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Note from the Director

It is impossible to understate the magnitude of the opportunity afforded us with this production of Hadestown: Teen Edition at Powhatan High School. From its humble origins as a concept album by singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, Hadestown emerged as a full-scale Broadway musical in 2019 to commercial and critical acclaim, earning fourteen nominations at the Tony Awards (more than any other show that year) and walking away with eight wins, including Best Musical.

Because this show is so new, so lauded, and still enjoying a tremendous run at the Walter Kerr Theatre (the longest-running show in the venue's history), none of us expected that the license for high schools to put on productions of the show would be available so soon. Following a surprise announcement from Concord Theatricals on April 23rd, 2024 -- five years and one week after its Broadway premiere -- we immediately got to work!

Our talented student company rose to the occasion. Following the announcement that we would produce Hadestown: Teen Edition, our department leads got to work immediately, scouting talent, interviewing crew, and drawing plans to put on the biggest production we've done yet. In my many years working in the Performing Arts, I have never seen dedication and determination like this year's company has shown with the commitment of seasoned industry veterans. What you see on the stage is the result of a whole year's worth of planning, pre-production, rehearsals, cross-department collaboration, snow delays, schedule adjustments, creative solutions, sleepless nights, blood, sweat, tears, and a stubborn resistance to the doubt that comes in when we are at our lowest of lows.

We shot high to pull off an impossible dream, to show the way the world could be, by working together to tell this tale from way back when.

I raise my cup to these brothers and sisters of the stage, my Powhatan Theatre Company, easily the hardest-working Chorus in the gods' almighty world. Thank you for singing this song with me.

I can't wait to sing it again and again.

Sincerely,

-Bilal Z. Raychouni