Theater students at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines are creating magic on stage in their fall production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Equipped with wands, time-traveling devices, invisibility cloaks and a bag of other tricks, the cast and crew have worked hard to bring the Tony-Award winning play to life.
The play takes place nearly 20 years after the original Harry Potter story ended and follows the next generation of witches and wizards. It centers around Harry’s youngest son Albus, who befriends the son of his rival Draco Malfoy at Hogwarts. As the two young wizards confront their fathers’ legacies, they embark on a dark and dangerous journey that disrupts the past and changes the future of the Wizarding World as we've known it.
To bring the time-jumping adventure to the stage, the Roosevelt Theatre department has taken on a large-scale technical challenge.
Roosevelt's production, which runs Nov. 12-15, marks a milestone for the theater department. As one of the biggest and most ambitious shows produced at the school, students have spent months putting their creativity and technical talents to the test. Not only that, the production also marks JD Walter’s debut as the head drama director at Roosevelt.
A new ‘headmaster’s’ vision
Walter was hired as Roosevelt’s new head drama director in July and immediately got to work securing the licensing rights to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. He said that, after receiving approval in August, it’s been “full steam ahead” ever since.
The Roosevelt Theatre edition of the play drew many new and returning members of the school’s theater department. More than 60 students, including 29 actors, are participating in the production. Walter said the massive scale of the show has required more effort on everyone’s part.
“While the production is larger in scope than a typical high school play, the resources entrusted to us allowed us to pursue something special,” he said.
Walter knew from the beginning that creating magic on stage was going to take time. That’s why he decided to hold auditions early, during the first week of school.
“These kids are so amazing, and I knew the minute that I saw them in auditions and the callbacks that we’d have a stellar cast,” Walter said.
When it came to the set design, Walter saw several obstacles to overcome to create the elaborate world of Harry Potter on stage. One of the largest challenges? The stage itself.
“One of our unique challenges is working within Roosevelt's historic auditorium — with a stage originally built in the early 1900s — to bring a production written for a very different theatrical era to life,” he said.
To do that, they needed to employ creative uses of light and sound.
Making magic on stage
While backdrops and sets establish the place, lighting and sound design are what truly transport the actors and audience into the play’s magical realm.
As head of sound, junior Timber Fiihr uses audio cues to bring spells to life. For example, Fiihr said that when an actor points their wand, someone in the sound booth clicks a corresponding sound effect. The same goes for lights.
Saniyah Johnson, a junior who joined theater for the first time this fall, is the head of lights for this production. She said she's enjoyed learning how to control the programming board and use different colors to create unique scenes.
“I think lights are really cool to work with and really fun to work with, not only because we get to build our own vision but because we also get to build our own lights and see how lights work,” she said.
One of Johnson’s duties was designing the lighting for Platform 9¾ at the train station. Johnson said she used strobe lights and LEDs to help create the illusion of actors being transported from the normal Muggle world to the magical world.
Over in the magic department — created specifically for this production — sophomore Everleigh Septer is relying on those technical effects to help enhance some of the props used by the actors.
“We are definitely working with a lot of lighting elements, just because there are so many spells that go on that actually do produce light,” she said.
As head of magic, Septer has also put her science and engineering knowledge to use to create the look of time travel and magic potions. In a scene involving a potion that goes wrong, she designed a cauldron that spews fog by combining dry ice and hot water. To create the effect of an explosion, she rigged a remote-controlled fan inside the cauldron to blow the fog out on cue.
It’s Lead Stage Manager Dulce Miron-Lopez’s job to bring all these different elements together during the show. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child marks her eighth production at Roosevelt and the last before she graduates early in December.
“This show is very technical compared to shows I've done in the past,” she said. “There's a lot of sets. The backdrops look amazing, the lighting, the sound. I'm really excited to see all of that come together. I always think of doing a show, stage management wise, as creating a little bubble on stage. And I love seeing what this bubble will become.”
Miron-Lopez isn’t the only crew lead impressed by the technical aspects of the show. Junior Lillie McManus, who is head of costumes and has been involved in five theater productions at Roosevelt, said her fellow students should be recognized for their hard work backstage.
“This show has been a little bit daunting for tech in general, and I think all of our lighting, sound and prop people deserve such praise for figuring out how to tackle this with such limited resources, because we've never done a show like this,” McManus said. “We've never done such insane technical tricks. Magic on stage — that is hard to do, and it is hard to do looking well. And they're tackling it so well. And a lot of these people, this is their first show, like, ever.”
McManus herself has taken on a lot more responsibility with this production. As head of costumes, wigs, hair and makeup for 29 actors, she’s in charge of creating and executing each character’s unique look. She also leads a team of 11 assistants who help outfit the actors before each show. With such a big cast that includes a dozen main characters and as many wigs, they have their work cut out for them ahead of curtain call.
Conjuring the cast for Cursed Child
Because production started earlier than usual this year, being part of this show has required a major time commitment from everyone involved. Assistant Drama Director Ellie Coleman said some of the students have sacrificed a lot to show up every day.
“We have some really special, unique kids here,” Coleman said. “It is a scrappy bunch. The kids here go through real problems and come together to make beautiful art, and it's really inspiring.”
For the students who dedicate their time to theater practice every afternoon — and even some weekends — they say it’s well worth what they put in.
This is sophomore Jubal Vance’s first time performing in a show at Roosevelt. He plays Voldemort, who returns as the Dark Lord in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Vance said he decided to join theater along with some of his cross country friends. They all practiced their British accents while out running to prepare for their roles.
Lincoln Juckette, a senior, has acted in four Roosevelt Theatre productions. This time, he plays Triwizard Tournament announcer Ludo Bagman, as well as some additional side characters. Juckette said he has enjoyed developing his characters and working with the cast this semester.
“I think the biggest change for this production has been the new director, JD, and he is phenomenal,” he said. “I always liked Mr. Davenport, but it is really great seeing someone new take the reins, and he's been doing a terrific job at it. I am very, very excited for opening night.”
As for the director, Walter said the cast and crew he assembled have made his dream job better than he could have imagined.
“I wouldn't have wanted to do Harry Potter and the Cursed Child anywhere else,” Walter said.
Roosevelt Theatre is performing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12-14 and at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 15. Student tickets are on sale for $10 and non-student tickets are available for $15.
