As the AHS auditorium buzzes with preparations for this week’s musical “The Wizard of Oz,” the iconic words “no place like home” are heard as ordinary lines from the script. But these words resonate deeply with the director of the AHS musical, Harlie Delay.
After 19 years of leadership, Mrs. Danette Whiteley passed the wand to Delay, a 2019 AHS graduate who has taken up the project.
Delay’s love of theater originally came from her family. Her first role was at only 8 months old when she played the baby in a musical her father, Chris Delay, who had studied theater in college, was directing. After that, Delay continued to be in shows throughout her entire childhood and school career.
“Theater was just such a fun way to be silly and escape the things that are normal and boring about life and do something totally different,” Delay said.
Delay studied Theater Tech at Nebraska Wesleyan and got her 4-year degree in only 3.5 years. She then pursued her career, working all over the country in states such as Colorado, Pennsylvania, and New York.
“I worked as an assistant stage manager at Creed Repertory Theatre (CRT), and that’s a pretty exciting thing because it’s a pretty world-renowned professional theater company,” Delay said.
Delay has now brought her passion back home, eager to enhance the AHS theater scene.
“I got to up my skills in the professional world, then when I came back here, I was so excited and reinvigorated. Here’s all this stuff that real-life professional theaters are doing… and how can I use [what I’ve learned] at Abilene High School?” she said.
With the musical fast approaching, Delay reflected on the challenges of her new role.
“You’re responsible for a lot more because when you’re on stage, you really only have to worry about your part of the show, but as a director, I have to worry about the whole show,” Delay said. “But it’s been fun to work with these kids.”
Delay is enthusiastic about pushing the boundaries of what AHS could achieve in the future. Ticket proceeds will not only benefit the AHS vocal music program, but new this year, Delay plans to put parts of the proceeds specifically towards future musicals.
“In the future, we can keep growing the program and use our funding towards really cool sets, cool costumes, and picking shows that are more expensive to produce,” Delay said.
This year’s production leveraged existing resources, allowing them to keep costs manageable while still delivering a quality show.
“[‘The Wizard of Oz’] was a strong choice because we had some of the costumes already, and we could build sets out of what we had,” Delay explained. “But if we wanted to go with something totally different, that requires a lot of brand new stuff. This is the way that we do that,” she said.
Partnered up with Delay this year is Jackson Welsh, another AHS graduate from 2019. Jackson was asked by Harlie to come back alongside her to be the choreographer for the musical.
“It’s so wonderful to work with Jackson again. And it’s really crazy that the last time we worked together on this stage, he was the Gomez to my Wednesday in the ‘Addams Family.’ Now we’re on the other side of the rehearsal process, and we just work so well together because we know exactly what the other person’s thinking and we trust each other,” Delay said.
Welsh echoed her sentiment and expressed the excitement of returning to the stage.
“It feels definitely nostalgic to come back,” Welsh said. “I started when I was really young, in fifth grade. Then, I did a bunch of shows with Great Plains Theater here. And then I did shows all through high school.”
While Delay plans to do theater in the long run, Welsh has other goals.
“I’m getting my master’s in school counseling right now, so I’m taking this as just something I can do as extra because it’s fulfilling, but it’s not what I want to rely on,” Welsh said.
Together, Delay and Welsh are bringing their talents back to AHS to not only bring the magic of The Wizard of Oz to life but to also lay the groundwork for a vibrant future in AHS theater, where truly, there’s no place like home.
The musical production, “The Wizard of Oz”, will be performed at the AHS auditorium on Thursday, Nov. 7 and Saturday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. The final showing is on Sunday, Nov. 10 at 3 p.m. Tickets cost $8 at the door. Credit card payments are accepted with a service fee.
