Firestone wins first chance to do high school edition of 'Harry Potter and Cursed Child'

The kids at Firestone Theatre have always known they make magic on their stages.

Now, in a wand-waving move, Firestone Community Learning Center Akron School for the Arts has won a contest to be one of 29 schools in the nation to first present the high school edition of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child." Firestone's production will be the first in Ohio to stage the play, written by Jack Thorne and based on a new, original story by J.K. Rowling, Thorne and John Tiffany.

The high school version of the play was developed by the original team including Thorne and Tiffany, with a sign-off by Rowling.

The kids at Firestone CLC Akron School for the Arts won the honor by submitting a two-minute video that explained what makes theater so magical in their school. Eight seniors created the video in December as a student project in a Theatre Capstone class taught by theater director Mark Zimmerman. They brought eight more students on board to make the video to submit for Broadway Licensing Global's "Wands at the Ready" contest.

"The parameter was to explain why your school theater is magic and should be the first school in Ohio to put on the play," Zimmerman said.

"We think it's mundane because it's what we do, and we do it every day and every year, so we just think every school does this," said Zimmerman, who encouraged the arts school students to think about what makes their theater program different and special to them.

The seniors who created the project are Ra'Myiah Brown, Rylee Horowitz, Tuesday Michaels, Stanley Niekamp, Zach Pinto, Alaina Tennant, Kaitlyn Williams and India Wray.

"Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" will be produced next fall, with four performance dates in October or November to be announced.

"The seniors left the greatest gift they could for the rest of the classes," show director Elynmarie Kazle said of the graduating seniors who created the video.

Other students in the winning video are juniors Malcom Bufford, Kingston McNary, Anna Foltz, Tursunai Ulan Kyzy and Clarice Regan; and freshmen Mackenzie Adams and Miranda Bryan. Junior Andy Rambler provides voiceover.

Video shot in black box theater

The students shot the video in their black box theater, speaking about their program to a background of Harry Potter music and students using wands to cast spells.

At one point, after tech student Clarice Regan says, "Our program always rises to the occasion," another student uses her wand and casts the spell "Wingardium leviosa!" to make Regan "levitate" on a lift. She then goes on to cast a spell to turn out the theater lights.

Talk about the magic of theater.

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

On Facebook Tuesday, Firestone Theatre called producing the play "a thrilling and challenging opportunity we are ready to take on."

"It's a thrill, obviously. We like to win things. And even if we hadn't won the contest, we would've found a way to do the play," Zimmerman said Wednesday.

Play follows sons of Harry and Draco

Firestone will be staging "The Cursed Child" as it's still running on Broadway and on its first national tour, which opens in September in Chicago. The play takes place 19 years after the book series, following Harry Potter's son Albus and his friendship with Scorpius, the son of rival Draco Malfoy, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The show's original West End production premiered in 2016, winning nine Olivier Awards, including best new play. The Broadway production, which opened in 2018, won six Tony Awards, including best play.

The high school edition runs shorter than the Broadway play and includes ways to make the professional production's high-tech wizardry possible for different school budgets.

"The only thing that they have specifically told me is that the fire effects have been taken out because you know, schools can't do fire effects," Zimmerman said. "And they said any of the tricks that required special training on the actors' parts have been taken out. But there are still lots of things in there that are the magic but that is just kind of traditional theater razzmatazz stuff that schools should be able to do."

Firestone will purchase a special package that the licensing company offers to create wizarding tricks.

Kazle, who will direct the show, is a self-proclaimed "Potterhead."

"I think we're good at making the magic at Firestone but it's a big lift. It's a tall order. It's gonna be a climb and I'm going to be probably more persistent about it being correct because I am so familiar with Harry Potter," she said.

"Cursed Child" will be the second show in Firestone Theatre's 2024-25 season, which will be announced at a later date. The school has previously staged high school pilots of the musicals "Ghost," "Mary Poppins" and "The Prom." Last month, it also mounted the world premiere of Eric Mansfield's drama "Trial by Fire."

More: Firestone students tackle local playwright Mansfield's 'Trial by Fire' about book banning

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

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Firestone first in Ohio to play 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'