A Fantastickal Romance

The stage in the Edith Mortenson Center Theater is set with a silver truss complete with red, blue and pink lights. The display is reminiscent of a rock concert. A small orchestra warms up just behind it.

"Quiet in the house for mic check!" someone calls.

Junior Martha Stai marches onto the stage and speaks into her headset mic.

"That's great; can you sing?" someone calls.

Stai sings a few lines and then walks off. The cast is about to begin one of the final rehearsals for their latest production, The Fantasticks.

"I have always adored this show, and the opportunity to be involved in it is a dream come true," Stai said. "The musicals we do at Augie typically have a larger cast, so a cast of eight is a nice change."

With original lyrics by Tom Jones and music by Harvey Schmidt, the show tells the love story of a young boy, Matt, played by senior Will Dietzler, and a young girl, Luisa, played by junior Rachael Hoogendoorn.

"Luisa is a 16-year-old girl passionately in love with the boy next door," Hoogendoorn said.

"She and the boy think their parents are in a feud, so they meet at the wall, which separates their houses, in secret. Little do they know, this is exactly what the parents were hoping would happen."

Senior Bob Wendland plays the lead role of the narrator, El Gallo.

"This is my last musical at Augie, and it's been a struggle grasping that fact," he said. "I've been trying to get all that I can out of the experience and make it a memorable one. To me, the most entertaining part of the show is the uniqueness of it. The band is made up of a drummer, a harpist, a pianist and a bass player. The cast is small, but diverse in acting methods and styles, and the music is an absolute blast."

In contrast to Wendland's highly vocal role, senior Sonia Halbach plays the Mute, a character that relies only on gestures and movement throughout the entire production.

"Well, memorizing my lines was a breeze," she said. "However, even though having no lines takes some pressure off, at the same time, it makes it difficult to constantly remain engaged. I still have a lot of cues I have to listen for and since I'm in charge of most of the props and set, I have a lot of responsibility to make sure I don't miss anything on stage. I do have a hard time keeping a straight face when everyone else is being ridiculous."

The other members of the small cast include the plotting mothers: Hucklebee, played by junior Martha Stai, and Bellomy, played by senior Jacinta Sutphin, as well as two men who are part of a dying traveling troupe: Henry, played by senior Nathan Hults, and Mortimer, played by junior Leigh Hooks.

The Fantasticks is the world's longest running musical. In its 50 years of production there have been more than 17,000 performances of it around the world. It opened on May 3, 1960, at the Sullivan Street Playhouse, a small theater in New York's Greenwich Village. Today it still plays in the Snapple Theater Center in Times Square.

For its Augustana debut, director Dan Workman took the show and gave it an 80s-era twist. He wanted to update the show and have fun with it.

"I think the 80s vibe gives the show more energy to work off of," Hoogendoorn said.

"During our dress parade, the first time the cast put on costumes, I laughed at the awesomeness of a cast member's 80s-tastic costume. He quickly reminded me, however, that I myself looked like a walking circus. I love it."

This unique take on the production allows the cast and crew to get creative.

"Dan's vision is a refreshing take on the show," Dietzler said. "I absolutely love the 80s twist. The first time I put on the leather jacket it changed Matt for me. I became a totally different presence on stage."

The new theme impacts every aspect of the show, from set layout to costume design. Junior Katharine Demke designed the costumes for the production.

"One challenge with the theme is that a lot of fashion from the 80s is really terrible," Demke said. "I had to embrace that fact and love things for how fantastically horrible they were. It was a lot of fun doing research and seeing some of the things that people actually wore! I love bright colors, so I had a lot of fun finding the colors for all the characters."

The cast embraced the 80s twist.

"I'm going to bedazzle all my jackets at home," Halbach said. "It just takes clothes to a whole new level. Also, shirt clips and side ponytails need to make a comeback."

As rehearsal gets underway, all the hard work of the cast and crew finally comes together to create a unique spin on a classic.

"It's not the typical musical, and we have fun performing it," Hooks said. "Oh, and I'm in it. That's really the best part."