Upstage Theater – a teen-run theater company with members across the Bay Area – is slated to perform its rendition of the musical “Follies” this weekend at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.
The nearly three-hour musical will be performed 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday on the SecondStage at MVCPA, 500 Castro St.
“Follies” follows a group of women who reunite in 1971 at the Broadway theater they once performed in between the two world wars. During their first and last reunion before the theater becomes a parking lot, they reflect on their Ziegfeld Follies days, when they performed in lavish revues. However, with the return of memories also comes old feelings, especially among a Follies girl, Sally, and Benjamin, the husband of another Follies girl, Phyllis. As emotions spiral out of control, drama ensues.
The musical’s score, by Stephen Sondheim, is what “Follies” director Val Zvinyatskovsky called a “pastiche of different composers from that time period.” In other words, “Follies” is a mixture of high-energy pieces emblematic of the Ziegfeld Follies days and what actor and costume designer Margot Johnsen described as “introspective ballads” that illustrate characters’ reflective processes.
“I think at the core of ‘Follies’ is the idea that life is short and life is fleeting, and relationships are very, very messy,” said Johnsen, a senior at Los Altos High School. “But at the same time, people gather to make art, and that arches over everything else that’s going on.”
“This is a really profound musical, and it’s also about theater itself,” said assistant stage manager Mars Ezakadan, a freshman at Gunn High School. “So, I think it can be a really good introduction to the art of theater.”
To Zvinyatskovsky, a junior at the School for Independent Learners, “Follies” is “a look at what time can do to a person and to a relationship, and what love means at different stages of life – because love is the thing that strings it all together.”
Upstage’s rendition of “Follies” also has a unique twist: Because the troupe did not have enough cast members to play the younger versions of the characters, they will use lighting techniques and music to convey the present and past.
“We are going to show you something in this space – SecondStage – that you have never seen in that space before,” Zvinyatskovsky said.
Johnsen also pointed to the songs themselves as a reason to attend the show.
“It’s some of the most catchy songs you’ve ever heard, written by one of the best American composers of all time, about some of the messiest and worst people you could ever think of,” she said.
Preparing to perform
Performance weekend is only a fraction of the entire process.
“Follies” has been in the works for months, with rehearsals beginning in early January and planning among the crew starting much earlier. The rehearsal process has led to fond memories; Zvinyatskovsky recalled a time when “the group will hit just the correct harmony, and it will look like there are sun rays coming down from the ceiling, even though we are in a closed space.”
Ren Rodriguez Steube, a junior at the Waldorf School of the Peninsula, who plays Phyllis in “Follies,” said some of her favorite moments came from learning the choreography for a musical number.
“Just that moment when you’ve run through it, you finally are just in the pocket of the beat, you’re in sync with your castmates and you’re able to perform that song and be proud of it, is really so rewarding,” she said.
Julianna Garber founded Upstage in 2015 when she attended The Nueva School in San Mateo County. “Follies” marks the company’s second production of its eighth season, following last October’s show “Lilacs in the Rain.” After “Follies,” the company is set to perform the musical “Tick, Tick … BOOM!” May 19-21.
Inclusive and accepting
According to Johnsen, a defining part of Upstage comes from members’ “creative freedom,” because they are not limited by any individual or institution in what they choose to perform.
Zvinyatskovsky and Rodriguez Steube echoed the sentiment.
“Upstage is all about telling the stories that we want to tell, and telling the stories that are important to us,” Zvinyatskovsky said.
Rodriguez Steube added, “You never feel like you’re being put into some box or being told to do something by a teacher. … It really feels like we’re all putting in our creative input.”
Indeed, as director of “Follies” and Upstage this year, Zvinyatskovsky mentioned he enjoys giving the actors “bits and pieces of the concept and then see(ing) them bring it to life.”
This inclusion is something Zvinyatskovsky hopes to consistently foster at Upstage, which he describes as “aggressively kind and accepting.”
“We will compliment you until you pass out,” he joked.
Zvinyatskovsky added that the inclusive Upstage community is also a driven one, as students joined the company purely because they want to be there. Indeed, Upstage has attracted students from as far as San Jose and Oakland.
“We’re not depending on a grade. We are not getting paid. Nor are we asking anyone for a participation fee,” he said. “So, really what’s riding on this is doing a show with people that you love doing shows and creating art with. And that, at least in my book – and I know in a lot of other people’s as well – trumps everything else; that is at the top.”
Tickets to “Follies” are $22 general admission, $17 for ages 21 and under. For tickets, visit tinyurl.com/4rnmcy24.
For more information on Upstage Theater, visit upstagetheater.net.
