For most students at Venice High School, the auditorium is a place for assemblies. It’s another Art Deco building in a school known for them. It’s home to two classrooms, four bathrooms, and a lobby everybody’s been to at least once. 

Yet for two evenings and an afternoon, the auditorium became a theater. The theater became a bustling Parisian cityscape. And the actors onstage became a part of a whimsical cast of characters the electrified audience of hundreds could see alive before them.

The musical spirit was abundant before even taking your seat. Walking into the Grant Francis Auditorium, one found it awash in French decor. Tricolor flags, mellow café jazz, and a photo booth with an Eiffel Tower backdrop adorned the lobby. Parents and students sold an assortment of candy and drinks at the concessions stand, as well as candygrams for the actors. 

And then, amid the bustle of hundreds of students, teachers, and parents packed in the seats, the lights dimmed and the curtains opened. A single spotlight shone on a golden frame center stage, and over the next two hours, we found it was a door to a new world, one of wonder and imagination. In other words, what theater is in the first place.

The road to having a fully realized two-hour show was not an easy one. Amélie as a story first came about in 2001, with the famously eccentric and colorful French blockbuster film. Adapted into a Broadway musical in 2017, the show made its way to Venice following the success of the fall semester’s fast-paced 25-minute play “Variations on a Theme.” For roughly half of the cast and crew of about 60, it was their first time doing a musical. 

Additionally, the Playmakers faced immense uncertainty with scheduling. With the UTLA, SEIU 99, and AALA teetering on a district-wide strike for much of the year, Amélie was postponed from its original dates and faced coordinating struggles. 

“The students were willing to do whatever it took to make sure the production happened,” said theater teacher Mina Maderi, who directed the show. 

The students’ efforts were evident in the final product, particularly in the creativity behind the production. A fish that jumped out of its bowl became a puppet that danced across the stage. 

Costuming and color palettes were supremely intentional, and always bright and bold. Amélie imagined Elton John at her funeral, and a glitteringly dressed Elton John (played by junior Anna Stillman) jumped out and performed. It all lended to the show’s quirky magic, which is a theme throughout and something Maderi wanted to capture. 

“Amélie is a character who never really gets the sensation of a loving childhood growing up, and so she kind of stays stuck in that state,” Maderi said. This “idea of a childhood that never really got completed” is well executed, as a certain magical innocence radiates from the show throughout.

However, the show’s excellence was most evident in the hard work of the people who made it happen, both on and off the stage. It’s clear that a deep love for theater fuels the magic.

Senior Diamond Nerio, who plays cashier Sylvie Legrandin, said that her role in Amélie “completely opened my eyes to something new,” and showed her that she just needed to shift her perspective on things to find the confidence she thought she lacked. She inserts that confidence and enthusiasm into the liveliness of her character. 

“We worked through it several times over all of the rehearsals and opening night was actually the first time we got it all right,” sophomore Lulu Clancey, part of a run crew tasked with rapidly sweeping elaborate sets across the stage, said. Indeed, Clancey’s work, along with the rest of the run crew, was flawless and smooth. 

Anna Stillman, who played Amelie’s mother Amandine Poulain, brought a highly believable and vividly wrought character to life: a mother who’s stern but loving. Speaking on the show, Stillman said she hoped to bring to life a “whimsical” aura. “A place where imagination can run free, which is kind of what theater is, I guess!” 

Amelie as a character is sheltered, to be sure. Raised by doting parents who homeschool her, and later a single father (returning junior Atlas Gerson), the play’s eponymous lead is practically trained in isolationism. But there’s something to be learned from this character, played by junior Shayden Satuloff. You can see, beneath her timid persona, someone who wants experiences, if nothing else. Humanity, interaction, and, at the end of the day, love, however forbidding the thought.

I’m happy to report that this production doesn’t shy away from these themes, as shy as its protagonist may be. In the hands of director Mrs. Maderi and the Venice High school Playmakers, the musical captures not only the inner world of its main character but of teens everywhere: always looking out, gazing upon the world with a longing to participate but an uncertainty about how to get there. Until there’s no choice but to just go for it. 

In an era of short-form scrolling and artificial intelligence, the role of high school theater in society is under pressure. But for two hours, the Venice High School Playmakers reminded us why we go to the theater. We go for the quirkiness and the magic. We go to laugh, cry, and be transported to a world brought to fruition by many hands and hard work. We go to bask in the talent of those we pass in the hallways five days a week and then get their signature afterwards. 

Shayden Satuloff, who plays the titular character, believes that the success of Amélie has “really launched the musical theater program we’ve been waiting for here.” And without a doubt, if this troupe could take us to a world of wonder for three two-hour shows, then we can all take the time to dream that into existence.