By Haleigh Ehmsen-
Only 5 percent of theaters nationwide that apply to produce the show “Chicago” are granted the performance rights according to Kaitlin Stern, an agent at Samuel French publishers. So when Tom Stephens, English teacher and director of the theater department, obtained the rights, he knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for the theater department. Despite gaining rights to do this rare show, “Seussical the Musical” will be performed as the spring musical.

Mr. Stephens was attracted to the “Chicago” because of its rarity and it would provide a difference experience for theater students.  The process can take up to three months, he was told by Stern, who is charge of processing requests for “Chicago,” so he had to come up with other back-up options. Principal Steve Brand had already approved “Seussical” when Mr. Stephens received word that they had been granted the rights to perform “Chicago”.

Mr. Stephens and five other adults that make up part of the theater deparment discussed other options for the spring musical, since there was such a small chance that they would receive the rights to produce “Chicago”. They decided on two other options, “Into the Woods” and “Seussical the Musical” and Mr. Brand approved “Seussical.” 

Mr. Brand wrote in a statement, “The musical ‘Into the Woods’ was approved and for a period of about a month, that was going to be the musical.  Some circumstances arose within the Drama Department, and they decided to go a different direction.  I was absolutely fine with ‘Into the Woods.’”

“The Music Man” had been originally planned as this year’s spring musical, but it had been previously performed by the Lisbon theater department. Mr. Stephens said students approached him, wanting to change the spring musical from “The Music Man” because they felt like they would be doing Lisbon a “disservice” if they performed the same show in the same year.

Theater veteran Annabeth Lucas, a senior, was upset when “Chicago” was turned down. Annabeth has participated in all of the fall plays along with several community theater shows and spring musicals. “Considering the types of shows we’ve been doing it’d be nice to change,” she said, referring the previous musicals including “High School Musical” last year and “Beauty and the Beast” in 2009. “When you do the same type of show, [it’s] taking away from learning for theater students,” Annabeth, who plans on pursuing theater in college, said.

Mr. Brand believes in variety and understands the importance of diversity but with the timeline he was given, he found it difficult to be able to approve “Chicago” because of its PG-13 rating. He said he was given the “Chicago” script with a short amount of time to make a decision. With “content potentially controversial” and “adult themes” Mr. Brand didn’t think there was enough time to make it all happen. If the opportunity were brought to him in the spring, when the shows for the season are typically chosen, there would have been “proper time and input to educate students and the community,” Mr. Brand said.

Annabeth didn’t think “Chicago” would have been inappropriate to perform, “not even in the slightest,”she said. “Theater is a reflection of society and drinking and sex will always be a part of society.” She understands the concern but doesn’t think that continually rehearsing that kind of behavior is going to cause students to act in their respective role permanently. However she did say, “Based on the circumstances [“Seussical”] was a good choice.”

“Cell Block Tango” a scene from “Chicago” was performed at an all school assembly in the 2009-10 school year by several senior girls. While this was before Mr. Brand was principal, senior Connett Croghan said, he doesn’t believe there would have been anything wrong with performing “Chicago.” “With education we know that killing is bad and it’s wrong to exploit notoriety. Everything that needs to be taught to the students has been taught in kindergarten.”

Connett also commented that MVHS students Zak Moran and Brandon Douglas performed a scene for speech from “Assassins”, a musical that portrays men and women who had attempted to assassinate Presidents of the United States. “It’s not like they wanted to kill [a president] while they were rehearsing, or if we had done that whole show that we would have wanted to kill public figures,” Connett said. “Method isn’t really being taught [in the theater department] and I think we all have the ability to get into character.”

Although “Chicago” has adult themes and displays immoral values, Mr. Stephens said with, “minimal changes in language and how it is staged, it easily could be made PG.” But again the decision came down to time and Mr. Brand also said, “Musicals and plays aren’t meant to be changed.”

In the future Mr. Brand hopes to get a committee together including Mr. Stephens, Mr. Eric, and interested students, parents and community members, to create a mission statement. “A mission statement provides direction. The committee could come together with what they want to accomplish and their educational goals,” Mr. Brand said.  Mr. Brand hopes that the mission statement would make the selection process for the theater department easier and it would help determine what genres of shows are valued by the school and the community. “If the community accepts or expects of a certain standard, I’ll [approve] that,” Mr. Brand said. Mr. Brand also invites parents and/or community members to contact him with their suggestions for selecting future theater department productions.