Firestone leads way as first Ohio high school to do musical ‘The Prom’

Firestone Theatre has proudly launched educational debuts of musicals in the past, and this fall is no exception as the school opens the Ohio high school debut of the popular Broadway musical "The Prom" Oct. 6-9.

A cast of 28 will perform in the fall show at Akron School for the Arts at Firestone CLC. In this story, four self-absorbed Broadway actors try to resurrect their careers through the publicity they expect to gain by helping gay teen Emma, whose conservative Indiana high school bans her from taking her girlfriend to the prom.

Along the way in this 2018 Broadway musical, these brassy "celebrity activists" and the citizens of Edgewater, Indiana, learn a thing or two about love, acceptance and inclusion.

Theater Review:'The Prom' blends humor, joy with meaningful messages of inclusivity, love, acceptance

"We talk about all the time about how representation matters, and so this is ... a very good example," director Mark Zimmerman, head of the theater program, said of the LGBTQ-themed show. "Kids responded to that."

"When we were having the auditions, kids were really excited about it," he said. "They came to the auditions and they just were like, 'This play is important to me, and I just want to be in this play because (of) what it's about and what it says to the community' and stuff like that, which I don't remember hearing kids say that before," he said.

Junior Alaina Tennant, who plays homophobic PTA president Mrs. Greene in the musical, said she saw "The Prom" on Broadway for her 13th birthday, soon after she herself came out.

"The music is all very, very humorous but there's kind of a lot more to it when you put it all together," the ASA theater student said of the musical's serious messages about dialogue, love and acceptance.

"The Prom" came out in a season that included "Hadestown" and "Dear Evan Hansen," which Tennant said she couldn't relate to.

"I felt like there was more that I could kind of relate to, even if I wasn't in a relationship at that time, it was just more realistic," she said of "The Prom."

Senior Faith Sturm-Poth, also an ASA theater student, said she hasn't been involved with any musicals with gay characters until now.

"It's really nice to see me represented in this musical," she said. "I really wanted to be in this musical because it represented this (gay) community that I was a part of."

Firestone's theater program has a lot of new kids involved with the show, considering the school hadn't done musicals for a couple of years until last spring, due to the pandemic.

"That's one of the exciting things, because we're working with kids who really haven't worked with us," Zimmerman said.

That includes senior Martha Chestnut, who's doing her first Firestone Theatre show and is portraying courageous teen Emma.

"The learning experience is super high," said Zimmerman, who said he has relied on alumni, including choreographer J.J. Jones, costume designer Olivia Kirschbaum and set builder Jack Gatti, to help create the show.

Working on the educational pilot of a musical is exciting, said Zimmerman, who pitched some script changes to Theatrical Rights Worldwide regarding language and some outdated references. Firestone previously piloted educational premieres of "Mary Poppins" and "Ghost."

"We love doing that," Zimmerman said. "I said to the kids, yeah, I like being first. I like doing shows before everybody else does them.

"It's good for our kids to work with something before it's implanted in their brain what the show is supposed to look like."

At rehearsal Friday in the school's black box theater, the cast repeatedly went over the celebratory Act I closer "Tonight Belongs to You," where all the kids are gearing up for prom, singing and dancing in a big hip-hop/jazz number.

"Hey, guys, I need you to dance bigger," choreographer Jones told the cast.

When Chestnut's Emma models her prom dress for Bird's Barry, Zimmerman talked to Chestnut about her interpretation of the scene.

"How does Emma feel in that beautiful dress?" he asked Chestnut.

"Stressed," said Chestnut, who said Emma feels uncomfortable in a dress.

"I don't agree with that. This is the dress," Zimmerman said. "Walk like you're beautiful, like you think you're beautiful."

"How your characters walk is an important choice that you make and helps to inform everything that you do," he said.

And as character Barry said, what kids are going to see when they get a look at Emma is "the bravest person on the planet."

Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.

Details

Musical: "The Prom"

When: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 6-8, 2:30 p.m. Oct. 9

Where: Firestone Theatre, 470 Castle Blvd., Akron

Onstage: Starring Jackson Bird, Richard Cash, Martha Chestnut, Fiona Coughlin, Mabel Jennings, Stanley Niekamp, Prince Austin, Faith Stephenson, Alaina Tennant

Offstage: Chad Beguelin, book and lyrics; Bob Martin, book; Matthew Sklar, music; Mark Zimmerman, director; Megan Meyer, music director; J.J. Jones, choreographer

Cost: $10-$18

Information: firestonetheatre.com or 330-761-3275

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Representation matters in Firestone premiere production of ‘The Prom’