Spring musical ‘Light in the Piazza’ perform this weekend

Home Culture Spring musical ‘Light in the Piazza’ perform this weekend
Spring musical ‘Light in the Piazza’ perform this weekend
John Szczotka and Brianna Lambrecht in ‘Light in the Piazza.’
Anthony Lupi | Collegian

The Tower Players have begun their performance of “Light in the Piazza,” a romantic musical that takes place in Florence, Italy. 

Directed by Tory Matsos and adapted as a Tony award-winning musical from a 1960’s novella of the same name, the play follows the travels and difficulties of Margaret Johnson (Michaela Stiles) and her daughter Clara (Brianna Lambrecht) in Florence, Italy. 

The musical begins when the mother and daughter arrive in Florence on a sightseeing trip. Almost immediately, Clara becomes smitten with Fabrizio (John Szczotka), a young Italian man. However, Clara’s mother attempts to steer her daughter away from a relationship with Fabrizio and reveals her very protective nature. To her mother’s chagrin, Clara and Fabrizio continue to see each other, meet each other’s families, and eventually fall in love. 

“Light in the Piazza” focuses on different types of love and how those can help or hurt the recipients of that affection. Margaret Johnson struggles to find the balance between protecting Clara and allowing her to grow and mature on her own. 

“All of Margaret Johnson’s actions are for the purpose of protecting Clara and giving her the best life,” Stiles said. “But she realizes that in order to truly provide for Clara, she has to relinquish control and allow her daughter to fulfill her role.”

On the surface, the musical appears to be a simple, Disney-like love story between two young kids. Clara and Fabrizio meet, overcome struggle, and fall in love. Yet the story contrasts this innocence with the realities of how people fall in and out of love, struggle to create connection, and fail to see the beauty and blessings that are right in front of them. This is not a simple presentation of young love, but rather a deep-dive into the difficulties and daily-struggles that come with learning to care for oneself and others. 

“When I first read through the script, I realized that we had a huge task in front of us: to sell this romance,” said senior John Szczotka. “Between the book and how it’s written and the music, it’s all there. It’s a beautiful story, but in terms of how a Hillsdale audience will react to it, it’s going to come down to how cynical people are.”  

Not only were the Tower Players tasked with presenting such a nuanced story in two hours, some also had to learn how to speak and sing an incredibly complicated score. 

“I’ve had the privilege of working with the music and theater departments for the last several years, and I’ve been made very aware of how skilled so many of our students are,” Matsos said. “So when I was asked if I would like to direct the musical this year, I said, ‘Why don’t we do a really difficult one?’ I knew our students could deliver, and they absolutely have.”

Due to the difficulty of the score, music teachers Emily and Mark Douglass assisted the cast with learning their pieces. 

“Mark Douglass is conducting our pit orchestra. He’s a fantastic musician, he’s brilliant to work with,” Stiles said. “He and his wife Emily are pushing us musicians to be the best we possibly can and we appreciate them so much.” 

To help with the difficulty of the music, the pit orchestra has been playing alongside the actors since they began rehearsals. 

“The pit is incredible,” Szczotka said. “This is the first show I’ve ever done where we’ve had rehearsals with the pit all the way through the process. Usually, just one day before you go into tech week, you sit down and do all the music with the orchestra, but we’ve been doing that three weeks out.” 

Along with the Douglasses, students received help from Lorenzo Bonaiti, who teaches Beginning Italian. Because the show takes place in Florence, Italy, several students’ lines are written mostly in Italian, meaning they had to learn to speak, pronounce, and sing these Italian scripts. 

“For some of us, the accent came very naturally. I was a bit slower, but Mr. Bonaiti recorded a Zoom meeting of himself pronouncing every single Italian word that’s in the show,” Szczotka said. “I watched that a couple of times and was able to get my Italian nailed down.”

The musical originally scheduled performances Wednesday through Sunday of this week, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, the theater can only operate at 20% capacity. Weekend shows were sold out three weeks before opening night and the rest of the shows quickly followed suit. Wanting to give everyone an opportunity to experience “Light in the Piazza,” the cast and crew decided to open their final dress rehearsal to the public. 

“Every other show I’ve done here, if we had to open it up to dress rehearsals, it would’ve been a nightmare,” Szczotka said. “But with ‘Light in the Piazza,’ we have been so on top of our game that we are ready to go. We can do this and feel comfortable.”