Once on this Island Returns to DA

In 1994, Douglas Anderson performed a musical fable about star-crossed lovers watched over by their Caribbean island’s gods of life and death. Thirty years later, the same story returns to the DA Stage. 

Once on this Island is described by Music Theater International as the tale of “Ti Moune, a peasant girl [who] rescues a wealthy boy from the other side of the island, Daniel, with whom she falls in love. Unbeknownst to Ti Moune, the pompous gods who preside over the island make a bet with one another over which is stronger, love or death, the stakes being Ti Moune’s life.” As a sort of Caribbean-setting retelling of Hans Christen Andersen’s classic The Little Mermaid, the show mixes elements of globally-recognized classic fairy tales with elements of vibrant regional culture, mythology, and real-world history and prejudices—including both classism and colorism. 

As DA’s next musical production, theatre students and staff alike have been hard at work the past months preparing to perform. Not only must the performance itself be perfected, but the unique staging of the show has required great efforts in planning and creation; it utilizes a unique theatre space that surrounds the stage on three sides to create an immersive experience. Actors are able to move among the audience in their choreography, and the set design even goes so far as to fill the stage area with beach sand. 

The unique set design of the show includes a sand pit for actors to perform on.

| Photo by Abbey Griffin

“I’m serving as the associate director, helping with logistical things like working with the unique spacing—seeing how we can look at the show from three sides instead of just one, since we’re in the Black Box theatre,” Michael Beaman, theatre teacher and associate director, explains. “It was decided that we’d do Once on this Island in the middle of the summer, and that’s when I first started focusing on it, doing research, listening and relistening to the album, and allowing the lyrics to steer where the story should go.” 

“As time went on, a ‘typical day [on set]’ shifted,” says freshman Performance Theatre cast member Tiyuka Jamba. “In the beginning we talked about the play…recapped the story, met each other, and got comfortable. And then we’d have the blocking taped out, very specific, in a grid on the floor, and we’d have to practice and arrange ourselves on it. At one rehearsal, we’d even have to run laps around the school, since this is a very physical show—you’re acting, and singing, and dancing. We had to prepare for that. But for the most part as we prepare, we’re always on the stage, always involved.” 

Tiyuka Jamba (left) rehearses a dance with his cast members.

For the actors, one of the greatest challenges that the production posed was “really trying to find and stick to [the] character”, according to Vocal senior Justin Brumell, who plays Tonton, the father figure in the show’s story. “That’s probably the most challenging part, really trying to find and keep that sort of connection to your character. When we first started, we got to ‘make up’ our character in a way; I got to give my character faults, an occupation, and details to really get to understand them. So that free range does help a lot with getting into character.” 

Jamba recalls a similar experience of finding the feel for his characters. “My role in Once on this Island is Armand and other characters…and as [Armand] I play a Frenchman, so I decided to try and do the accent…it really helps me feel French,” he explains. “And I play a father…I had to think of how fathers move. I knew I wanted this character to be bigger, and hold himself high, and I have to think of how to move myself like that. Especially because my son is played by someone who is bigger than me!” 

Jada Marie Williamson, