H.S. senior performs in play despite broken bone

The show must go on!

At least that’s how Guilderland High School senior Sean Donnelly felt after recently breaking his collarbone during the final dress rehearsal for his school’s spring performance of the musical “Les Miserables.”

Donnelly, who plays the story’s villain, Javert, said he injured himself practicing a fall when his character dies in the story by either just missing a pad meant to cushion the impact, or by the pad not breaking the fall well enough.

“My director said about eight things had to go wrong for this to happen,” Donnelly said. “The initial thought was ‘Oh, what will I do?’”

The play first opened Thursday night, and Donnelly was getting ready Saturday afternoon to complete his third performance Saturday night. The Guilderland Players will perform “Les Mis” for the final time during a 2 p.m. matinee showing at the school on Sunday.

The immediate concern after the injury was trying to figure out how Donnelly could hide a sling from the audience, and he said director Andy Maycock was willing to rearrange the show to accommodate his injury.

But Donnelly was outfitted with a more discrete figure eight sling, which crosses around a person’s shoulders and back, and resembles backpack straps from the front.

With the sling nearly invisible to the audience with a costume, the actor said he was ready to carry on with the show.

“The figure eight splint, that made everything a lot easier,” Donnelly said. “It relieves a lot of the pressure of “Where am I going to hide the splint on-stage?”

As far as the pain, Donnelly said it’s “very manageable once the splint is on you. There’s not any pain, mainly just discomfort that’s there.”

The school theater group has been rehearsing the show five to six days a week for several hours each day over the last four months, Donnelly said, and while the show has gone on despite the injury, he said it took some adjustment to remove his character’s fall from the musical altogether.

“Its definitely weird now that we’re not doing the fall for the suicide scene,” Donnelly said, referencing Javert’s dramatic demise toward the end of the story. “That was something we’d been planning for so many weeks.”

“The first night, it was a little awkward, stumbling around with how to portray it without me having to fall,” he said, though they’ve since worked it out by incorporating a step stool.

Donnelly, who plans to study civil engineering in college after graduation this spring, co-stars in the play alongside Andre Valverde, who plays the redemptive protagonist, Jean Valjean, as well as Olivia Fanshawe, who plays Cosette. Marius, the young revolutionary, is played by Jack Parsons.

Donnelly said he’s been doing theater since he was in fifth grade at Altamont Elementary. He also participated in the National Association for Music Education’s national choir in Orlando last year.

While he may not study performing arts in college, Donnelly is enjoying his senior year performance, injury and all. He plans to continue performing as a hobby in college.

“I don’t perceive any future career in musical theater, I’ll try to pursue it as a side hobby,” he said. “I hope to keep music in my life, because it’s always been a passion.”