{"id":37253,"date":"2022-11-17T19:32:09","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T02:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-theater-guides-journey-through-the-impossible\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:36:20","slug":"montezuma-cortez-theater-guides-journey-through-the-impossible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-theater-guides-journey-through-the-impossible\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez theater guides \u2018Journey Through the Impossible\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Shawn
Shawn McAllister plays the lead role of George, who is a highly ambitious individual in the Montezuma-Cortez High School producton of Jules Verne's \"Journey Through the Impossible.\" (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

From obscurity into the limelight, Montezuma-Cortez High School theater is bringing out a lost masterpiece of 19th-century literature and taking it to the stage in a fall performance of \u201cJourney Through the Impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Written by literary giant Jules Verne \u2013 better known for his science-fiction canon of \u201cTwenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea\u201d and \u201cJourney to the Center of the Earth\u201d \u2013 the play integrates a number of the primary characters from his prior works.<\/p>\n

The play might have never seen the light of day, were it not for a stroke of fortune.<\/p>\n

Buried deep in literary archives for decades, the play saw fewer than 100 performances in French, Verne\u2019s native tongue. Rarer still, the manuscript\u2019s relatively recent translation to English in 2003 meant that the production has never been performed for the anglophile ear.<\/p>\n

That is, until now.<\/p>\n

M-CHS drama teacher and the play\u2019s director, Nicholaus Sandner, came across the manuscript and saw the opportunity to breathe life into a distinctive piece of literary history.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a unique play,\u201d said Sandner, \u201cand we\u2019re thrilled that we\u2019re the first the perform it in English. I\u2019d always been interested in doing genres that are underrepresented \u2013 and sci-fi definitely fits that bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got about 50 people involved in the production,\u201d adds Sandner, \u201cand so many others have been involved in the arrangement of the show, including advocates from the North American Jules Verne Society.\u201d<\/p>\n

The original choreography of the play involved a ballet at the conclusion of each act, so to honor Verne\u2019s intention, the performers conclude each act with a dancing ensemble.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe performers were unsure what to expect,\u201d said Sandner of a performance that didn\u2019t have precedent for the students to reference, \u201cbut the kids have been really engaged \u2013 even though there\u2019s a lot of text to memorize, they\u2019ve been up to the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

M-CHS has added their own flavor to the performance, taking creative liberties in how various characters would speak and move through the numerous spectacular sets.<\/p>\n

Shawn McAllister plays the lead role of George, who is a highly ambitious individual looking to achieve the impossible. After an encounter with villainous Doctor Ox, played by Xander Bennetts, George navigates through a series of different travails, meeting some of Verne\u2019s most iconic characters along the way, including Captain Nemo (\u201cTwenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea\u201d) and Professor Lidenbrock (\u201cJourney to the Center of the Earth\u201d).<\/p>\n

Lady Volsius, played by Lily Sandner, serves as a conscience for George through his journey, while romantic interest Eva, played by Amber Hebberd, tags along for the adventure as George wrestles between decisions of good and evil.<\/p>\n

Tartelet (Keira Meeks) and Valdemar (Simeon Erlandson) offer a comedic foil for the journey, while a full cast and elaborate backdrops bring the science-fiction production to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to be bringing this to the community,\u201d added Sandner. \u201cWe\u2019ve put in a lot of hard work and hope that we\u2019re doing the play the justice that it deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a strong showing in their first three performances in their opening weekend, M-CHS drama will close the production with three additional showings on Friday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m., as well as on Saturday, Nov. 19, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in advance at mchsdrama.org.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, theater fans can mark their calendars for the spring production of \u201cSeven Brides for Seven Brothers,\u201d a comedic musical, which will run over the weekends of March 10-11 and 17-18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

production takes rarely seen Jules Verne play to new heights<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,36,29,910],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-37253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-theatre"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83598,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37253\/revisions\/83598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37253"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}