Joey Williams, Sweeney Todd
How does it feel to be a lead in a play for the first time?
It’s really exciting, it’s really exhilarating— But after the initial shock and the happiness of it, you have to get really down and dirty with the performance and the practice and stuff like that. It got a little bit more difficult and it was much more of a job than it was just a pleasantry.
How do you balance being a student at Aragon with all the work you have to do for this production?
The last few rehearsals, I haven’t gotten back home until eight o’clock, and we start right after school, so it’s a ridiculous amount of rehearsing, especially later on [in the production]. It’s been quite hard trying to balance school and the play, but the teachers are very forgiving. The teachers have helped me out, they’ve been, like, “Well, if you can’t do this, that’s okay, we’ll give an extension, but please do it at some point,” and there’s a lot of working on the weekends.
If you could give Outlook readers one reason to come see the play, what would it be?
The production is pretty insane — It’s probably the biggest thing that Aragon has done in a very, very long time … I think that one reason that people will want or should come and see this is just the energy of it. Everyone’s in it to win it, even the people that aren’t onstage, like the crew, everyone is completely into this show. I think that people will see that on stage and that will make it a better production if they go and see it, and I really recommend you do.
How many plays have you done in total?
I haven’t really done that much in terms of past shows. I’ve done ensemble in two Aragon musicals, and in eighth grade I did Footloose with Borel; I played the Reverend, who’s the main antagonist, so that’s the second biggest role I’ve ever done! But I think this is the biggest thing I’ve ever done.
Ariana Grace, Mrs. Lovett
What do you think is the hardest part of being a student, and also working on the production?
I think time commitment. Sometimes rehearsals go from 3:30 to 7:00 at night, or even later than that, so it’s just finding a way to balance what is such a full time commitment with academics and extracurriculars outside of this … But it can get really stressful, at times, to manage school, the show, extracurriculars, and for some people, work. My director, Smuin, expects us to be a hundred percent.
How does your experience on Sweeney compare to your experience on 9 to 5?
The character work for this character, Ms. Lovett, who I play, is so incredibly intense and difficult, but is also the most fun I’ve had with a musical … When you’re done at the end of the day, and you’re sweating and out of breath because you’re so committed to that character, there’s nothing like that feeling.
Why do you want to pursue a career in theater?
Any time anyone has ever asked me like, “What do you want to do with your life?” It has always been like “I want to perform. I want to do music. I want to do that.” I want to do it because I can’t see myself doing anything else because there’s nothing else that makes me as happy as performing does, as musical theater does … I think I’m the most authentic version of myself when I’m onstage, when I’m working on theater and music and I want to have a job that I am so excited for every single day.
Why has it been the most difficult character you’ve had to portray onstage?
Because she has so much depth to her and you have to create a backstory for a character that has no backstory written from the author. Why does she do some of the things she did? In my head, I had this version of her that I wanted to play and my director had a different version of her, so it was trying to mesh those two together to make them work, which was really frustrating.
Cassius Rodriguez-Hayes, The Beadle
What do you think is the most challenging part of playing your character so far?
The characterization of the Beadle [is challenging] because he’s this old guy and [his character] requires a different kind of movement necessary to work with the character, in terms of how I move around and make my body communicate things. And the singing aspect is a totally different thing because I don’t really have ensemble people to work with on certain songs.
If you could give the students at Aragon one reason to go see Sweeney Todd when it comes out this fall, what would it be?
This show, for the most part, is a lot different than most of the other musicals we’ve done that I’ve been a part of, so it’s a good show for everybody to watch because the last [shows] have been really light-hearted. This [show] is very serious and dramatic, but it’s also very quirky. Overall, I think it’s just a very different show, it’s very cool, and it goes in a new direction.
What is your favorite scene/song to play?
Personally, I love “Worst Pies in London” the most. I think it’s just such a quirky and fun song. Also, “Green Finch and Linnet Bird” is a really good song. Those two [songs] show the polar opposites that Todd touches on because “Worst Pies” is this cynical number about bad pies, and “Green Finch and Linnet Bird” is this really sad piece about this young girl who’s trapped. I think those two, in comparison to one another, are my favorite numbers in the show.
When you first heard Sweeney Todd was going to be the fall musical, what was your initial reaction?
I was not expecting that to be the musical … all of us really like Sweeney Todd, but there was never a moment like, “Oh, it’s definitely going to be Sweeney Todd,” So it’s pretty cool that we’re doing it, cause it’s a great show.
