BSC spring musical brings the 80s back to the stage

Post Date: Mar 28 2019
BSC spring musical brings the 80s back to the stage
Bismarck State College Theatre adds a rad element that’s like totally awesome to this year’s BSC ArtsQuest lineup with "Heathers: The Musical." The rock musical theater spectacular by Laurence O'Keefe and Kevin Murphy, based on the 1989 classic film of the same name, runs April 3-7.
 
Performances are 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday in Sidney J. Lee Auditorium, Schafer Hall.
 
Veronica Sawyer, a brainy, beautiful teenage misfit, is just another nobody dreaming of a better day at Westerberg High School. But when she’s unexpectedly taken under the wings of the three beautiful and impossibly cruel, shoulder-padded, scrunchie-wearing junta: Heather, Heather, and Heather, her dreams of popularity finally start to come true. That is until Jason “J.D.” Dean, the mysterious teen rebel, sweeps her off her feet and teaches her that it might kill to be a nobody, but it’s murder being a somebody.
 
“We’ve been waiting for the right collection of performers to do ‘Heathers’ —and this year, we got them. It’s a vocally demanding show that is as difficult as any we’ve ever produced, and the cast has been crushing it since day one,” BSC Theatre Arts Director Danny Devlin says of the musical that earned nominations for the 2014 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music and the 2014 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Musical.
 
“Heathers: The Musical” is intended for high school audiences and older. As a high-energy dark comedy, the show presents dramatic situations including bullying, teen suicide, sexual assault and violence in schools.
 
Cast members of the production are BSC students Nelson Abrego, Marissa Carpenter, Naomi Chaffee, Alyssa Lechler, Stephen Loftesnes, Cullen Mitzel, Drew Pengilly and Cameron Wald (Bismarck), Elliot Hellman (Rockford, Minn.), Shaylyn Lefor (Lefor) and Kennedy Sundsbak (Hazen). BSC alumni Shaina Hovrud and Nick Winistorfer along with community members Brittany Bearsheart, Tayler Billings, Laura Brooke Devlin, Kylee Gifford, Erin Johnson, DeAnte Kehr, Jeremy Lindemann and Haiden Pederson also join the cast.

Assisting Devlin are assistant director Laura DeGraw and stage manager Maryn Cabinaw (Boise, Idaho). Designer and technical director is BSC Associate Professor of Technical Theatre Dean Bellin. Dr. John Darling, BSC professor of music, is the production’s music director and orchestra conductor and Dr. Jeff Stone, BSC assistant professor of music, is the vocal director. Sound designer is BSC student Ryan Wilson (Bismarck).

Hollis Makintosh Heid is the production’s choreographer and BSC alumnus Taylor Reinhardt is dance captain.

Reserved seat tickets can be purchased in advance online at bsctheatre.com, by calling the box office at 224-5677 or visiting the BSC Campus Information Center in the Student Union on campus. Tickets also can be purchased on performance days at the box office in Schafer Hall.