Up through the atmosphere
Stonington High School Drama sends students flying in ‘MARY POPPINS’
Here’s the magic:
Students on the Stonington High School stage sing the cheery “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” from “Mary Poppins” when, suddenly, an angelic voice soars offstage. From the wings, high above the floor, comes floating into view a figure — Mary Poppins, in all her glory. Chloe Kolbenheyer, a junior, absolutely looks the part — no-nonsense posture, balletically turnedout feet, signature black hat with flowers, and long, dark jacket over a long, dark skirt. She holds an umbrella overhead with one hand and a carpetbag in the other.
Kolbenheyer seems to glide on air as she drifts to the center of the stage and then gently lands. It is, you might say, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. And here’s the reality behind the magic: While the performers sing “Let’s Go Fly a Kite,” Kolbenheyer stands in the wings, wires attached to each hip of the harness that is hidden under her costume. In the wings on the opposite side of the stage, parent Eric Hultgren, wearing black gloves, begins to slowly tug down on the thick rope that travels from him to a track that has been installed above the stage, and it ultimately connects with the cables attached to Kolbenheyer. As Hultgren pulls the rope, Kolbenheyer steadily rises upward, until her feet are higher than a nearby door. She looks calm and composed. Then, on cue, she starts singing. As student Stephen Sinnett maneuvers another set of ropes in the wings, Kolbenheyer wafts into view, as the other actors, in character, gaze in wonder. As Hultgren lets the rope he’s holding slide upward, Kolbenheyer descends and alights gracefully on the ground.
And so it goes in the high school’s “Mary Poppins,” which will have public performances this weekend.
It’s quite a rarity for a high school theater program in this region — or any theater program, for that matter — to use fly technology. And this is, in fact, the first time that SHS Drama has used theatrical flying.
They are managing it thanks to Flying by Foy, which is the best-known theatrical flying company in the world and has been in business for six decades. The stars who have been flown by Foy are so numerous they create their own showbiz constellation, with everyone from Beyonce to Will Ferrell and Taylor Swift to Mark Wahlberg represented.
Tim Mackay, managing flying director who runs the eastern office of Flying by Foy, says that Flying by Foy does probably 80 percent of any flying viewers see on live events on TV, like the Super Bowl and the Grammys.
“We are very proud of the work that we do on high-profile events, but we’re also very happy to work with our high schools and community theaters,” Mackay says.
Ryan Stanger from Flying by Foy was at Stonington last weekend to help train folks on how it all works. He certainly knows what he’s doing; this was his third “Mary Poppins” that week, after working on productions in Delaware and New Jersey.
Stanger had everyone run through each effect many times, perfecting the details. The idea, Mackay says, is “that we feel like everyone is adequately trained for the effects in that particular production.” Discussing the safety aspect, he says, “They’re trained to do that show using our equipment, and they inspect our equipment on a daily basis to make sure that it’s in good working order, and they can get in communication with us if they find any issues along the way.”
What it feels like to fly
Kolbenheyer says that flying makes her actually feel like Mary Poppins.
“It’s really fun. I think it’s fun because I can imagine how excited the kids in the audience will be when they see it,” she says.
During her initial rehearsal session, she recalls, “Lifting felt a little weird at first, but after a while, I got used to it. … I thought it was going to be scary, but it really felt safe and I was comfortable up there.”
The harness, which is built to an actor’s measurements, is a little tight but not as uncomfortable as one might expect, she says. When she’s flying, Kolbenheyer has to remember a lot about how to hold herself because she wants to create that iconic Mary Poppins image that generations of fans know so well.
While Mary Poppins, naturally, does the most flying, the character of Bert gets in on the action with aerial choreography in “Step in Time.” As Bert, Erich Phelps walks up a sloped roof at a gravity-defying angle, a look of amazement and glee on the character’s face. He gets to the flat part of the roof and leaps into the air before moving jubilantly in midair to one side and flipping backward. He trails back to the center, does a levitating jig, and then heads to the other side while doing forward flips.
Phelps, who is also a junior, says the experience has been amazing — a little nerve-racking but fun. Director Erin Stanley is incorporating other “magic” into the show — including the seemingly bottomless carpetbag — and Phelps says the show “feels magical to me, too, because, hey, I’m flying.”
Stanger taught Phelps how to do the flips and explains, “If he wants to do a front or back flip, he has to make his center of gravity higher by putting his hands high and bending his legs and then he’ll lean in the direction he wants
to go.” Then, it’s just about the performer controlling the momentum.
Phelps notes that, at the same time, he has to make sure his arm and legs go through the wires. Oh, and he also has to stay in character and act the role of Bert.
