Andrade-Angel thinks of him, “like a little street rat. I mentally prepare myself to be outlandish. [I think] don’t sing the notes wrong and say your lines correct.”
One person, in particular, put their heart and soul into this production, as student director Grace Haack found herself as she “kinda did everything. If an actor was missing I could stand in because I had been there for all their rehearsals. I would take videos of choreography so people wouldn’t forget. I did curtain work. I moved props. I helped out picking costumes. I was able to touch on every aspect theatrical arts has to offer.”
This experience was an unforgettable one for Haack: “Being an assistant director was like another pin-point to the map.” A way to fully round out her career as both a tech and actor in the theatrical field.
Anastasia stole the hearts of all those involved, a creation that isn’t soon to leave anyone’s memories. Haack states, “I’d say it was probably, in my humble opinion, one of our best shows yet.”