HIBBING — The students getting ready to present a one-act play got quite a surprise this week at the historic Hibbing High School Auditorium.
Timothée Chalamet showed up.
Yes, that Timothée Chalamet.
Megan Reynolds was a guest on the KAXE Morning Show to talk about music and theater on the Iron Range.
The night before the dress rehearsal of the one-act play The Girl in the White Pinafore, Reynolds found out a VIP had requested a visit.
“So, this better be good,” she said. “I was like, who is the VIP?”
She wondered if President Joe Biden was making a detour from his Superior, Wisconsin, visit.
She was one of three people who knew Chalamet would be stopping by the Historic High School Auditorium to get inspired for an upcoming portrayal of Bob Dylan.
“I held this secret in my heart for 24 whole hours.”
When Chalamet arrived, Reynolds called a quick cast and crew meeting.
“I heard audible gasps,” she said. “And then all of their faces...two people took steps back and there were nervous giggles.”
Reynolds was impressed by Chalamet, but more importantly, her drama kids. “He just sat in the front row of the theater, and they sat on the stage, and he asked them all kinds of questions about the show they are working on and what they’re engaged with in the theater program.”
The students had questions for Chalamet as well, and Reynolds was proud of how they conducted themselves. “They asked him questions about his process as an actor and about the industry and it was really just a bunch of theater nerds talking shop. You could tell there was a kinship.”
Reynolds wrote in a Facebook post: "We live in an area where sports programs can really dominate the school community, and receive the vast majority of community attention. In this instance, I was so glad my incredibly hard-working arts students got to meet a professional and mentor in their own field, and see themselves in him."
Hibbing High School Auditorium
Chalamet was in Hibbing researching an upcoming film where he will play Bob Dylan. The stage at the auditorium is part of the lore of Dylan’s school days, and recently celebrated its 100th anniversary.
The auditorium seats 1,800 people with a proscenium stage that extends into the auditorium. Reynolds described it as "a balcony and crystal chandeliers and silver leaf on the ceiling." She added, “It’s a copy of the New York City Capital Theater from the 1920s.”
"We live in an area where sports programs can really dominate the school community, and receive the vast majority of community attention. In this instance, I was so glad my incredibly hard-working arts students got to meet a professional and mentor in their own field, and see themselves in him."Megan Reynolds
The piano used on stage is the very same one Dylan played in a talent contest, where he was said to be booed off the stage after playing rock-and-roll.
Still in regular use in the community, the drama department practices and performs regularly on its storied platform.
One-Act play
The Girl in the White Pinafore hosts a public performance at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 26, to get ready for the one-act play state sectional competition at Rock Ridge Performing Arts Center in Eveleth the following day.
“So just like you can compete in high school hockey or high school track, you go to compete against other schools and sectionals, then you can go to state,” Reynolds explained.
Hibbing High School’s drama department’s The Girl in the White Pinafore is the story a 1937 gas explosion in New London, Texas, that killed over 300 people, mostly children.
“It looks at grief and loss, but also guilt and shame by both survivors and how that ripples through the generations of the community. It’s ultimately a story about how resilient human beings can be in the face of that kind of trauma and tragedy,” Reynolds said.
Other projects
Reynolds is not only a theater director, she’s a member of the band Sugar on the Roof, and will lead the performance of Always...Patsy Cline for Mesabi Musical Theater on Feb. 16 and 18 at Merritt Auditorium in Mountain Iron.
Listen to the conversation above for Reynold’s live performance of a song she wrote for Sugar on the Roof, “Little White Shack” and a quick Patsy Cline
