At the helm of the production is Josh Feder '08, who serves as director. Feder, who graduated as a theater and math double-major last December, participated in many productions at Dartmouth, both as an actor on stage and behind the scenes in many capacities, including director and choreographer.
Feder said he heard about the NCCT directing opportunity through the theater department's blitz bulletin in Fall 2008. After finding out that he would be the director in February, Feder blitzed several of his friends and other students he had previously worked with, encouraging them to audition for the show, he said.
"42nd Street," which opened Friday and continues next weekend, is considered a "classic backstage musical," Ali Herdeg '11 said. Herdeg plays the lead role of Peggy Sawyer in the production set in New York City in the 1930s. Sawyer is an enthusiastic young performer trying to make it in an industry dominated by Dorothy Brock, a temperamental Broadway star who is slowly losing steam. With its show-within-a-show structure, "42nd Street" is a fun and reverent ode to the theater.
In addition to Herdeg in the role of Peggy, the cast includes Amber Dewey '12 and Katie Farley '09 in the supporting roles of chorus girl Lorraine Fleming and Maggie Jones, the writer of the fictional show "Pretty Lady," respectively.
Feder also enlisted the help of three other recent Dartmouth alumni to assist with the production of the performance Lily King '07 as assistant director, Jen Reiser '09 as lighting designer and Margaret Jacobs '08 as set designer.
At least five Dartmouth faculty and staff members are also involved with the production, either on stage, in the orchestra or on the technical crew. The remainder of the 31-person cast and 12-person technical crew is composed of Upper Valley community members, many of who have worked with NCCT before.
The presence of a few faculty and staff members from Dartmouth is not unusual for NCCT productions, Hu said. The number of active students or recent alumni, however, is unprecedented.
"This is the most Dartmouth involvement we've ever had," Hu said. "We had one Dartmouth student with a lead in the past, but she had grown up in the area so that's how she knew about us. That was in the [1980s]."
Hu added that he thought the presence of students has helped make "42nd Street" a successful show.
"Dartmouth students can be really creative, intelligent and energetic and I feel like they brought a lot of that to this production," he said.
Both Feder and Herdeg said they appreciated the opportunity to work with a new set of people outside the Dartmouth community. Still, the 35-year-old company just like any company has a set of ideals and expectations that differ from those he encountered in the Dartmouth theater department, Feder said.
"There are assumptions about the way things work that are always different for every theater you work at. There's a different set of expectations every time you start a new job," he said.
Feder explained that these expectations included both ideas regarding the final performance and the process, citing scheduling as a concrete example.
"The mindset at Dartmouth is that everyone over-commits and thrives through that anyways," he said. "[At NCCT,] people are used to working fewer days a week for longer period of time, whereas at Dartmouth, people are working more hours each week, but for a shorter period of time."
Despite different mindsets and schedules, Feder said he thinks the two groups of people fit well together.
"From what I can tell, the cast and people I've talked with have been open and welcoming to us. I think we've brought an exciting new aesthetic to this company," he said. "Having a new set of people can bring a new perspective."
