Luna Tanzillo designs costumes for fairies.
Cassie Miller learns lines, songs and Russian.
And Debbie Christenson discovers the game Dungeons & Dragons can help her cope with a death.
While most high schoolers spend the summer on vacation or working jobs, these three are among the 50 teens who have been eating, breathing and sleeping theater as part of Arizona Theatre Company’s Summer on Stage and Summer Backstage programs.
The educational programs give students the opportunity to act, stage-manage, design costumes and take on other theater-related roles as they put together two full-length productions.
This year’s shows are Dennis Kelly’s “Matilda the Musical” and Qui Nguyen’s “She Kills Monsters.” “Matilda” is based on Roald Dahl’s children’s story about a book-loving schoolgirl with telekinetic powers. “She Kills Monsters” is a dramatic comedy that delves into the fantasy world of Dungeons & Dragons.
Israel Jiménez, director of “She Kills Monsters” said the two shows deal with themes that he hopes the young thespians find relevant, such as feeling misunderstood or not being taken seriously in their youth.
“It’s not foreign to them. It’s things that they’re confronting in their lives during their high school years,” he said.
Petra Polzin, right, as Tilly, parries a blow from Bellamy Raney as Lilith the Demon Queen rehearsing a scene at UA’s Tornabene Theatre from the play “She Kills Monsters.”
A collaborative process
In addition to mounting two shows, the teens attend master classes about different aspects of theater from special effects makeup to playwriting and directing.
The Summer Backstage and Summer on Stage students all have varied jobs that consume their time and keep them scattered around the theater; the master classes bring them all together. The programs’ leaders say that has been a goal this summer.
“It can be tricky to feel like we’re all part of the same team because we’re working on our own separate tasks, so we get together at the end of each week to reflect on how the week went,” said Athena Hagen, who has been involved with ATC for 15 years and is managing the backstage program this summer.
Students in the programs range from those entering their freshman year to those who just graduated.
On a recent afternoon, sophomore Katie Rodriguez and senior Danny Leslie are getting ready to put on their headsets and help stage-manage the two shows. They sat on the green Aztec-patterned couches in the backstage lounge of ATC’s Temple of Music and Art, chatting about what they are most excited for as the performances approach.
“I’m a really big fan of the visual aspects of things like costume designs and set designs, so I’m personally really excited to see how it all comes together and to see how the actors bring the story to life,” Leslie says.
Rodriguez says the skills she learns this summer will come in handy after the curtains fall on the two summer productions.
“I’m just hoping to gain experience and take it back to my own theater company at school and be the best stage manager I can be there,” she says.
A couple miles north of ATC, the costume crew for “Matilda” and “She Kills Monsters” set up shop on the second floor of the drama building at the University of Arizona, where the actors rehearsed for the first three weeks of the program.
Tanzillo, who has done Summer Backstage three times, is designing the costumes for “She Kills Monsters,” which include the aforementioned fairies as well as demons, elves, warriors and of course — monsters.
“I’m always so happy to be doing this because once summer comes, I’m bored out of my mind just waiting for this to start so I can do something fulfilling with my time,” Tanzillo said.
For the recent Tucson High Magnet School graduate, theater is a family affair. Her grandmother, Barbara Tanzillo, was the costume shop manager at ATC when Luna was younger and she would often visit at the theater.
“Both my dad and my grandpa also helped build sets. We’re a family of ‘theater kids,’” Tanzillo said as she draped a fabric measuring tape around her neck.
Both “Matilda” and “She Kills Monsters” require some actors to play multiple characters in the ensembles, which means the three-person crew is responsible for creating more than 45 costumes.
Anliese Garsee rehearses a number from the play “Matilda the Musical”, one of two shows that are part of this summer’s Arizona Theater Company’s Summer On Stage.
Revolting Children
Three weeks into Summer on Stage, rehearsals were in full swing at UA.
