Anastasia The Musical

Client

Brigham Young University

Location

Provo, UT USA

Year

2023

A theatrical adaptation of the beloved 1997 animated classic Anastasia!

Description

This project was directed as a school project/senior capstone by Emma Rollins. Taking a 2.5-hour-long broadway musical and condensing it into a 30-35 minute production. It nonetheless included all the elements of a traditional theatre production; sound, set, props, costumes, actors, etc. coming together to make a piece. This production was done with a passion and drive and love for the original production and was created to showcase the concept that deciding who you are is something we all come to and have to do. Cutting it down to highlight the purpose of the vision and bringing all the elements of tech and design together to focus on this vision, this production came together to produce a very popularly viewed piece that was enjoyed and loved by many.

Production Record

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Auditions

Callbacks

Production Meetings

Director's Workscript

Misc. Pages

Rehearsal Schedule

Scene/Script Analysis

Research

A lifelong project

Growing Up - I watched the cartoon Anastasia and loved the music. While Rasputin creeped me out, the little bat Bartok was adorable and I loved the dress and beauty of the story. I loved how strong Anastasia was in the end defeating Rasptin and being the girl boss that she was.

2014 - 9th grade World History with Dan Broaddrick. We began a unit on Russia and its history. I remember being in that classroom and learning about the Romanov family and watching a video on the History Channel about what their life was like and what happened to them. While we learned all about Rasputin and how he was defeated, we learned about the Romanovs and the tragedy of their death but also why Anastasia was thought to have survived the brutal death. This really piqued my interest in this real story and the real mystery.

2015 - 10th grade history, while working on a different assignment we were allowed to listen to music. I put in my headphones and started listening to the Anastasia soundtrack from the movie. When “Once Upon a December” came on my brain started wondering how that piece might go if it were to be put on stage. Could she do a quick change into the dress like in the movie? How would you set the scene? I blocked it all out in my head. Then I went to my friend who did theatre with me and talked her through my blocking while she listened to it. She said, “That is really good” then posed the question, “Have you thought about directing?” Me being my young and naive self felt like I couldn’t ever because I was going to be an actor. But I had a goal that I wanted to make Anastasia into a Broadway show.

2016 - I started talking with friends in my theatre company and I said that I was going to create Anastasia, but rumors were already spreading that there was an off-broadway version that was in process of getting to Broadway. I was excited, sad, skeptical, but intrigued.

2017 - Anastasia opened on Broadway. I began listening to the music from that. I was excited because they kept old songs, but also confused with what they added. Then the fact that Rasputin wasn’t in it, and things had changed in the plot. I was thoroughly confused. But over time I fell in love with the new story. My parents surprised me on Nov 22nd, 2017, and took me to see it on Broadway because of the love I’d grown for it and how much I had wanted to see it.

2020 - My husband was tired of hearing how much I loved this show and the many times I tried to talk him through the scenes and to explain this new plot since he was familiar with the movie. So he surprised me and bought me tickets to see the touring show. Unfortunately, due to covid, it got postponed.

2022 - We were finally able to go and see the touring cast of Anastasia. It was exciting to share this piece of theatre that I had a passion and deep love for.

This was the year that I decided I was going to direct my own project for my senior capstone and if I was going to do a big hard project it might as well be something I was passionate about!

Scared and nervous of failure I kept pushing forward and decided to do this production in a new space BYU hadn’t used until the 22-23 school year, and I was going to do a big title that I knew would come with great expectations.

2023 - As the semester started I finalized my prepwork with visions and ideas and plans.

I started into the rehearsal process and as blocking and things changed I began going back to the original production and seeing how they did it, then seeing other options and comparing and researching how I wanted to do it myself.

I also began to learn a lot more details about the Romanov family. More deeply looking into scenes I drew more connections with history that I had forgotten about, like the diamonds sewn into the underclothing. I also learned a lot more about the Romanov’s family history and what went down during their murder. Through the help of Dramaturgs and my own research I was able to draw back on all the pieces of my own history of knowledge and the research I had recently done and was able to create the world of the play for the actors to bring to life.

In the preparation process I spent a lot of time reading and rereading the script and cutting and analyzing what was needed.