Collegiate Times

Fantasticks Rehearsal, (Left to Right) Mina Noorbakhsh and Alex Garretson

Over half a century ago, the original version of the classic musical “The Fantasticks” was performed. Now, the production will take on a different light, with improved sets and enhanced meaning, as it is performed by a new generation of actors.

The Virginia Tech theatre and arts department will perform “The Fantasticks” at Squires Studio Theater for two weeks, starting Wednesday. 

“The Fantasticks” is a musical centered around young love and deceit. Two neighboring fathers deceive their children, Matt and Luisa, into falling in love by starting a feud between the two families. The fathers stage an abduction of Luisa that forces Matt to rescue her, allowing their love to come to fruition.

However, the age-old musical will take on a new light with its production at Tech, according to Director Cara Rawlings. She said the story is told by the narrator El Gallo to the childlike character of the Mute. The audience will see everything through the Mute’s eyes. 

“In the second act, the story moves away from the story book,” Rawlings said. “And it becomes a real coming-of-age story that helps the audience grow up with Luisa and Matt.”

Rawlings said she feels the set’s elegance helps the production’s storybook element come to life, since the stage is set up to represent a pop-up book, with the actors becoming reality through the Mute’s imagination.

Molly Dickerson, a theatre arts major, will play the lead female role, the love interest Luisa.

“I am excited to open,” Dickerson said. “It’s been a very long and tedious process, and I think we are all at the point now where we are just excited for people to see it.”

As a senior, Dickerson has a bittersweet feeling about graduating and leaving the theatre department. But she said she thinks “The Fantasticks” is a fitting play to end on.

“Going out with a musical is the perfect way to go out with a bang,” Dickerson said. “I started out playing a love interest, and I’m ending playing a love interest, so it is kind of funny how it has been a cycle.”

Alex Garretson, a freshman wildlife science major, will play the lead male role, the love interest Matt.

Garretson said he was surprised to land the lead role, having only participated in one Tech production thus far.

“I didn’t think I was going to get it,” Garretson said. “When I got the opportunity, I was really excited because it kind of came out of the blue. I was thinking 10 percent chance I would even be involved in the production.”

Rawlings said aside from the show being a musical, “The Fantasticks” differs from other theater productions.

“‘The Fantasticks’ is one of the few shows that is really geared toward family entertainment,” Rawlings said. “It has a certain lightness to it.”

The shows will open tomorrow. Tickets are on sale for $8.

A version of this article appeared in the Apr 12 issue of the Collegiate Times.