High School’s Hadestown Wows Island Audiences

A door to the underworld has closed for good at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, after four triumphant performances of Hadestown last weekend.

Produced by staff and students in the school’s performing arts program, the show brought together dozens of talented teenagers who spent six months and countless hours bringing the hit musical to vibrant life.

“These students have poured themselves into the show, after school, on weekends and in between everything else that high school demands,” director and theatre teacher Brooke Hardman Ditchfield told the audience Saturday night.

“This production is a testament to what young artists can do when they are trusted with responsibility, challenged with big ideas and united by a common purpose,” she said.

Of all the classic musicals Ms. Hardman Ditchfield has directed at MVRHS over the past 12 years, this one may hold the record for Newest Show With Oldest Story.

New England singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell based Hadestown on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus, the musician who sought death’s realm to bring back his lost love Eurydice.

Set half in an industrialized Hell and half in the storm-tossed world above, the show has been called a folk opera for its almost continuous musical score and a book that mingles spoken and sung-through dialogue.

The teen version, performed at MVRHS, differs from the 2019 original — which is still playing on Broadway — in that some of the music has been rearranged to suit younger voices.

This edition also makes room on stage for a larger chorus and doubles up the three Fates, creating a slinky sextet of mean-girl goddesses who taunt the lead characters in close harmony.

In Ms. Mitchell’s retelling, Orpheus is a poor boy who believes the song he’s writing will bring humanity, gods and nature back in tune with one another. He just needs some time.

This only goes so far with Eurydice, a wary runaway who winds up trading her cold and hungry existence for a one-way ticket from a wealthy stranger who promises her everlasting warmth. That’s King Hades, of course. God of the underworld and all the riches of the Earth, he’s acting out of pique at his wife Persephone, who resents having to spend six months a year underground with him and has developed a drinking problem.

When Orpheus, guided by Hermes and tormented by the Fates, makes his way to Hadestown, he finds Eurydice about to join the throngs of dead workers who build walls and factories for their king.

Swayed by Orpheus’s music, which reminds him of his own love for Persephone, Hades agrees to let him leave with Eurydice.

We all know the story doesn’t end there, or happily. But Hadestown finds its way to an uplifting finale nonetheless, as Hermes reminds the audience that we retell old tragedies because some day, they might come out right.

It’s become traditional for the MVRHS shows to double-cast their most prominent and demanding roles, with lead actors alternating appearances in their named roles and joining the chorus on nights in between.

This practice rewards audience members who take in two performances in a row, because Ms. Hardman Ditchfield encourages individual interpretations of the lead roles.

As Hades, Mr. Flanders maintained a smoldering menace, while Mr. Vought portrayed a more explosive king of the underworld.

Cayhana Williams was a sassy Persephone to Mr. Flanders’s Hades, while Lilli Claussen played the part-time queen with a bit more swagger protecting her tender heart.

Playing Eurydice, Georgia DeRoche and Hydee Turner each illustrated different subtleties of the character as she evolves from a streetwise urchin to a tragic heroine who has grown wise too late.

In the most vocally demanding role, Luiz Lacerda and Bryan Fernandes equally embodied the joy and heartbreak of Ms. Mitchell’s Orpheus, described by Hermes as “touched by the gods.”

Underscoring the fact that the alternate casts are not simply interchangeable actors, costume designer Roxy White — one of several students with leadership positions in the production — dressed them differently.

Hermes, the messenger of the gods and Ms. Mitchell’s fourth-wall-breaking narrator for Hadestown, was played by Anthony Smith in a suit with a high gold cummerbund, accessorized by gold feathers at his heels and head. Rayssa Moraes’s Hermes wore silver feathers on her suit, head and silver-sequined high heels.

Ms. White clad the six Fates in similar flapper dresses and equipped them with identical feathered fans, but gave each one a different hairstyle and headpiece.

The chorus, equipped by Ms. White in overalls and head scarves befitting their worker status, was choreographed by professional Ken Romero.

Performing arts department director Abigail Chandler prepared the singers, many of whom are also members of the school’s elite Minnesingers choir.

Band teacher Stephanie Aurenz conducted the on-stage orchestra, which included two students: saxophonist Emily Boyd, who also sang with the chorus, and percussionist Katelyn Tankersley.

"If you look at the students who built this show, who have committed themselves to telling this story with honesty, empathy and heart, you'll  see a glimpse of the way the world could be," Ms. Hardman Ditchfield said.

 

This article appears in February 20, 2026.