After last year’s successful run of Cabaret, the Carleton Musical Theatre Society (CMTS) is back again for its second year on campus.
Having tackled an old Broadway standard, they will be changing the pace this year with one of 2014’s more popular Off-Broadway shows, Heathers: The Musical, an adaptation of the 1988 dark comedy Heathers.
Jesse Levy, CMTS’s co-president, said she hoped the ‘80s nostalgia would boost attendance for this year’s production.
She added that acquiring the rights to Heathers was expensive, but not difficult.
“We just had to answer a bunch of questions about who we are and what we do. The fact that the show never made it to Broadway made it easier I think,” Levy said.
The relative ease of access to Heathers was not the only reason the society chose the show, according to Victoria Rutkowski, the show’s director.
“I believe this show is meant to be character driven. Each and every [character] is just so full of life and is outrageous,” Rutkowski said.
She added there were comparisons between the characters in Heathers and those of Shakespeare, which she has had experience directing in the past.
“I look forward to working on a musical that has both extremely complex and vulnerable characters, and a show that has a rock edge that makes it enjoyable for everyone,” Rutkowski said.
To add on to their success with Cabaret last year, this is only the musical theatre society’s second year on campus. The society was founded by Madie Jolliffe and Chris Santillán.
Despite Carleton’s already active performing arts scene, with the well-established Sock ‘n’ Buskin Theatre Company and the Carleton Musical Theatre Ensemble often dominating the school’s arts spotlight, Jolliffe said there wasn’t much competition between the newly emerging group and the university’s veterans.
“A lot of CMTS people were also involved with Sock ‘n’ Buskin, including myself,” Jolliffe said, “and both boards worked together to help out each other’s seasons. The most difficult part was that the [Kailash Mital] theatre is booked almost solid.”
She said booking proper rehearsal space has also been a challenge.
“It’s like the person responsible for booking rooms doesn’t take into consideration the fact that to rehearse, you cannot have desks bolted to the floor,” Jolliffe said.
Although the production crew for Heathers is already set, auditions for actors in the production are expected to be held in November.
The society has also set up a Tilt page to help crowdsource funding for the production.
The musical’s debut is currently planned for this upcoming March.
