Senior Izzy Casciani missed the Zionsville Community High School prom to attend a prom of a much different nature.
Casciani performed as a vocalist in two shows of music from “The Trouble with Dead Boyfriends” April 20 at The Toby Theater at Newfields in Indianapolis. The performances were part of Discovering Broadway’s incubation process. The monster musical comedy involves three girls who cast an undying love spell to summon their dream dates for prom.
“I was lucky enough to go twice with one of my friends,” Casciani said of the ZCHS prom. “So, I felt like I got the experience, but I’d just say this was maybe 100 times better than prom, so it wasn’t that hard (of a choice).”
Casciani had the opportunity to appear alongside some performers, who are already making their mark in the entertainment industry, including Barrett Wilbert Weed (Broadway’s “Mean Girls”), Andrew Durand (Tony Award-winning “War Horse”), Myha’la (HBO’s “Industry,” Netflix’s “Leave the World Behind”), 2014 Carmel High School graduate Eric Wiegand (Broadway’s “Plaza Suite”, Hulu’s “Tiny Beautiful Things”) and Arica Jackson (“The Book of Mormon”).
Discovering Broadway was founded in 2012 by CHS graduate Joel Kirk, who directed the April 20 performances.
Casciani said she learned a lot from the Discovering Broadway master classes, and this was another learning experience.
Casciani even did a bit of acting as she was chased by one of the dead boyfriends.
“I got to be almost eaten by a zombie and survive, which is kind of my dream, I guess,” said Casciani, who is appearing in Civic Theatre’s production of “Anastasia.” “It was super cool. The music is incredible, so singing backup vocals for that was super awesome. But also listening to these talented incredible people sing, I just felt I should be paying to be here instead of the other way around.”
CHS freshman Sadie Cohen was one of the backup vocalists.
“Not knowing any of the music before it was really cool to work with people who are super experienced,” Cohen said. “It was great to get advice and learn about that because I definitely want to do this as my career. The best part was getting to meet people I look up to and hope to follow in their career paths.”
