A few dozen high schoolers are scattered among a tangle of music stands in West High’s band room. Some close their eyes and sway, snapping their fingers. They’re working through “Chant,” one of 40 songs from "Hadestown: Teen Edition."
The hit musical is a retelling of the Greek myth of Eurydice and Orpheus, following the doomed lovers down into an underworld controlled by the god of the dead, Hades.
It’s the last rehearsal before their Saturday performance at the Performing Arts Center in downtown Anchorage. It’s not a stage anyone expected to be on, but when the production debuted earlier this year, enthusiasm spread around the city word-of-mouth, leading to packed shows, an extended run, and then, an invitation to perform one night only on the city’s biggest stage.
Brian Lyke teaches English and theater at West High and directed the play. He said he had an inkling this production was something special during their first performance.
“As the curtain raised at the end of the show, the audience leapt to their feet,” he said. “Standing ovation on an opening night is kind of rare, but we got that. And the wheels started turning in my head that, ‘Oh, something's gonna happen here.’”
That first performance drew about 150 people. But a couple days later, the number had more than doubled. The production got an extended run. And at the final school performance a couple weeks later, more than 1200 people filled the high school auditorium.
“We had so many instances of people showing up Thursday night, coming back Friday night, coming to the Saturday matinee,” Lyke said. “And then, “Oh, hey, familiar face, are you here for this Saturday evening performance too?’”
That level of enthusiasm really energized the cast. Junior Azra Brand plays Hermes, the narrator. She said the crowds were always loud, but some nights, they went wild for every little moment.
“It was really fun as our community, to be like, ‘Yeah, we are appreciated, and we're so big in Anchorage,’” she said. “I still pinch myself every once in a while.”
And then sometimes the crowds were wowed into silence. Codie Costello was at one of those early performances. She’s the president of the Performing Arts Center and in charge of bringing Broadway shows to Anchorage. "Hadestown" is her favorite musical, so there was no way she was going to miss it. But she also wasn’t sure the high school kids would be able to pull off such a complex production. She said she had her answer in the first five minutes.
“There's a certain type of quiet that will happen with an audience because they're so engaged,” she said “They're on the edge of their seats, they're totally connected. And that is definitely what was happening during Hadestown.”
At intermission, she couldn’t contain herself. She tracked down Lyke and invited him to bring the show to the Performing Arts Center.
Adella Judge is a senior who plays Eurydice. She said the whole experience has been surreal.
“Feeling like we're so respected in the community, just makes me feel like we've really done something amazing, like - we're unstoppable,” she said.
But then at the end of March, the Anchorage School District notified hundreds of teachers that they would lose their positions due to a massive budget deficit. Lyke was among them - he’ll be transferred to another school - and because he’s the only theater teacher at West High, that means an end to the current theater program.
Judge said she and a lot of her castmates started crying when they heard the news. She said theater at West High feels like home, a safe place to be herself.
“I can't even imagine what it'd be like without having the arts and having theater be such a supportive stake in the ground for me, like keeping my tent from falling over,” she said.
School districts around the state have been urging lawmakers to increase per student education funding. Last week, West High students started making those calls too.
Brian Lyke said his kids deserve better.
“I really think we've left a fingerprint on this town that people are gonna be talking about for a long time,” he said.
But he said the storyline of "Hadestown: Teen Edition" gives him some comfort.
“Even though it turns out exactly the same way - every night, he always loses the girl - we're gonna sing it anyway,” he said. “Because what else can we do in the face of all this darkness but hope?”
The curtain rises on "Hadestown: Teen Edition" at the PAC at 7 p.m. Saturday. Tickets can be bought online.
Correction: An earlier version of the story referred to the musical as “Hadestown.” The production West High Theater performed was “Hadestown: Teen Edition.”