School of Drama alum returns to direct annual musical, with “Sweeney Todd”

UNCSA invites audiences to “Attend the Tale of Sweeney Todd” when the School of Drama presents its annual musical starting Nov. 10. The show is directed by Lo Feliciani Ojeda (B.F.A. Drama ’20) with music direction by Dionne McClain-Freeney.

Performances are Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 10-12 and 17-19 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 13 at 2 p.m. in the Freedman Theatre in Performance Place on campus. Tickets are $25 regular, $20 for students with I.D. at www.uncsa.edu/performances or 336-721-1945.

Considered by many to be Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” which follows the tale of a vengeful and murderous barber, opened on Broadway in 1979 and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. With music and lyrics by Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler, “Sweeney Todd” has had numerous revivals, as well as a 2007 movie adaptation, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp.

“Sweeney Todd” is often described as macabre and darkly humorous, but Ojeda says that it is much more than that.

“For me, it’s not darkness, it’s deepness,” Ojeda said. “This is a play about obsession, and the lengths we take to get what we want. Everyone gets their revenge, some way or another, in this play. It also demonstrates how systems of class and oppression can and do have dangerous effects on contemporary society if they are not addressed. It is also a bloody good thriller!”

Lyricist and composer Stephen Sondheim, who died last November at 91, was one of the most influential figures in musical theater in the latter half of the 20th century. He wrote the lyrics for Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” and “Sunday in the Park With George,” about George Seurat, the pointillist painter.

“I am directing ‘Sweeney Todd’ to honor Sondheim,” Ojeda said. “I think in music, so music is my way into the world of the play, and Sondheim is musical theater Shakespeare.”

Ojeda received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in directing from UNCSA in 2020 and a Master’s of Fine Arts degree in directing in 2022 from East 15 Acting School in the United Kingdom. He directed “The Odyssey” and several other plays at UNCSA, “Antony and Cleopatra” at Rutgers Conservatory at Shakespeare’s Globe, and “Things I Can Laugh About Now” at Brixton House, both in London.

For Ojeda, in Sondheim’s work, darkness equals depth. “The show admits a lot of things that we are kind of terrified to admit to ourselves about how we are in the world and how we see each other as human beings. The complexities of human emotion boil down to simple concepts about death and vengeance and murder."

Ojeda said that working with students so near his age makes it easy for them to communicate with one another.

The students are discovering things that I hadn’t thought of in my wildest dreams.

Lo Feliciani Ojeda

“The students are discovering things that I hadn’t thought of in my wildest dreams," Ojeda said. "When you’re directing you have an idea in your head, but it always turns out to be the actors who have the best ideas.”

Ensuring the actors aren’t living in the show's shadows, and mastering the notoriously complex music are the hardest parts of directing Sondheim according to Ojeda.

“The hardest thing is making sure that we don’t stay in that world of 'Sweeney Todd' when we are in rehearsal,” Ojeda said with a laugh. “These characters are very intense. But if you make it fun and exciting, and there’s laughter and music in the room, then the actors can flow through the layers of emotion for their characters."

“And the show is really, really funny," he continued. "You kind of need light, laughter and love in order to fully comprehend the grandeur and tragedy of the world.”

Music Director McClain-Freeney is a pianist, composer, lyricist, choral and musical director, arranger, singer, and teaching artist whose credits include accompaniment in some of New York’s most beloved churches. She has appeared in the U.S., including “Joe’s Pub,” and off-Broadway musical direction. Her award-winning compositions and arrangements have been performed by the New York Philharmonic, at the New York Musical Festival, as well as nominated for a GLAAD Media Award. Her credits include “The Harriet Holland Social Club Presents the 84th Annual Star-Burst Cotillion in the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel,” “Going Home: A Movement of Voices,” “The Movie Star and The Mammy,” and “The Sugar Hill Sisters.” She’s also a composer in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop.

“It’s one of the hardest musical scores,” Ojeda said. “There are keys that don’t make sense, and time signatures that change every two bars.

“Then once you let go of all that and just sing the music, it’s wild how powerful that can be.”

This iteration of “Sweeney Todd” will use a mixture of 19th-century and contemporary settings, drawing inspiration from the play’s British origins but embracing its identity as a musical thriller. Even if you are very familiar with the show, you should be able to find something new – and maybe deeper – in this production.

“You might come in knowing the story or some of the songs,” Ojeda said. “You might be expecting a traditional ‘Sweeney Todd,’ but we are doing something that expands the world a bit more. It’s more diverse in thought and action and people. Prepare to be scared but also to learn a little about yourself.”

Kobe McKelvey is playing the role of Sweeney Todd, Caroline Farley as Mrs. Lovett, Jason Sanchez as Anthony, Anna Lei Negrin as Johanna, Jack Eld as Judge Turpin/Ensemble, Diego Vazquez Gomez Bertelli as Pirelli, Sam Lee Baladejo as Tobias, Alyssa James as Beggar Woman, Caleb McKnabb as Beadle and Sebastian Kong as Jonah Fogg/Ensemble. Ensemble members include Ferin Bergen, Miles Blue, Dara Kovacevic, Harvaniya Krishnan, Anthony Littlepage-Buggs, Grace Quintanilla, Grace Steckler and Isabel Stewart.

From the School of Design & Production; the scenic designer is Sarah Webster; the costume designer is Maki Niikura; the lighting designer is Malcolm Foster; the sound designer is Katherine Gonzalez; the wig and makeup designer is Kenzie Biundo; the technical director is Emily Weinberger; the scenic paint charge is Renae Losee; the properties director is Meg Winkler; the automation engineers are Kaci Kidder & Hannah Stecklein; the production stage manager is Kat Denning and the production manager is Cameron Russell.

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