“We haven’t even done the show yet, and I think it’s probably my favorite show,” Phelps says.
Behind the scenes
Of course, the actors onstage can’t get airborne without the help of the fly team backstage.
Pulling the ropes, literally, to make Mary Poppins gently float through the sky is one thing — Hultgren handles the rope that lifts her, and Sinnett handles the rope that moves her laterally — but doing the same when Bert executes his acrobatic choreography is another.
Hultgren, whose children Trevor and Connor are in the show, says, “When it comes to Bert and some of the crazy stuff he does, that requires two people just because of all the motions.”
Consequently, Hultgren and student Patrick Obrey both work the ropes for lifting for “Step in Time.” On the first night of training, though, it was just Hultgren, and he recalls thinking, “Yeah, my arms are really burning, and, like, my fingers are swollen to twice their size. My cold steering wheel feels so good right now.”
During the actual performances, everything will be much easier than rehearsals, since they will do each flying sequence just once rather than repeating each one many times.
And Hultgren notes that they try to maneuver the ropes in such a way that the performers travel smoothly.
‘What haven’t we done?’
Stanley has worked with SHS Drama for 19 years, first as a choreographer and then as director. Her husband, Chris Stanley, has taught at Stonington High School for 22 years and has been musical director for SHS Drama for that same period.
Over that time, the drama program has flourished. Last year, SHS Drama received the 2019 Best Classical Musical award for its production of “Hello, Dolly!” at the statewide HALO High School Theater awards. For the same show, Erin Stanley earned an award for best direction by the Stephen Sondheim Awards, which serves as the regional award program to the National High School Musical Theater Awards.
Since the Stanleys have both been with the Stonington High School drama group for a long time, Erin Stanley says, “There was the element of, what if we could do something that we’ve never done before? … We were thinking, ‘What is something we haven’t done?’ And that’s flying and bringing some kind of magic to the children in our community, to everyone, to the town. I think it’s definitely needed at this time. … You know, the themes of ‘Mary Poppins’ just resonate as well with me and the students. Especially from an educational perspective, I find moments to make it a teaching lesson while we’re working, and not just teaching theater but about life.”
Discussing those themes, Stanley references some Mary
Poppins quotes, including “Open different doors. You may find a you there that you never knew was yours.”
There’s something about ‘Mary’
In choosing this musical, Stanley says, “I wanted to do a show that really spoke to the community and got more people involved and more people coming to see what we do at the high school. ‘Mary Poppins’ definitely checks off all those boxes.
“I also happen to have the most perfect Mary Poppins and the most perfect Bert and the most perfect (Banks) family. A lot of times, I choose the show based on the students, based on what their talents and strengths are, because I feel like that’s my job, to showcase them and teach them.”
Stanley admits that “Mary Poppins” also has a special place in her heart; she remembers that, as a kid, she and her father used to watch Disney movies together. Stanley loved Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins, so directing “Mary Poppins” has been on her short list for a while.
When it comes to flying in “Mary Poppins,” safety, of course, is of utmost importance. Retired town engineer Frank Marafioti, for instance, donated his time to inspect everything and ensure the structure was stable enough to hold the equipment.
Hultgren is in charge of the flying team, which includes a number of students who do things like detach the wires from Kolbenheyer after her stage entrance.
The finances of flying
Stanley declined to specify how much the group was paying Flying by Foy but says that, when she originally looked at prices from a variety of companies, the cost tended to be between $6,500 and $10,000.
But she says that the people at Flying by Foy “have been really great because we’re a self-funded high school program, and I really appreciate that.”
And she notes that the cost depends on which effects a particular production is doing. Companies will tailor a package for a specific school. For SHS Drama, for instance, characters will be flying four times. Mary Poppins will fly a few times (when she leaves at the end of Act 1, when she comes back at the start of Act 2, and for the song “Let’s Go Fly a Kite”) and during “Step in Time,” Bert flies.
That’s a basic package, but there are packages that cost quite a bit more and include more flying effects.
In any case, SHS Drama is raising money to go toward it all. (There is also the cost of the rights to do the production — $4,000.) Stanley says, “I am very fortunate to have an amazing drama booster parent organization.”
“This one is going to be probably my highest expenditure in all of my years,” Stanley says. “But I also think it feels like it is going to pay off in the long run. I don’t mean so much financially, as much as I mean just with all the community support we’ve been working on. We’re doing a program with the middle schools to get them involved; they are doing a poster contest. And we’re going to provide free previews to the elementary and middle schools in town, so they’ll get to see the show. There’s so much good in that, and there’s so much we can do for everybody. So I think it’s a win-win.”