playbill vip

Thank you for joining us for Les Misérables School Edition. Woodstown Drama wants to welcome you back to live theater! We have been away from our space for two years, and although we have done a musical each year we were absent, it feels really good to be home. I wanted to do a show that would draw people both on stage and in the audience; Les Misérables is the show to do that. Although it’s difficult to produce, the students have risen to the challenge and grown to love this musical, adapted from Victor Hugo’s Romanticist Novel. 

It is the director’s job to create a unified vision and guide all the designers, staff, cast and crew in that direction. I didn’t seek to reimagine this show in any way; it’s beautifully crafted as it is. We worked on basic acting and technical techniques and learned to tell stories. For many of these students, it is their first time on this stage. 

Les Misérables is, at its Romantic core, a story about rising above misery, and finding love (and therefore God) in all things. Hugo contrasts Javert, who can’t see beyond right and wrong, with Jean Valjean, who can see a future full of redemption and tempered with mercy for all people, including himself. 

I’d like to thank our administration and community for supporting us as we retake the stage in this epic production. I’d like to thank my staff who take (almost!) any idea and make it work. Mostly, I’d like to thank the students who remind me every rehearsal why I love this art form. I see redemption, mercy and love in every new thing they learn and every step they take forward. Sometimes, I think I can begin to understand that “to love another person is to see the face of God.” They remind me of that daily and I hope they share it with you tonight.