The summertime silence in the main lobby of UA’s theater building was broken only by the sound of a piano and over a dozen voices rehearsing the song “Revolting Children” from “Matilda.”
The rebellious anthem describes the uprising of schoolchildren against their tyrannical principal Miss Agatha Trunchbull, played by Sophia Duclo, who is the main villain to Matilda and her peers.
Cassie Miller of Empire High School will play the titular role of Matilda, a character she grew up relating to.
“I read the book and watched the movie and she changed my life. She’s quiet but brilliant and shows that even if you’re small, you can stand up for what you believe,” Miller said.
In addition to learning “Matilda’s” music and lyrics by Tim Minchin and choreography by Christine Peterson, Miller had to learn Russian for a scene in the show.
“I’ve been working on that really hard to do it justice. I’ve done theater for a long time but I’ve never had to speak another language so it’s really exciting,” she said.
The fast-paced musical, directed by ATC Education Director Jasmine Roth, requires high energy, and the actors oblige her.
The cast began week four by learning the choreography for “When I Grow Up,” in which they will jump rope in addition to dance and sing.
The musical includes the original characters found in the book and movie versions of “Matilda,” such as Miss Honey, played by Allie Devaney, Bruce, played by Chelsea Cannon and Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood, played by Austin Killian and Analiese Garsee.
While most high schoolers spend the summer on vacation or working jobs, 50 teens have been eating, breathing and sleeping theater as part of Arizona Theatre Company’s Summer on Stage and Summer Backstage programs.
Dungeons, Dragons and….‘90s Hip-Hop?
As “She Kills Monsters” rehearsals moved to the main stage of ATC’s Temple during week four, the actors had memorized their lines and were polishing up on the monster battles and a fight montage to LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out,” all choreographed by University of Arizona alumna Dominique Ruffalo.
The hip-hop song isn’t the only ‘90s reference you will find in the play.
Courtney Love, “Twin Peaks,” Madonna, “Mortal Kombat” and a newly-introduced “internet” are named-dropped enough to warrant laughter and transport audiences back a couple decades.
The stage-shaped tape on the rehearsal room floor at UA turned into actual multi-level wooden platforms on ATC’s stage, for actors to romp around, sling their Excalibur-esque swords and knock out a flesh-eating fairy or two.
The laughs roll throughout, but the themes of loss and sisterly love add a heartwarming layer to the show.
Recent Ironwood Ridge High School graduate Debbie Christenson plays the lead role of Agnes Evans in “She Kills Monsters.” She learns new things about her late younger sister, Tilly, through a fantasy journal she left behind, and the game “Dungeons & Dragons.”
“You see Agnes’ sarcastic front, but then as the show comes to an end, you see that all she wanted was to really know her sister, so I really like the dynamics of that because in a lot of shows you don’t get three-dimensional characters,” Christenson said while being fitted with a tan muslin cloth, which acts as a reference for the costumers when designing each actor’s on-stage look.
Christenson is joined on stage by a diverse pack of characters, including Tilly, played by Petra Polzin, Agnes’s jock boyfriend Miles, played by Neruda Hogrelius, the dark elf Kaliope, played by Kendall Hicks and demon queen Lilith, played by Bellamy Raney.
Jiménez says he hopes students leave the programs with more than just their names on the cast and crew list.
“The end goal is not the productions, but what they learn from the whole experience. We really focus on the educational components and the training, so that they’re learning skills they can take outside of this program,” he says.
Christopher Mason, lighting designer, works with the light board programmer to program the lighting looks in "Matilda the Musical."
The fast-paced musical “Matilda,” directed by ATC Education Associate Jasmine Roth, right, requires high energy, and the actors oblige her. The musical includes original characters found in the book, as well as movie versions.
The summertime silence in the main lobby of UA’s theater building was broken by the sound of a piano and over a dozen voices rehearsing the song “Revolting Children” from “Matilda.”
