{"id":107564,"date":"2026-01-01T16:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T16:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/107564\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T16:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T16:17:08","slug":"junior-players-is-producing-the-official-teen-edition-of-the-dark-musical-hadestown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/107564\/","title":{"rendered":"Junior Players is producing the official \u2018teen edition\u2019 of the dark musical \u2018Hadestown\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Junior Players is technically performing the teen edition of the hit Broadway musical Hadestown, which offers the option to cut scenes and songs that could be considered inappropriate for a youth production, including references to alcohol, drugs and sex. Sasha Maya Ada says the version she\u2019s directing sticks pretty closely to the original.<\/p>\n

Take the character of Persephone. In the song, \u201cWay Down Hadestown,\u201d the Greek goddess and queen of the underworld mentions the substances she\u2019ll be taking with her to get through the part of the year she spends with Hades below ground. Those references are not being cut for the Junior Players production.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersephone is synonymous with drinking, flask in the hand. Any actor or director diving into the story has to figure out why it\u2019s important for her. Why is that the thing that she\u2019s finding solace in? And then you reverse engineer it with the kids,\u201d Ada explains. \u201cThey have TikTok, they have Instagram. They are aware that this is part of the story we\u2019re telling. It\u2019s cooked into the characters, so you can\u2019t really ignore it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Because Junior Players is a Dallas nonprofit and not part of a school system, it\u2019s easier for the group to make these kinds of choices. They\u2019re also well established, having been around since 1955. The cast of 22 students, who had to audition for the roles, are made up of 8th- to 12th-graders.<\/p>\n

\"Anthony<\/p>\n

Anthony Bedolla, Kailyn White and Gabrielle Noris as the Fates and Itzel Ramirez as Eurydice in Junior Players’ production of “Hadestown: Teen Edition.”<\/p>\n

Abby Stigler<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the longest running contemporary shows on Broadway,\u201d Ada says. \u201cIt\u2019s clear that it\u2019ll be rolled into the American canon. How the characters operate, why they act the way they do, is integral to the piece. And it\u2019s a good warning \u2026 Shakespeare says some wild things. They\u2019re learning about the Trail of Tears and World War II in school, right? Why can\u2019t we, in a safe and a supervised experience, be able to explore characters that also deal with messy things?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hadestown intertwines Greek myths involving two couples: Persephone and Hades and the young lovers Orpheus and Eurydice. The composer, Anais Mitchell, a little-known folk singer at the time, brilliantly adapted the myths around contemporary issues like climate change and the effects of capitalism on the masses.<\/p>\n

\"Amelia<\/p>\n

Amelia Racca as Persephone and Josh Schnitzer as Hades star in Junior Players’ production of “Hadestown: Teen Edition.”<\/p>\n

stiglerabby<\/p>\n

The god Hermes tells the audience early on that the story doesn\u2019t end well, but he\u2019s going to tell it anyway, implying the hope that it could change this time, wink wink. The nonstop music is roots-y, including a heavy dose of New Orleans-style jazz. It\u2019s complicated and difficult to sing and stage. \u201cIt\u2019s a whopper,\u201d Ada says, \u201clike an opera.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite those challenges, even the trickier numbers that the teen edition offers as optional cuts \u2014 like the Fates\u2019 a cappella \u201cNothing Changes\u201d \u2014 remain in the Junior Players production. Ada credits the talent of a competitive cast, which also has made it possible to perform the songs without adjusting them for younger voices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a kid in the room who\u2019s so new to it, when we first played a few bars of the song by the workers, he asked, \u2018How do you sing that?\u2019 There\u2019s something so pure about not knowing,\u201d Ada says. \u201cThen you get the kids who have been doing it since they were 6. It\u2019s a nice way for me as an artist to get back to the fundamentals. How do I make sure that everyone in the room is getting the information they need? They are a bunch of energy, and when they hone that energy it\u2019s pretty incredible. You never know what\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think 99 percent of the time, the kids leave feeling better than they did when they walked into the room. That is priority No. 1 for me. I want them to make sure that this very intense thing we\u2019re doing is fulfilling for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Details<\/p>\n

Jan. 8-11 at Moody Performance Hall, 2520 Flora St., Dallas. $10-$15. juniorplayers.org.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Arts Access is an arts journalism collaboration powered by The Dallas Morning News and KERA.<\/p>\n

This community-funded journalism initiative is funded by the Better Together Fund, Carol & Don Glendenning, City of Dallas OAC, Communities Foundation of Texas, The University of Texas at Dallas, The Dallas Foundation, Eugene McDermott Foundation, James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, Jennifer & Peter Altabef and The Meadows Foundation. The News and KERA retain full editorial control of Arts Access\u2019 journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Junior Players is technically performing the teen edition of the hit Broadway musical Hadestown, which offers the option…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[826,822,102,104,103,5351],"class_list":{"0":"post-107564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-arts-entertainment","9":"tag-arts-access","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-headlines","12":"tag-dallas-news","13":"tag-performing-arts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}