Picture yourself standing in front of hundreds of people, a spotlight on your face, the room silent. For many people, this would be a nightmare, but not for senior Marlee Winfield, who played the lead in this year’s school production of Anastasia.
“It was just such a fun experience – I’ve been a part of masque since seventh grade,” Marlee said.
But what in particular made it such a fun experience? Sophomore Gavin Herman, who played the character of Gleb Vaganov in the musical, shared his thoughts: “The best part of [the musical] is being surrounded by talented and passionate people who both do what they love and love what they do and are united both by that and making fun of each other.”
Anastasia tells the story of a young Russian woman named Anya, who has amnesia. However, there’s a twist – Anya may be the lost Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov. Two con men hoping to gain the reward from Anastasia’s grandmother, the Dowager Empress, recruit Anya to pose as the lost Grand Duchess. Their plans are complicated by Gleb Vaganov, the Soviet officer who tirelessly tracks the trio.
For Gavin and Marlee, Anastasia was a particularly special experience because it was their first and last high school show, respectively.
“Productions at the high school are just at a completely different level […] I feel that I have big shoes to fill considering all the amazing performances we’ve had at New Hartford,” Gavin remarked.
Some of those amazing performances included Marlee, who has participated in many productions throughout her time at the senior high school.
“[Anastasia] definitely had an insane production quality, similar to Great Comet, which we did two years ago. It was special to a lot of seniors. In its own way, Anastasia was great because we had such a great bond with each other as castmates.”
But what prompted Mrs. Lotyczewski to select Anastasia as this year’s show? The school choir teacher and director of the musical picked Anastasia after seeing it on Broadway.
“In 2017, I planned my first solo trip to New York and saw the matinee of Anastasia and the evening performance of Great Comet (informally dubbed my “Great Russian Musical Tour”),” she said. “I wasn’t sure how it would translate from animated movie to the stage, but I was captivated. The whole show was a give-and-take of laughs and gut-punches.”
Indeed, the contrast between laughs and gut-punches was on full display throughout the play, which constantly shifted from moments of joy to somber, emotional scenes.
“This show had a lot of duality,” Mrs. Lotyczewski noted. “Act 1 took place in Russia and was emotional because of the history of what was happening in Russia at the time, but also had a lot of joy because of the camaraderie of the characters. Act 2 was filled with joy and jazz in Paris, but all of the setup of the first act was reaching its payoff. To go back and forth between the fun and joy, and the heaviness of each scene was a challenge. We had to do a lot of practice with the differences between Petersburg and Paris – both songs that introduce us to a time and place but have very different moods and styles.”
Certainly, cast members had favorite moments within the show.
“My favorite song to perform was probably ‘In My Dreams’ because it was definitely fun to perform onstage with people but it was also a song I’d performed before,” Marlee said.
But all good things must come to an end.
“[At] our final curtain call, there were too many emotions to count. I felt bittersweet for all our seniors with it being their last show, I was angry at all the insignificant mistakes I had made on stage, I was hungry, I was tired, I was coming down with an illness, I had to pee,” Gavin confessed. “But all in all, I was proud of what my fellow performers and crew members had accomplished.”
Mrs. Lotyczewski feels similarly.
“I am just so thankful for this year. They took their work seriously but didn’t take themselves seriously; so they would show up and be prepared to work, but they never forgot that they enjoyed what they were doing,” she said.
“I would thank [the cast and crew] for such incredible memories,” said Marlee. “It was such a great experience, and [I] encourage the juniors and sophomores to stay in masque and wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors.”
