Adult Themes Play Out At CHS In "Les Miserables"

March 21, 2010 by John Rook

Cheshire High School teacher and musical director Dawn Demeo strives to introduce her students to a wide variety of stage productions during their time as high school thespians.
Last year, she chose the old fashioned musical tale of Anything Goes, which transported both cast members and the audience back to a time of large-scale dance routines, slap-stick comedy, and time-honored tunes made popular during the 1930s.
This year, Demeo wanted to challenge her students with a very different sort of performance.
Since opening in London in 1985, Les Miserables has been viewed by an estimated 50 million people. With its operatic style and contemporary musical sound, Les Miserables has established itself as one of the most popular productions in recent memory, routinely selling out venues more than two decades after it first was released.
The play is based on the classic novel by Victor Hugo. It is dark, brooding, and demands much from its cast, which must give equal attention to the singing and acting required throughout the performance. It is not a musical production one can enter into without complete confidence in the actors.
“I just had the sense that (the students) were ready for a different challenge,” said Demeo. “For this musical, you don't just have to take into account the vocal capabilities of the actors, but also you need actors who can be serious. I knew this group could handle it.”
Next weekend, the CHS Drama Club will present Les Miserables: School Edition. While condensed somewhat to meet the usual requirements of a school performance, almost the entire production remains intact.
“This is not a funny play, like Anything Goes last year,” explained Demeo. “These characters have depth, and the actors have to concentrate on acting while singing.”
What makes Les Miserables so unique to other musical productions is the amount of singing involved. Instead of musical numbers being interupted by long sessions of dialogue, Les Miserables tells its story almost solely through song, opera style. From one scene to the next, there is no let down. Actors sing their dialogue, meaning that, for two hours they must stay on their vocal toes.
“It was definitely intimidating,” admitted Jeff Stevens, 16, who will handle the part of Jean Valjean. “There is so much depth to the show, and there is no break in the singing. I mean, almost everyone has a solo.”
While the prospect of tackling one of the leads for the production was unnerving at first, Stevens and the rest of the cast had the luxury of leaning on past performances of Les Miserables. With more than 20 years of material to choose from, including different casts and different interpretations of the songs, Stevens was able to hone in on how he wanted to shape the character his own way.
“If you're not listening (to the other productions) you're not going to get it,” he explained. “The great thing is, you can take from this person or that person, and then add your own to the character and the performance.”
Opposing Stevens' Valjean throughout the play is Javert, played by R.J. Anderson. As the main antagonist of the play, Anderson must delve into the mind of an obsessed police inspector who commits himself to finding Valjean when he escapes his custody at the beginning of act one. Like Stevens, Anderson found the amount of materials available on Les Miserables more than helpful.
“There is this huge book and all these plays,” said Anderson. “It is such a dynamic play and there is just so much to learn from.”
What drew Anderson to the production from the onset was the high drama of its storyline.
The backdrop to the play is the civil unrest taking place in France during the 1820s and 1830s. One of the central moments in the production is when a group of students lead a small revolt against the government, which was based on the June Uprising of 1832 that lasted only two days.
“In this production, you find the passion,” he recounted. “There is the fighting of tyranny, the fighting of authority, and you have to bring that out in your own way.”
For most of the actors, relating to their characters meant finding a way to connect to individuals familiar with a world that is now nearly 200 years old. Yet, for Ilana Rasheba, the challenge was different. “I think it was actually easier than I thought,” admitted Rasheba, who plays the character Cosette as a little girl. “I work at a camp in the summer, so I was able to draw on that. And, Mrs. Demeo would always tell me just to act like a little kid.”
Like her fellow actors, Rasheba admits that she listened “to every version out there” in regards to her character to see what she liked and didn't like. But, what she found challenging was keeping one's emotional level high throughout the performance.
“It is such a depressing show a lot of the time, you have to be able to keep your energy up,” she said.
The part of the student ring leader of the uprising against the French government, Enjoiras, is played Erik Johansen. As a high school senior himself, Johansen was able to relate to certain aspects of his character.
“I know what it is like to be ready to move on,” he said.
As far as his character's ability to lead, and his passion to help others and fight for what is morally right, such serious emotions were not hard in which to relate.
“I think, in a lot of ways, the student version is better than the adults, because we can relate to what is happening,” he said.
Though the production remains demanding, especially for a high school cast, it did not prevent Demeo from turning over some of the musical's most important parts to younger actors. Marius, the young rebellious student who falls for Cosette, is played by Daniel Bird, a freshman. Bird admitted that many of the moments his character deals with in the performance is very foreign to him — “I've never had to hold my best friend in my arms and watch her die” — but he has relied on different things to create the necessary emotion.
“I have to think about, 'if this happened, how would I react,'” explained Bird. “I have had to get used to my character and what he does.”
Similarly, Erin Lima, who plays Fantine, shares little in common with her character, who has a daughter and turns to prostitution to pay for a better life for her child. Yet, she was also able to connect emotionally to her character using different means.
“I have never been in a situation where I have a love child with someone who leaves me,” she said, laughing, “but, I could connect it to an old boyfriend.”
Now, with the play a week away, the cast is beginning to put the final touches on its performance. Everyone, from the lead characters to those playing smaller parts, like Jamiesen Borak, who will portray a pimp and then a student, is anticipating a fun and exciting night come next Thursday. And Borak, for one, is anxious to how everyone reacts.
“I can't wait to see how the audience responds,” he said. “This will be Les Miserables, from our perspective. I think it is going to be a lot of fun.”
The CHS Drama Club will present Les Miserables: School Edition on March 25, 26, and 27, in the Thorp Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $14 for adults, $12 for senior citizens and students.