By Kathleen McAleese
Feature Editor
Jillian Frankel, a senior at Westford Academy has been cast as the female lead of Eva Peron in the show Evita, the first season main stage production performed by Westford Academy Theater Arts.
Having heard that WATA would be putting on the show last year, Frankel was more than excited. Knowing that she was also being considered for the role was even better.
“In all honesty, Evita has been one of my dream roles since God knows when. I have my list of shows that I love and that has always been kind of up there,” said Frankel.
Before getting the rights to the show, the theater department wanted to make sure that there would be cast members who were capable, considering the show is an operetta, and especially since the show is a rock musical, hence Frankel’s prior knowledge of her role.
The difficulty in the show lies with how controversial of a figure Eva Peron was.
For Frankel, “there are so many different takes on [Eva], so many different myths. Some of those fall in the world of the play and you have to be able to differentiate between what really happened and what necessarily happens in the play,” she said.
Besides the show being difficult, time management has proved a challenge for any student involved in WATA, with rehearsals going until 10 p.m. some nights.
“Unfortunately, I have to start homework when I get home. I try to catch up as much as I can on the weekends,” said Frankel. “Saturdays are my day off from rehearsal, so my day off from everything.”
Frankel has known most cast members for a few years and an especially good relationship with her co-stars Nick Nudler and Brandon Jurewicz, and also with the rest of her cast.
“People always joke that WATA is kind of cult-like, which admittedly there are some elements of to that that are true, not that we are wildly out of hand but certainly there is a tight knit quality to our group,” said Frankel, laughing. To her, it is a learning process for all actors to stay level-headed, and to balance friendships and getting “the part.”
Being her first show with Michael Towers, the director of WATA, it is an interesting experience for Frankel.
“Its been exciting to learn from someone new,” she said. While the style of directing has changed, something that will always remain consistent is nerves.
“Of course I get nervous, but when you love it and you do it right, you are able to forget abut the performance and the audience. It really is an out of body experience. It’s cool to have it disappear and just do you thing,” Frankel said.
Frankel has big dreams, and is looking into The Hartt School, a music, dance, and theater school, as her top choice.
“I’d love to major in musical theater and see what I can do with that. I know its not the stablest career out there, and I’ll probably be paying my apartment bills with waitress paychecks, but at the same time, I know I have to try it. If I don’t, I know I’ll be asking ‘why?'”
The production of Evita is November 9th-17th at Westford Academy.
