Hadestown:
Teen Edition

Hadestown: Teen Edition Hadestown became an exploration of the artist's role in shaping the world around us. While the story wrestles with love, doubt, and sacrifice, I found myself continually returning to a different question. What happens when artists are asked to choose between creating and surviving? Too often we are told these two things cannot coexist, that creativity must eventually be exchanged for security. I wanted this production to challenge that idea by imagining a world where artistry itself becomes an act of hope.

That question became the foundation of our production. Set inside a forgotten 1940s New York speakeasy, our world was inhabited by musicians, painters, dancers, and dreamers gathering to tell a story that has been repeated throughout history. Hades and Persephone became artists whose relationship fractured as ambition replaced creation, while the Workers represented those who had traded imagination for stability inside a Wall Street inspired underworld. Orpheus stood as the artist who refused to believe those were the only two choices, using his voice to imagine a future that did not yet exist.

More than anything, I wanted audiences to leave reminded that art has the ability to reshape the way we see the world. Theatre invites us to imagine something better before we can build it ourselves. Every design choice, every performance, and every moment of storytelling sought to create a space where hope felt tangible and where the act of creating together became a quiet reminder that beauty, imagination, and community still have the power to transform us.