Ketchikan High School’s production of the Broadway play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” opens Friday. After a summer punctuated by school funding cuts and a fatal landslide, it’s a true embodiment of the phrase “the show must go on.”
“Cursed Child” follows Harry Potter’s son Albus and his friendship with Draco Malfoy’s son Scorpius in their first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It’s based on an original story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany.
Jeffery Keilholtz works in marketing with Broadway Licensing Global, which represents and facilitates “Cursed Child” and other Broadway plays throughout the world.
“Whether you’re a community theater, or you’re a professional theater around the globe, if you want to produce, say, ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller, there’s only one door to knock on on the planet, and that’s ours,” he said.
Keilholtz said the original London production of “Cursed Child” was performed in two acts, as what he called an “all-day commitment” running almost six hours. But the Broadway version was cut down to a little over three hours, then the script was further pared down to create a version suitable for high schools.
In February, the organization announced the 29 winners of its “Wands at the Ready” contest. The chosen schools would be the first in their U.S. state or territory to perform the new edition. One of them was Ketchikan High School, known locally as Kayhi.
Keilholtz said the passion and teamwork of the school’s theater troupe, the Kayhi Drama Kings, stood out from other applications. An audition video, posted in December on TikTok, captured the cast’s energy.
@tommyvarelakossak The Kayhi Drama Kings, hailing from Ketchikan High School in Alaska are the perfect example of MAGIC! As the director of the group, I can attest to the tenacity and drive of these students, I can’t imagine a more deserving group. These students do everything in their power to create a safe and open space that welcomes people from all walks of life. I am so prpud to be applying for #BLWandsattheReady @Broadway Licensing Global ♬ original sound – tommyvarelakossak
“And we were looking at their Facebook page and we thought, ‘This really great. This is a real corps of students here,’” Keilholtz said. “And frankly we hadn’t seen that in a lot of other submissions and we thought that was really unique. And to see these kids and the admins put the video together we thought, ‘Alright. We’ve got to give them a shot.’”
Drama instructor Tommy Varella-Kossack, who also teaches social studies, was one of more than 50 educators given a pink slip at the end of the last school year. His contract as a teacher was eventually renewed, but did not include funding to pay him as a drama teacher.
But Varella-Kossack said he and co-director Dani Pratt were determined to keep the drama program going.
“And at the end of the day, the more I thought about it, it was one of those things where the kids were so excited and worked so hard to get the program to where it was that we were going to do this show, no matter what. We had to,” Varella-Kossack said.
With the first day of school set for Monday, Aug. 26, Varella-Kosack and Pratt planned to do outreach and generate excitement for “Cursed Child” ahead of auditions scheduled the following week. But a day earlier, the landslide killed city worker Sean Griffin and destroyed several homes — including Varella-Kossack’s.
School was delayed for a full week, and Varella-Kossack didn’t return to school for several days even after it reopened. He said Pratt took charge in his absence.
“We stayed on our timeline regardless of all of the factors that were actively working against us,” Varella-Kossack said. “And I’m so glad we did because these students have just every single day come into this rehearsal space excited, prepared, ready to work, ready to try new things, and create this incredible show.”
And despite all the setbacks, he said, “The show must go on.”
“We don’t let things stop us, because it is this community shared experience that I think does so much good,” Varella-Kossack said. “And I think in a time of low morale, I know myself, speaking for myself, needed to be a part of this. And I think the kids did too.”
Oliver Wutzke plays Harry Potter. He said it’s a bit of a challenge playing a character that so many people are familiar with from the books and movies.
“But even more than that, I can’t just portray the characters in those because this is set 19 years later, so it’s an older version (of Harry Potter),” Wutzke said. “It’s different. And that would be a challenge, I would say.”
Torran Urquhart is playing Scorpius Malfoy, a character new to fans of the “Harry Potter” world.
“I think it’s actually really cool because we get a lot more freedom with what we’re allowed to do with our characters, since there isn’t an established thing we have to work upon,” Urquhart said. “So we get to make our own characters, and I really like that aspect of it.”
Mason Avila, who plays Harry Potter’s son, Albus, agrees.
“Obviously this is a show that’s never really been done off of big performances,” Avila said. “So these characters are really … not necessarily we’re free to do whatever we want to do with them, but we have a lot of options.”
The students had six weeks to put the show together which included rehearsing, set construction, mastering the special effects magic and costuming. Kayhi Drama Kings productions are self-funded through ticket revenue, community donations, and fundraisers.
The production will grace the stage for the next two weekends, starting Friday and running through Nov. 2. Tickets can be purchased online.
The Kayhi Drama Kings have also been invited to attend the Fringe Festival, the world’s largest performance arts festival, in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2025. Varella-Kossack said only 30 high schools throughout the United States are invited each year. A pre-selected troupe of 16 students, both actors and tech crew, will develop a show next year that will premiere in Ketchikan before taking it to the festival.
Maria Dudzak is a reporter at KRBD in Ketchikan.
