By Brandon Schroeder

Sports Editor

The time has come as the Reynolds drama department prepares to perform their spring musical, “Hadestown.” Set in Greek mythology, “Hadestown” follows the stories of Orpheus, Eurydice, Persephone, and Hades as they embark on their journeys within Hadestown. 

     When preparing for a musical, many more steps go into putting the show together. For one, the cast and crew must prepare for the show’s many elaborate musical numbers. A band of students and professionals is practicing to help bring the musical numbers to life.

    “It’s been a really sick experience,” junior Grady Mowery, a member of the show’s band, said. “We’re up here jamming because this show is really fun and powerful.”

    The band has spent many late nights learning the music, as the Broadway version of the show has 40 songs. As a result, learning to play many songs for a show can be stressful.

    “We have to be able to perform these songs at a high level,” Mowery said. “This is a Broadway show on the Reynolds stage.”

    Time is always a significant factor in preparing for shows like this. The cast and crew of “Hadestown” have been working since early December to ensure the show was ready to perform by the end of March since they had to endure a winter break and a spring break in their rehearsal schedule.

    “We rehearsed a lot and started early,” Theatre Arts Director Nicholas Zayas said. “This gave us room to have nights off if needed when people got sick or when school and activities were canceled due to the weather.”

    Another thing that can be hard to prepare for is putting a set together that brings the story and atmosphere to the audience. One massive piece of the set brought in for the show is a rotating platform like the one you may have seen in “Hamilton.” However, a set like this can sometimes create problems to work around.

    “It’s both exhilarating and stressful at times,” Zayas said. “In rehearsal, all the actors were off center in a moment where they were all huddled together, and their total combined weight in the wrong spot caused the whole thing to shift off its axis. So that was a little scary, and we couldn’t use it again until that was fixed.”

   However, the performers in this show have had to work very hard as they have to remember their lines, songs, and blocking to make sure they can bring their characters to life for the audience. 

    “The preparation’s been intense,” senior Lilly Greene, who plays one of the Fates, said. “There have been countless hours put into both tech and acting. My favorite part of the show has been bonding with this cast and seeing this show come to life.”

   The show’s performances are a must-see for Reynolds students with all the hard work that has gone into the last three and a half months for this cast and crew.

    “Everybody has worked so hard to make this a beautiful, professional-level show,” Zayas said. “It’s an impressive spectacle that is bigger than any show we have done in the last five to six years.”