For nearly 18 months, a creative project was brewing at Swarthmore. Recently, the veil was lifted, and I finally got the chance to experience it.
Ashes of Fate: an entirely student-written, produced, composed, choreographed, and performed musical. On a technical level, it is a work of massive scale. To write almost two full hours of dialogue and music is an undertaking for anyone, but to have it spearheaded by just a few full-time college students makes what has been accomplished all the more impressive. It was also filmed, and a video will apparently be released later this year (details are secretive, and a lay member of the public is not privy to the world of producing).
Assassins, destiny, and torrid love affairs: Ashes has it all. Though the show was a tour-de-force of musical theater, I was interested in what had gone on behind the scenes to make it happen. I spoke to choreographer Jenna Takach about what working on the show was like.
So, what was it like working on a work that is in production? I imagine that working on a show that’s still being written would be a pretty unique experience.
As it was being made, [it was] kind of just one big collaboration with all different parts of the creative team. There was a lot of back and forth about what aspects of the music and text we wanted to highlight, how it would work with lighting and set, what skills the actors brought to the table, and stuff like that. I enjoyed having that level of flexibility, especially with how much time we had to put it together, to adjust to those different elements and know it was going to be okay.
Well, along those lines, what was it like being in a production where everyone is pretty much an equal (as in a student)? I’d imagine that having student directors, musicians, etc., with no oversight by an authority figure, is an experience that most people, especially college students and younger, haven’t had.
Similar to the above question, I think all of us being on the same level gave us more flexibility to really create exactly what we wanted to. Personally, it helped me feel a lot more confident in bringing up things that I didn’t think were going to go well, because I knew people would be receptive to hearing that (and weren’t going to “fail” me, or anything like that).
Do you have a favorite memory?
The rehearsal where I introduced a pretty fast movement sequence. I was pretty sure that it would take a couple of rehearsals to get down, but they went and did it perfectly after two tries. It was just a special moment.
Finally, do you have any takeaways for prospective students or wisdom you’ve gleaned from the project?
If you have a dream of doing anything of this scale, all you have to do is ask the right people. This project was 3+ years in the making (from script creation to performance), so definitely start gathering resources early on, but as long as you have the backup, the sky’s the limit as to where you can take it.
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