In wake of Stanislaus State’s theater department debuting their musical, Head Over Heels, the performance also marks the return of live audiences. 

Director Carin Heidelbach had just been hired full-time for the theatre department two years ago, just before the start of the pandemic. She was set to have her Stan State directing debut during the spring of 2020 with the play Much Ado About Nothing, but was left with little to do once the state of California issued a stay-at-home order.

However, Heidelbach decided to use her newfound free time directing Antigone X, a play turned short film. The film debuted last spring.

Since live audiences were not allowed during this time, this was a project that also allowed the theatre department to show off, not only their resourcefulness, but also their film making skills. 

That resourcefulness would turn out to come in handy during their time preparing for Head Over Heels since it was originally supposed to debut on October 21. However, due to an actor developing Covid-like symptoms, opening night was rescheduled for tonight, October 22, in order to ensure that the actor was tested and deemed covid-free before continuing the production. Luckily, said actor had tested negative and production had only been set back a day. 

Throughout rehearsal, the department took all Covid-19 safety precautions necessary in order to ensure the safety of their cast, faculty and audiences. Such precautions include having actors wear masks during their breaks in rehearsal and ensuring that the theatre is constantly being sanitized. 

For many of the actors, Head Over Heels will be their first play since before the start of the pandemic that will have a live audience, which is something that they have been eager to have back as part of the theatre experience. 

“During the first table reading, everybody was just so excited and really eager to get back into it. I don’t think that the majority of us had done anything since before Covid,” said actor Luke Gonzales.

This musical will also be one of the few of its kind to be produced by the department due to factors that make producing musicals very strenuous for its faculty.

“We haven’t done a lot of musicals here at Stanislaus over the years primarily because we don’t have as big of a staff as is necessary to do a lot of musicals,” said Heidelbach. “Doing musicals requires sound engineers, it requires the band, it requires a stage director and so much more.”

There will be more musicals to come as the department makes room for a new major at Stan State, the Musical Theatre program.

“We are in the process of hiring a musical theatre professor and we have started the process for creating a Musical Theatre degree, so we’re hoping that when we bring in the new professor that they will help us create the curriculum for really solid musical theatre program in the valley because there isn’t one,” explained Heidelbach.

For more information regarding Head Over Heels or to purchase tickets for any of the four showings of the new musical, head to https://www.csustan.edu/theatre/theatre-tickets.