Madison Long
Staff Writer
“We don’t even have enough drachmas for a veggie burger,” whines Grover.
“Well, if you hadn’t bought all those ‘dam’ snacks!” snaps Percy.
“It was the Hoover Dam and I was hungry!”
The crowd roars with laughter, young children giggling as they tattletale to their siblings that Percy Jackson almost swore. Couples, both aging and some dressed for prom, snuggle up together, basking in the blue fluorescent lights inside Idaho State’s Bistline Theatre, where “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical” entices new fans to read the novel by Rick Riordan and welcomes others to dance along.
April 11-12, 17-18, and a special matinee on April 19, welcomed the 19 song, two hour rock musical that follows along the adventures of half-bloods Percy Jackson, Grover Underwood, and Annabeth Chase as they evade monsters, get lost in the woods of New Jersey, blow up a few buses, and save the world from Zeus’ lightning thief. With a double-cast Percy Jackson – Zack Christensen and Devin Lindsay – and other dual roles, the story is retold differently each night, carrying a new energy and pazzazz.
“I think kids are just so brave, willing to be vulnerable, smart, and unashamed to be creative,” says Christensen, a junior majoring in theatre. “Kids always fill me with joy and wonder and curiosity. And when you can do that for a kid, that’s like the biggest compliment in the world.”
By utilizing physical theatre, a type of performance that focuses on movement over dialogue, guest director and choreographer Francesca Minotowt-Czyz recreates the magical, fantastical peaks of the novel.
Seven actors rush on stage, clad in their cut, tightened, and twisted bright orange camp shirts, clutching what appears to be long broom handles. They squat down in a line, shaking and clattering the brooms to resemble a line of pipes leading up to the three actors holding white toilet seats. Violent vibrations cause the pipes to vibrate up and down until the song reaches its peak. The actor on the far right reaches down to grab a squirt bottle and mist the air around Clarisse, the camp bully played by Addie Steele, before twisting the knob to get a more direct stream.
In the battle with Ares, ten actors snag the end of the blue-streaked fabric, rushing up the aisles to create dramatic wind-tossed waves. They ripple the fabric up and down, with no particular rhyme or reason. Soon they hear the actor’s cue, “How about a lot of water?” Each stream of water rushes down, looping and tossing the fabric as they interlock with one another. Ares, played by Jackie Nguyen, stands amid the chaos, his silver chains whipping, and his red, personally painted leather jacket creating a sharp contrast to the swirling blue. The actors loop once more, pulling their fabric taut as they hurry to the exit, dragging Ares with them.
“I think sometimes you think about musical theatre and a lot of it can be fancy, but this is not stand and sing,” says Minotowt-Czyz, originally from Weber State University and past guest workshop leader at last year’s ISU Act One Festival. “This is move again, belt at the top of your lungs, act, storytell. Become a bus, become a statue, become water.”
Paul Yeates, the lighting and scenic designer for the show, brings what he calls “the eye candy.” With the opportunity to flash and play around with the lights, Yeates decided to try out new transition drops to add a bit of color to the show. In the backdrop area, four panels with faces – the minotaur, the oracle, Medusa, and the cyclops – appear to just be decoration when lit from the front. However, when lit from the back, the faces bring out various colors – greens, reds, golds, and blues and add vibrancy to the scene. Yeates brought in a guest artist to help him and his team bring his vision to life.
Nguyen says that ISU’s production focuses on fleeting moments – the puppetry behind Mrs. Dodd’s transformation from math teacher to Fury or the Minotaur. Through their hours of work, the cast and crew of Percy Jackson the Musical were able to transport their audience to new worlds and fill the space of Bistline Theatre with magic, whimsy, and memories.
“This is probably the best iteration of Percy Jackson,” says Nguyen, a senior who, after graduation, plans to audition for grad schools in Utah, Chicago, or New York. “I don’t want to brag too much, but I think some of the elements in our production are lowkey better than the Broadway production.”