Anastasia: The Musical - February 29 - March 02, 2024
Ambassador Christian School
Dramaturg's Note
WHAT IS A DRAMATURG?
A production dramaturg helps provide context to a play, musical, or opera that has already been published or produced. It is their job to provide the cast and crew with vital knowledge, research, and interpretation of the theatrical work in question so that they are better equipped to do their jobs in producing and performing the show. They also make supplemental materials for the audience, such as writing notes in the program, just like this...
The musical Anastasia surrounding the identity of the lost princess is both one of fact and fantasy. It follows the life of a Russian street sweeper, Anya; she has no family, no memory of her past, no identity. When conmen, Vlad and Dmitry, are looking for women who resemble Anastasia for their plot to trick the Dowager Empress into thinking she has been reunited with her long-lost granddaughter, they all start to believe that Anya may not truly be a con after all.
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The show begins in 1907 and makes its way to 1918, it captures the real-life murder of Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei Romanov, all who lost their lives to their guards in Yekaterinburg. The impacts of WWI and the Tsar's limits on free speech helped the Communist Party who, fueled by the Bolshevik Revolution, sought to pivot power from monarchs to the poeple. Having fled to Crimea due to the political instability of Russia, the Dowager Empress (Tsar Nicholas II’s mother) was the last remaining Russian royal left. |
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When no bodies were initially found, rumors of the survival of the Romanov’s youngest daughter, and, later on, reports of the murder would become incredibly inconsistent. By 1928, seven women came forward claiming they were the lost Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanov. With intentions of fame and fortune (and sometimes driven by madness), these women helped the rumors to live on with the hope Anastasia may have survived, a hope for a Russian people now controlled by communism and missing the freedoms their monarchy had once granted. |
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