Opening night for any theater production can be full of nerves and uncertainty.
For Rolla High School and its production of the musical “Chicago,” opening night on March 14 was exciting for a different reason: There was a tornado watch in effect, and the forecast was not good.
“It feels like Rolla gets tornado watches and warnings all the time, and nothing ever comes of it,” said Jersey Stinson, who was cast as Roxie Hart, murderer-turned-media sensation and one of the leads of the show. “We really didn’t think much of it.”
But halfway through Act 1, during the song “All I Care About is Love,” the watch turned into warnings, and cellphones that were supposed to be silenced blared out weather information.
School personnel stopped the show as a tornado ripped through town and hit the middle school building, damaging the auditorium where the musical was underway. It was part of a deadly system that swept across southern Missouri. No one was seriously injured in Rolla, but dozens of homes and businesses were severely damaged.
The students didn’t know it yet, but the show’s run was done, and what was left was what the cast members were going to do in the wake of the disaster.
“It was going great, and then I was getting up to the last words of the song and then hear someone yells, ‘Stop,’ in the back,” said Owen Sanchez, who played Billy Flynn, the fast-talking lawyer who specializes in getting women who murder their lovers an acquittal. “I'm like, ‘Man, I didn't actually expect this to be stopped.’”
The cast, crew and audience, following a plan announced before the show started, retreated to classrooms in the middle school designated as tornado shelters. At first, the general mood was to just wait out the warning and get back onstage.
“Then we were in this room and there was a big boom and the ceiling tiles fell and it started raining in the building, not just like flooding, like literally raining,” Stinson said. “Of course, we were a little scared, but we were more sad about the show ending."
Especially for the seniors in the cast, the idea of not being able to perform the show was untenable. Savannah Mallery plays reporter Mary Sunshine, the leader of the press corps that covers the murders and trials in “Chicago.” She said emotions were running high with the show’s future in doubt.
Kelli McNeven, the show’s director and a theater teacher, saw Mallery in the hallway and reassured her that they’d figure it out.
“That definitely helped my spirits a bit,” Mallery said.
A few school buildings in Rolla were damaged, and the district canceled classes for a week, then it was spring break. After two weeks off with no rehearsals and frantic messaging in group chats, the cast met with their calendars and came up with a plan.
Those efforts come to fruition Friday and Saturday night when Rolla High School will finally stage the show, reducing the total number of performances from three to two.
The middle school auditorium could not be repaired in time. But the newly built high school auditorium got a rush job on curtains and lights to be in place for this weekend. Audrey Smith plays Velma Kelly, the other lead role. She said rehearsals had to be only once a week, and it’s been difficult to move into a new space.
“Everyone's so busy. We have people in spring sports and other things like that, but I think we've made it work, and I think that's really, really great, and I'm very excited,” Smith said.
Now it’s the second crack at opening night. Seniors who thought they wouldn’t get to perform one more time will have their chance.
McNeven, the director, said it's a testament to the resiliency of the students.
“If theater kids ran the world, it would be a better place,” she said. “They know how to pivot at a moment's notice. They know how to problem-solve. They know how to come together and, you know, tackle a problem. That night, we had people crying, and they had those tears and then the next day they said, ‘OK, we're ready, what's next?’”
The show will go on, and the forecast in Rolla is for clear skies.
See more photos from "Chicago" by St. Louis Public Radio visuals editor Brian Munoz:
