Behind the Scenes: Cate School’s Production of Hadestown

By: Paloma Rudnicki '27

Behind the rich red curtains, violet platforms rise from the dark stage. Twisting wrought-iron railings, bar stools, and a band help transport the audience to a New Orleans-inspired setting. Actors in half-costumes interact with each other as they move across the room under the careful eyes of Ms. Downey, Deeg, and Bethany. Hadestown is in full swing.

“I’m super excited for Hadestown!” shouts Mags Albrecht, a key figure behind the scenes. They are an actor, a secretary of sorts, and are instrumental in building sets and blocking scenes. “I get to work during sports block to help with little bits of choreo, a little bit of blocking, and I find that really fun. To kind of come up with ideas for where characters are going to go. That way we're super prepared so when our leads come in we know exactly where we need them to go.
I like being able to step in, fill those shoes,” Mags states enthusiastically. While not a lead actor themselves, Mags has a wide range of knowledge surrounding the show and takes on a leadership role when interacting with the cast. They said Hadestown compares more to Chicago two years ago than The Wizard of Oz. While Oz was a happy story, Chicago and Hadestown are much more serious. “And also, it's all the way sung through, which is very similar to Chicago…So stylistically, they're similar, and content-wise, they're both a bit darker.” Those who were here for Chicago can compare the two, but also notice the many differences as Hadestown takes on a life of its own.

Bethany Sutherland, Cate’s dance teacher, strides into the theater with her notes in hand. Every afternoon, she helps organize not only the movements of the show but also the flow between scenes and backstage. When asked about her past experiences choreographing for musicals, Bethany said she has worked on a “restaging of Hamilton, which was really fun…I was involved a lot with musicals growing up, more on the performing side versus the choreography side.” She explained how her choreography process had to change from a dance performance to a musical. “I think with choreography in general…it’s really about understanding and framing what you're creating with the intended audience and the intended purpose…what is the goal or theme or intention that you would like to put into that piece of work? Who are the people that are going to be involved in it, whether they're dancing or a part of staging or blocking in some capacity? So, who are the members involved? And also, what is the container? Are you setting this on the stage? Are you setting this for the studio? Or are you setting this outside to be filmed? Those contextual pieces help set the frame for what work you're creating.” Bethany’s visions being realized on stage, with the help of some student choreographers, are breathing life into Hadestown.

Striding in with his neon-yellow rain boots, calming energy, and encouraging smile, it’s Deeg. Hadestown is an extremely vocal-heavy show, so he has had his work cut out for him. Asked what was most challenging for him this year, Deeg responded, “I think it's the fact that it's like an opera and that there's just so much music, and making sure that not only do we have time to teach it all, but to review it and make it kind of stick in people's brains.” While the Wizard of Oz was full of catchy melodies, Hadestown is full of heavy choral singing with intense harmonies. It “makes it so cool and also makes it a lot more time-intensive on the kind of choir practices we have. So I think that's the most difficult and challenging thing but also the most exciting when it comes to potential.” Teaching music to chorale and Camarata is very different from teaching songs to a musical ensemble. Deeg makes the point that, “When it comes to chorale or Camarata, there's academics just built into it, right? We're talking about sight singing, we're talking about repertoire, and we kind of talk the lingo, and everybody gets the vocabulary. But with this, you have some people who have never sung before, you have really strong dancers who are trying it out, and so…I'll just sing it to you, and you sing it back because a lot of people won't know how to read music. Versus I'll take the time to teach that in chorale. But yeah, so it's a lot more open and accessible.” So if you were nervous to try out for the musical this year, consider putting yourself out there next year!

Finally, Ms. Downey, the visionary behind the show, pushes down her glasses and explains how Hadestown was chosen as the musical this year. “[It was selected for] a couple of reasons,” she says. “It was newly released…it was not available before–the rights were not. And I think a lot of schools around the country and the world got excited about it because it's a universal story, and, you know, there's great characters from Greek mythology, and lots of drama, and people with strong objectives. But also the way that they have crafted it, it's really for teenagers or for young people. So it's not a story about old gods fighting against each other. It's a love story about young people.” Aside from its relatability, a lot of thought went into the setup of the show and the actors required for each role. Ms. Downey mentions, “We had really wanted to celebrate the voice work of our student performers this year after having done last year's very actor-centric show. And the year before that, we picked because of the dance elements…So we knew we needed the people that could handle the big belts and some of the range of the high notes to the deeper notes and could do it for two hours…It's athletic in the sense that for the voice, people have to be able to last that long and stay strong from the beginning to the end. ” The biggest challenge in the show is that, “It's long…the length of the play is a challenge, although we're almost there! We've got almost every scene ready. Getting people into rehearsals [is a challenge], just because everybody at a boarding school is busy.” From sports games, to homework, to clubs, all the members of the cast are incredibly busy. And yet, they still have to learn their choreo, music, and formations. “But people have been really great about showing up to rehearsals and learning all the blocking and the choreo and the songs and still managing to make it to all their other commitments.” So props to this year’s musical cast, they’re keeping up with a lot, and their hard work has really shown.