SLHSMTA School Highlights: Liberty High School
Nominated For Outstanding Musical Level 2
Written by 2025 SLHSMTA Student Reporter, Mary Corkery
When they staged their production April 24-26, Liberty High School put a fresh, uniquely Midwestern spin on Hadestown.
Hadestown is a modern retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, making its Broadway debut in 2019 and quickly becoming a fan favorite. The new show felt fitting for the new department. Director Missy Gehrke said that despite the difficult nature of the show, she felt that her students were ready to take on the challenge.
“We’re a relatively young theater troupe (our school just opened 11 years ago, and our performance space has only existed for 8 years), and each year we challenge ourselves to be stronger and raise the bar, and they MORE than raised the bar for this show! Our production is student designed and run, so the set, costumes, lighting, etc. are all led by students. They cared so much for this show, and they pushed to make the show as strong as it could be. Our cast, from our leads to the ensemble, worked so hard on this beast of a show and took every moment on stage to tell the story. Our crew continued to learn new techniques and gained knowledge, and we ended up with a show that was technically excellent, too. I’m just so proud,” Gehrke said.
Rights for the teen edition of the musical were made available for this school year last April, and many schools jumped at the opportunity to stage their own production of the Tony-award winning show. At the SLHSMTA, two of the ten total shows nominated for Outstanding Musical were productions of Hadestown, with Liberty in Level 2 and MICDS in Level 1. Despite the popularity of the show, however, Liberty made theirs unique to their program and area.
“One of the requirements of the contract was to do wholly original creative choices. We chose to not look at the Broadway show for inspiration at all– we started from scratch creatively. We had to figure out how to incorporate movement and make it feel as though our characters were on a long journey (without a turntable), and we needed to figure out our unique setting. Once we chose our setting and knew we were going with a cave vibe, and once we decided to use panels to create movement, we just took off,” Gehrke said.
The cave setting that Gehrke and her students opted for was inspired by Missouri’s geography. The production team chose to incorporate elements of the state’s natural beauty wherever they could, helping them to earn a nomination for Outstanding Student Scenic Design and Execution (Allena Mitchell and Avery Bowen).
“Our above world was set on the Missouri bluffs, and our under world was set in the Missouri caves. We created wall panels that were carved and filled with resin to look like the wet cracks in caves, and we made MANY stalagmites/tites,” Gehrke said. “Our flower that Orpheus uses is also a native Missouri flower (the lanceleaf coreopsis), so we very much had Missouri easter eggs placed in the show,” Gehrke said.
The show also earned a nomination for Outstanding Student Costume Design and Execution (Clara Walker and Emily Nguyen). Costumes provided an opportunity to not only work in elements of Missouri nature, but also the ancient Greek history that inspired the show in the first place. Earning a nomination for Spinning together different details of the show through their technical elements, Gehrke said, unified the production and helped the characters shine on stage.
“We also took liberties with our fates’ costumes. They were inspired by Christine’s outfit in ‘Masquerade’ in The Phantom of the Opera. Our costume crew also added an element of assigning animals that were native to Missouri caves to each fate that also related to the traditional fate jobs. For example, in Greek mythology, Clotho is the spinner, and our fate was represented by spider motifs. Lachesis is the apportioner, and she was represented by snake motifs. And then Atropos is the inflexible, and she was ironically represented by the [bat]. The costumes were made by hand from our costumes crew and added so much to the characterization,” Gehrke said.
In terms of individual interpretations, Gehrke wanted her audiences to take away a message of hope, even in the darkest of times.
“It’s a story that centers around a character who could ‘make you see how the world could be, in spite of the way that it is.’ At one point, the characters toast to ‘the world we dream about, and the one we live in now.’ It’s a story about continuing to strive for beauty and goodness to prevail, even knowing the odds are stacked against you. I loved telling this story, and it felt so timely,” Gehrke said.
Liberty also received nominations for Outstanding Direction (Gehrke), Outstanding Student Technical Execution (Rachel Church), Outstanding Musical Direction (Carter Datz), and Outstanding Ensemble, as well as two nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor (Tyler Bugg and Sam Woollard). In the Outstanding Musical Level 2 medley, the cast will be performing “Wait For Me (Reprise)” during the SLHSMTA on May 15.
