Heathers is a musical theater play based on the American film of the same name, written by Daniel Waters in 1989.
The stage adaptation by Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy will arrive in the Dominican Republic from August 11 to 13, almost a decade after its stage adaptation.
The replica of the work is produced and directed by Steven Nolasco, a 21-year-old Dominican boy who together with a group of young collaborators will present the musical in the country, in the Manuel Rueda hall of the National Conservatory of Music.
Nolasco, together with the live entertainment show production company “Brodway on The Stage”, which was created during 2020 and is directed by him and Rafael Nolasco, had been trying to manage the rights to the work for two years to bring it to the country.
The adaptation of this adolescent dark comedy story will star Dominican actors Coral González, 18, and Roger Manzano, 31, who will give life to Verónica Swayer and Jason Dean “JD”, respectively.
Likewise, behind the realization of the project some young people are involved, in addition to Nolasco, such as Nicole Sosa and Stephanie Jiménez, as acting coaches; Yamilet Taveras, assistant director and in the vocal part, Luis García.
For their part, Nolasco and Sosa spoke with Listín Diario about the challenges of running a production as it is, at such a young age.
“In addition to being a new producer, we are very young, so it has been a bit difficult to enter the world of musical theater, especially because of the support. This musical has come out of our pocket and that is somewhat difficult here in our country, starting and launching yourself into a world so closed that it is musical theater where there are not so many producers or people doing theater”, expressed Steven Nolasco.
However, Sosa commented: “Not only for not having done a project formally, but the faces we have, they judge us a lot, they judge our experience, perhaps, our abilities to achieve things.”
He told how complicated the process of getting support and sponsorship has been, they also indicated that they came to knock on the doors of government institutions, from which they received no responses or received rejections.
“Getting support, sponsorship and all those things is not so easy, especially because there is a lot of support for other things that are not just the theater, perhaps the urban scene is given a lot of support, ‘there is no budget because we are supporting a concert, there is no budget because we are supporting other things,'” Sosa pointed out.
She added: “When you ask me how the theater is going, as an actress I can tell you that we are on the right track, but at the production level I am quite concerned, because as I told you, it is my first time formally working behind the scenes, and it does make me very sad that support is so difficult to obtain.”
Although it is not the first play in which Steven Nolasco participates in the production part, both how his company started in Santo Domingo with “Heathers” in the theatrical field.
However, Nolasco has been training in the performing arts for more than 10 years and was an assistant director in works at the great Cibao theater, including Gris el Musical (2019), directed by Johanny Sosa, and A Christmas at the North Pole.
While Sosa has studied performing arts since she was five years old and has participated in some works as an actress, although this time she will be behind the scenes.
“It has been a unique experience for me because I have always been in the acting part, but it has been quite challenging, since facing a project of such great magnitude and especially in this country”, commented Sosa.
More about the musical
The director of the replica in the country stated that this musical is aimed at a young audience that will feel identified with many of the problems that are dealt with in the work and will dare to talk about this situation without fear if it goes through them.
“The public is going to see a true story, they will see a black comedy, they will see the issues that occur in life such as harassment, violence, bulimia, bullying, issues that are not dealt with much in theater,” said Nolasco.
In addition, he indicated that they will not only go to see a musical theater play, but that “they will take an apprenticeship home with them.”
While Nicole Sosa expressed: “I understand that many adolescents are going to be able to have the courage to talk about many issues that touch on mental health, above all, about wanting to be part of something, those issues that I, as a teenager, did not dare to speak about, that I was very afraid of.”
government support
Steven highlighted that despite the fact that the patronage law was promulgated in 2019, with the aim of encouraging public and private companies to develop their projects that promote art and culture, it is not yet a reality.
“It’s not a reality like you say, I’m going to go to the Ministry, I’m going to present my project, like the Film Law, we haven’t gotten there yet,” he said.
Likewise, he stated: “If I think that in our country they should already concretize what the Patronage Law is so that these producers, directors that are emerging and also those who are already renowned, are of support to make this type of productions”.
He also established that for this reason there are few musical theater productions in the country, because they are very expensive and the producers do not receive these incentives to help pay for this type of art.
“They are very expensive productions and we still don’t have something to back us up, to tell you, for example, we are sure that the room was full,” he said.