Director's Note
Despite the odds of producing (and opening) a show amidst a pandemic, our students have banned together, stayed courageous, and overcome said odds... I am beyond pleased to say, WE DID IT!!! Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Davis High School's Anastasia.
Anastasia, The Musical is based off the 1997 animated film of the same name. The musical adapts the legend of the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, who could have escaped the execution of her family. Years later, an amnesiac orphan named Anya hopes to find some trace of her family by siding with two con men who wish to take advantage of her likeness to the Grand Duchess. The show opened on Broadway in 2007, spawning multiple productions worldwide, and closed in 2019. Typically after leaving Broadway, a show would mount a national tour and then be exclusive to regional theatres. Breaking from standard, the licensing company, Concord Theatricals, immediately opened exclusive rights for high schools to produce the show, while simultaneously a national tour was launched. We quickly seized the opportunity to be one of the first theatres in the country to secure rights and are now one of the first to be opening Anastasia, a true honor and something ALL of us are very proud of.
I would like to commend our student technical crew, lead by (senior) Collin Schmierer. Collin has been involved in every aspect of this show, including the set design, construction, lighting design, rigging and stage management. Tonight, Collin will call the show live and will manually fire over 500 cues. Collin, thanks for all your work and passion for our project, we couldn't have done it without you.
The fun thing about doing a new show is all the suprises you encounter. Like when you read the fine print on the contract and realize there are "no prerecorded tracks available for the show and you MUST perform the show using a live orchestra." After brief panic, I approached Davis High's Orchestra teacher Eric Kochenderfer who was amped up about the opportunity to have his orchestra students accompany our show. Mr. K and the Davis High Orchestra have done a tremendous job and are the hearbeat of tonight's show. Thanks students and the amazing Mr. K.
Our angel on earth and costume designer is Audrey Luke. This incredible lady designed almost every costume you will see and with the help of her own kids and several awesome "costume moms", hand made most of to-night's costumes, and they are fantastic. Thank you will never be enough, Luke Family; you gave us little fabrics of hope along the way that kept us motivated and excited about our show.
As with any production (and maybe even more so this year), we had incredible help and support from so many people to make it possible. I will surely leave many out while naming a few names but please know, you are appreciated and loved. Massive thank you.
The DHS administration specifically Dr. Wilkey and Jeff Williams who refused to let this show be forgotten. Daily, our admin acted as an advocate for our theatre program and our students involved. We are very lucky to have you on our side. Ken Morley- my main man with the master plan! Marci May (#TheWizard). Eric Gunn (#BestTechBuddyEver). Kristin Callor (#Legend). Levi Larsen. Annie Allen. The Zapata family. The Schmierer Family. The Wells family. Mr. Scanlon. Julie Porter. Jana Plowman. Dave McCowan. Shelley Petersen. DHS office staff. DHS Custodial.
Enjoy the show!
