Director Notes: The Three Musketeers
Anton Bucher
I pick “top-100 plays that every theatre student should know” for the mainstage shows at LSHS. Working backward - The Oedipus Cycle, Fahrenheit 451, Amadeus, Alice in Wonderland (the outlier, but the story should be known), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and Romeo and Juliet (you know, Shakespeare.) All these plays are selected by THEATRE PEOPLE as being VERY IMPORTANT PLAYS. And all of them you need to be a “Theatre Person” to really understand what is going on.
This year, I wanted to choose a play that where there are NO “what just happened” or “what did they just say/do?” moments. A play that was fun to do, but clearly understandable. And if you Google search “large cast high school plays”, this version of The Three Musketeers shows up in every top-10.
I directed this play back in 2015 at Pioneer Heritage MS. We had made this huge thrust stage that went halfway into the cafetorium, and I had access to four rapiers, 5 sabers, and a bunch of middle schoolers. It was amazingly fun, but you had to keep it at a middle school level.
Having directed the play before, knowing it’s easy accessibility, and knowing that it is easy to understand the story, AND being able to do it at a HIGH SCHOOL level - this was the way to go. As long as you pay attention - which is the wonderful thing about live theatre as opposed to a movie or TV; you HAVE TO pay attention - the story is crystal clear, and broken in two stories: Act 1 and the Diamond Tags, Act 2 and the Secret of Milady. The characters are well developed, the story has action, romance, drama, comedy - everything a high school show could wish for. I know you will enjoy it.
Having as strong a Booster club at LSHS as RIOT Theatre does, I was able to do what very, VERY few high schools do - I was able to hire a professional fight director in Jeff Colangelo. Jeff and I go way back - I had directed Romeo and Juliet when I was at PHMS, and he was a grad student at SMU. He was much cheaper back then, and is truly now a professional director, but he took the time to make sure that what you see here tonight is next-level stage combat. And, it gives the students in the production an opportunity to work and perform at a much higher level than most high school productions. As you watch the show, please note that the fighting scenes were all directed by Jeff, and combat you would not normally see at this level - IT IS SO MUCH FUN!!! (Thank you SO MUCH to the amazing booster club and the president, April Roche.)
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