NORTHAMPTON — The curtain has fallen on Northampton High School’s popular musical this year following more than a decade of annual productions.
School and theater officials said scheduling conflicts are the primary reason they decided to cancel the show. The musical, traditionally held in the spring, was scheduled for the fall this year to allow the young actors in the program to participate in a popular spring theater competition.
Other issues also led to the cancellation, including concerns about the level of student participation and ticket sales.
“It is not something that anyone feels good about,” Principal Bryan Lombardi said.
The musical, which costs approximately $20,000 to produce, has been operating in the red for the last few years, relying on reserves from earlier successful years.
The decision to move the musical to the fall originated last spring, when NHS participated in the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild’s High School Festival for the first time. The festival is a theater competition with multiple rounds. However, because it ran close to the same time as the musical, it was difficult for NHS students to participate in both productions.
Junior Daniela Toohey, who participated in both events, said she was glad to have the chance to take part in the festival.
“It was such a great experience,” she said.
Not long after moving the musical to the fall, which was set to be a production of “Into the Woods,” conflicts began to appear.
Parent Celia Pastoriza, whose daughter participated in the musical the last two years and is a junior at NHS, said seniors deal with college applications in the fall, and the production had to work around fall sports.
Pastoriza is an officer with the Friends of Northampton High School Theater, a new booster group created this year.
The final straw for a fall musical came when the show was scheduled at the same time as Splash weekend at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an annual visit that allows many NHS students to take courses at the Cambridge institution.
Auditions for “Into the Woods” were subsequently called off, and an effort was made to see if the musical could move to the spring. Although spring dates were found, Lombardi said staffing was not.
“There comes a point when you just can’t put a musical on anymore,” Pastoriza said.
Marie Brown directed the previous two musicals at NHS, “Urinetown” in 2016 and “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” in 2017. She said scheduling was just one of the stressors facing the musical this fall.
“We just had a perfect storm,” she said.
Brown, Lombardi and Pastoriza all noted that the school has been losing money for the last few years. The musical was able to make up for these shortfalls using banked money from more profitable years.
“You can’t operate that way,” Lombardi said.
The Friends of NHS Theater, created to help with the financial situation and boost all theater at NHS, raised almost $2,000 for the musical.
One of the group’s officers, Alison Greene, said those who donated have been asked if they’d like their donations to be used toward a musical next school year.
Greene noted that musicals typically end up paying for themselves, once concessions and tickets are all factored in. However, she put the price tag for a musical at $20,000.
Lombardi said that the musical losing money was a combination of less student participation and lower ticket sales. He also said the decline coincided with the school switching from an internal to an external team overseeing the musical.
Brown said a major problem facing the musical has been a change in how staff is paid. Specifically, while she said her position is fairly reimbursed, the musical director position is split into three jobs, none of which is paid adequately.
Her solution to this issue would be to largely eliminate all other paid positions and hire a director, choreographer and musical director, which would keep staffing costs the same, while paying both positions fairly.
“This is all solvable,” she said. “But it has to be solved.”
Brown said she made the initial decision to call off the fall show because she didn’t feel it would be in the long-term interest of the program to keep going. However, she believes the school is in a good position to put on “Into the Woods” next fall or winter.
“An annual musical is clearly something the city wants,” she said. “Let’s make it happen.”
Parent Julie Asbornsen is one of many people disappointed.
“I think it’s a really sad situation,” Asbornsen said.
Asbornsen’s daughter, a junior at NHS, gave up field hockey to participate in the musical.
“She was not the only one (to give up their fall sport),” said Asbornsen.
While her daughter did have the opportunity to rejoin the team when it was clear that there would be no musical, she chose not to.
Asbornsen questioned the school’s commitment to the musical.
“I just don’t think it’s a priority for them,” she said. “It really could be happening.”
She also said that she hadn’t received clear and official communication about the musical from the school, and that she’d learned everything about its status from her daughter.
“There’s been some trust lost,” Asbornsen said.
On the communication side, Lombardi said a letter was sent out explaining that there wouldn’t be a musical this year, and the information was posted on the school’s student-parent portal and given to teachers to hand out as well.
Pastoriza, Brown and Greene all said that Lombardi had tried hard to make a musical happen this year.
Both Brown and Lombardi said the focus of the theater program this year would be on the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild competition. The piece that NHS will put on is an adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play “Hedda Gabler.”
Brown said the piece will engage all students in dramaturgical research, and it will offer opportunities for students involved with music to participate.
Although auditions took place last week, Brown said that students who want to participate in the theater guild production can still reach out to her. “I’m still recruiting,” she said.
Theater guild productions are done under a strict time limit, with strict parameters, and Brown said these restrictions help to breed creativity in young theater makers.
She also said she plans to take the piece that is developed for the theater guild to other venues, and that students would be welcome to come along for that as well.
“I am excited to see what the METG can do,” said Lombardi.
Toohey, the junior who participated in both the festival and musical last year, is disappointed that there won’t be a musical this year.
“I was very upset,” said Toohey. “I always look forward to the musical.”
She was a chorus member in “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” musical. She also played Creon in the NHS adaptation of “Antigone” at the theater guild festival.
Toohey is excited about this year’s theater guild piece, for which she went to all three auditions.
She also praised Brown.
“She’s great to work with,” Toohey said. “I love her so much.”
Toohey said she felt that what was happening with the musical was well communicated to young people in acting class at NHS like herself, but it wasn’t as clear for others.
On the future of the musical, Lombardi said he would defer to the NHS theater community on how to move forward.
“They’re the experts,” he said. “I need to support them.”