Delta Arts Alliance to Present HEATHERS: THE MUSICAL

The Delta Arts Alliance, an arts organization that aims to bridge the talents and cultures of the 'Mississippi Delta' region, has announced their inaugural theatre production in Cleveland, Mississippi: Heathers!

June 16, 7:30pm CST / June 17, 7:30pm CST / June 18, 4:30pm CST - Ellis Theatre, Downtown Cleveland, Mississippi (104 S Court Street, Cleveland, MS)

**Tickets available at door

Creative: Allie Rowe (Director/Choreographer), Allyson Hardy (Producer), Julie Smith (Music Director), Sara Wilkerson (A.D.), Matt Connell (Set Design/Carpentry)

Cast: Eliza Hardy (Veronica Sawyer), Zack Woodard (J.D.), Hannah Smith (Heather Chandler), Piper Holley (Heather McNamara), Annisten Thomas (Heather Duke), Devon Harbin (Kurt Kelly), Leonardo Bevilacqua (Ram Sweeney), Lorien Shaw (Martha Dunstock), Audrey Robinson (Pauline Fleming)

The Mississippi Delta might seem like a strange place to mount a full-scale production of Heathers: The Musical, a show that explores such 'hot topics' as homosexuality, suicide, date rape, school shootings and a young population desensitized to violence and severe trauma; However, its themes and motifs fit a region that is no stranger to these phenomena. Westerberg High, the fictitious high school in the show, sees a crowd of popular, 'mean girls' take the reins in a town and community that lacks a certain staple of prosperous ones: stability. Yes, 'the Heathers,' as they are called, are cruel and at times capricious, but at least they run a 'tight ship.' J.D., a newcomer to the town, and charismatic iconoclast corrupts the whip smart Veronica into joining him on his conquest of both metaphysically and literally dynamiting the town's already shaky foundation to make way for a seemingly more honest and "decent" place to live.

Heathers, set in 1989, deals with many of the same issues that we see around us in 'the Delta.' Namely, we see 'the adults in the room' unable to maintain control or fully help their youth in a rapidly modernizing and changing environment. We see a younger generation that is desensitized to violence and exhausted from having lived through so many "unprecedented events," and we see the rise of school shootings and horrific acts of domestic terror(on account of civil unrest and the continued stigmatization of mental health).

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