Theater Spotlight of the Week: Sarah Henderson

by Shawn Parikh

The new theater company, Teatro delle Muse, is getting ready to present their first full production, and it is going to be a big one since it is the stage version of the popular High School Musical. I got a few minutes out of her hectic week to talk to Sarah Henderson, the Artistic Director of the new company, who is also co-directing the show with Bill Fountain. She talks about the goals for the company, the popularity of the show, and teaching youth musical theater. (The saga of my audio recorder continued onto this week, so this interview has been transcribed.)

Let's start off by talking about your career in the DFW community and how you founded Teatro delle Muse.

Well, actually, I worked at Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and left theater to raise a little girl, and it just so happens that all the theater productions that I took her to see, she wanted to be involved in theater. So after taking her to a few auditions and learning how community theater worked, which was quite a shock for me, I became involved with Frisco Community Theater first, and stage managed some shows for them. I was an Equity Stage Manager. And from there, I worked with Rover Dramawerks and taught several different theater classes all throughout the metroplex. Eventually, I just decided I would go ahead to start my own theater company. Bill and I wanted to do High School Musical. We were doing Sideways Stories from Wayside School with Rover Dramawerks, which was a wonderful big hit, very proud of that show. Bill and I cast this little girl in the show, and we were talking and I said, “I want to do High School Musical.” He said he wanted to do it too, and we didn’t have a contact with a company that wanted to do it, so we decided to start our own company, and things just fell into place.

So what is the main goal for the theater company?

We want to produce family-friendly theater in the Plano area. We feel there is a really big need there. I love children’s theater. I love working with children. I like to find shows that aren’t dumbed down for them. And when you find shows that aren’t dumbed down, you make sure that you are actually giving the child credit that they can understand real theater. But also, the mom or dad, or whoever brings them to that show is not bored while sitting there. So that is our main focus to produce family-friendly theater. Keeping with that theme, we actually want to expose classics, where we pick a classic each season. Finally, our goal is to find a local playwright with an unproduced work, and make that work into a production.

There are tons of theater companies in the DFW community so what makes you all stand out and stay for the long-term?

Well, we planned out our first season. Obviously, our first production is High School Musical and tickets are selling like crazy. I’m very proud of the production. Next is First Kiss, which is by a local playwright, and it is a wonderful script. I will be directing that show. After that, we will have Beauty and the Beast, again, another family show. And finally, we have Glass Menagerie. I think we are trying to cater to all tastes in theater. I am hoping that by doing that, by finding only the best of the best, that we will have a long-term relationship with the city of Plano and the DFW community.

So this first season you are trying to find your niche?

Right. Well, we have done our homework. When I said we decided to start our own company, it was a year’s worth of work there -- planning, creating a business plan. We were making sure that we weren’t just making art, but running a business too. I think a lot of the time, creative people don’t look at the business side of theater, and that’s something we tried to bring in outsiders so we don’t neglect that. We are spending money on advertising. For High school Musical for instance, we are running ads on Radio Disney. We have, of course, newsprint advertising, Dallas Child Magazine advertisements, and those have been running for four months now to let people know what is going on. I think a lot of the smaller theaters don’t have a high turnout because people don’t know about them.

Right, very true. I wanted to ask you what you think makes High School Musical so popular?

What made Grease so popular? You have probably heard it referred to as the new Grease, just the cleaned-up Disney version. It is a great storyline. Honestly, if it hadn’t become so popular, I wouldn’t have known about it. My little girl, when High School Musical originally released, she was 8 and was crazy about it. Well, let me see it. I want to watch it. So I sat down and watched it to spend time with her, and I fell in love with the silliness of the cliques and the jocks. It had this wonderful message that you don’t have to do one thing. It lets kids know it’s okay to be a basketball player and a singer, like in the show. In real life, it’s okay to do new things, try new things, and see if you like them.

The actors in the show range from 12-23, and they are all playing high school kids. We have two older than that, but they are playing adults. As the directors, one of the things Bill and I made them all do is a character analysis. We were very detailed with them. They have been working over 8 weeks on the show, rehearsing at least 5 nights a week. The thing we tried to do is really remember what it really felt like when you were a teenager when you were trying to pull away from something and how you were conflicted because you didn’t want to lose your friends. You wanted to know if you fit in, but you were curious about trying new things and what it felt like when someone made fun of you.

One of our favorite characters in the show, Sharpay, is just mean, but we were able to take the character and really develop her with the actress, and have her make sure the audience felt sympathy for her. If she wasn’t the star of every show, she didn’t know where she belongs. And what is it like to not know who you are? There are some really deep life lessons in the show, and that’s why I feel it isn’t dumbed down for the kids. It is a good show, it is popular and will bring people in. But we hope that when they are sitting there, we actually do have a chance to teach a lesson to these children.

I wanted to ask you about the obstacles of teaching youth musical theater, because it is the combo of acting, singing, and dancing. So how does this all come together?

We are very lucky that we set aside a large budget for this show. So we were able to hire people to come in and make sure that every aspect of that had the best people we could find working with them. There are two choreographers working on the show, one Musical Director, two directors, and you have all of the designers, stage managers, producers, and so on. We covered every aspect of that by making sure we had the right people that we knew could handle it. We did interviews that were open to the public and they submitted their resumes. The Advisory Board as a whole picked the people, not just the directors. So it wasn’t t he directors calling personal friends. It was the Advisory Board meeting and picking who was going to be the choreographer, and we chose two. We chose one that had a really good resume, but had not worked with children. And we chose another who had a really good resume, but was a teacher. So we were able to make sure that they worked together and the younger cast members were able to learn while they were here. We weren’t saying, “Memorize this,” and then they were done. They were taught something.

And there are two new songs added to the stage version?

Yes, we are very excited about that. “Cellular Fusion” is a necessary song to kinda tie everything together . In the film version, tthey obviously didn’t have the many obstacles of scene changes and explaining things, but you do when you take a film script and turn it into a stage script. That song is in there for that. And then “Counting On You” is a moment in the play where the two lead characters are being confronted by their friends saying, “Hey, you can’t do this. We need you. You’re leading us to victory, so you need to be with us.” We are very excited about the choreography.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

We have kids coming from as far away as Texarkana performing in the show. We had overall 6 audition rounds to make sure we picked the right people who had the right chemistry together. If you show up, you might see someone from your hometown, even if you live in Fort Worth, Arlington, Grand Prairie, Texarkana, or Euless. They are coming from everywhere. I think it is a really good family show, and I truly believe parents won’t be bored sitting there. It will be a good family night out.

Thank you so much, break a leg, and I wish you all the best.

Thank you so much.

High School Musical runs from July 27 to August 12. Call 972-424-MUSE for tickets or purchase online.