Arts One Presents, a local community theater and arts organization, will open its run of "Anastasia" Thursday. Based on the 1997 animated movie of the same name, the Arts One production will feature a live orchestra, local talent and a cast of more than 40. Director Sarah Behrend-Wilcox sat down with Ozarks at Large's E.V. Beyers last week to discuss the upcoming show and the work it's taking to get it on the stage.
For Behrend-Wilcox, the timing of "Anastasia" was too good to ignore.
Behrend-Wilcox: I recently finished my MFA in directing from the University of Arkansas just this past May, and I was lucky enough to be one of the people they kind of reached out to about directing "Anastasia" to begin with, and I was like, yes, please sign me up, I need this.
Beyers: What kind of responsibilities and work do you do as the director?
Behrend-Wilcox: As the director, it's a lot of the big picture things. So coming up with an overarching directorial concept. It's also casting — making sure that we have all of the people that we need and all of the places that we need. A big part of directing is the acting coaching, and talking through those bigger moments in the show and how to really portray those in a really evocative way, as well as blocking, which is just the term for the way the actors move around the stage. So it's a lot of having ideas and then having to figure out how to communicate them to any number of different humans.
Beyers: You mentioned having an overarching directorial concept. What would you say your directorial concept was for "Anastasia"?
Behrend-Wilcox: Going into any production, I like to pinpoint some themes that we really need to explore in whatever production it is. So for "Anastasia," of course, there's the big themes of identity and discovery. Things like, Anya has this "home, love, family" refrain that she sings a couple times through the show, and I really think that encapsulates the core of this production and the idea that even if it's not family by blood, life is about finding this home, this love, this family, this place where you can feel fully yourself. And then there's also the political aspect of this show. If people are familiar with the film version, they might be expecting Rasputin to be the villain, but they actually changed the entire villain storyline. So it's now one of the communist Russian officers, named Gleb Vaganov, who is our villain.
Beyers: And I'm assuming his father was a Bolshevik as well and had been involved?
Behrend-Wilcox: That is exactly correct, yes. So the Vaganovs were a real military family from 1910s Russia. Of course, Gleb is a fictional character, but the idea is that his father was one of the Bolsheviks directly responsible for the death of the Romanov family.
Beyers: Interesting to have that parallel of family, both from the protagonist and the antagonist. Hereditary. That's interesting.
Behrend-Wilcox: Yes. And the way it's kind of this legends or rumors that surround these two families, and then what happens when those legends come head to head and perhaps are not so different from one another after all, because at the end of the day, they're both searching for that identity. They're both searching for that tie to home, love, family. It's just that tie leads them in completely opposite directions.
Beyers: You've already begun to touch on this, but what do you find resonates with you about "Anastasia," and what do you think will resonate with audiences?
Behrend-Wilcox: I think really every single human, at any age, can relate to trying to figure out who you are. Because even at, say, age three, you're figuring out who you are in terms of how do bathrooms work, how do you know all of these core human things that we think about as just second nature. You're learning that, and then you get into those adolescent years, that big boom of discovery of who am I, who do I want to be, how do I want to carry myself through life. And that never really ends at any point. We're always evolving. Change is the only constant. So I really love getting to tell a story of discovery. And then I also personally just love "Anastasia" the movie. That was one of my sister's and my sick-day movies. If we had to stay home sick from school, we got to watch it together. So it really just feels like a big, full-circle moment of getting to tell this story of a strong, independent, maybe sometimes hardheaded young woman who — in a lot of those older animated films, we don't get to see the woman be the savior. It's always the damsel in distress. So it's really fun that she is no damsel, even when she is in distress.
Beyers: What moment during the show was your favorite to work on as a director, and what moment are you most excited for audiences to see?
Behrend-Wilcox: Oh, that's a hard question. It's like picking a favorite child. I think it's been really fun to do all of these big ensemble numbers. We have a wonderful cast of 41 people, which is incredible — a lot of bodies on stage, so many voices singing out this story, and it's been really magical to see how every single one of these cast members shows up, shows out, every single day. Yesterday — this might be one of my favorite moments — we had our sitzprobe, which is the first time the orchestra plays while the cast sings along.
Byers: And your orchestra is live?
Behrend-Wilcox: Our orchestra is live. That's something Arts One Presents really prides itself on, that every musical has a live orchestra.
Beyers: So at the sitzprobe.
Behrend-Wilcox: There were tears from multiple parties. It's just this really magical moment of getting to see all of the hard work that these two groups have been putting in separately come together. And then in terms of audience, there are a couple of really exciting new technical elements that Arts One Presents has gotten access to for the first time for this show. I'm not going to spoil it, I'm not going to give away too many details, but I think there are going to be some really big wow moments in terms of the technical prowess. Our designers have been amazing. Our technical team, our production team, has just been killing it every step of the way.
Sarah Behrend-Wilcox is the director for Arts One Presents' production of "Anastasia." She spoke with Ozarks at Large's E.V. Byers.
Arts One Presents' "Anastasia" begins its run at the Pat Ellison Performing Arts Center in Springdale Thursday. It will conclude performances Aug. 2, with shows Thursday, Friday and Saturday beginning at 7 p.m., and a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. For more information, visit artsonepresents.org or send a message to hello@artsonepresents.org.
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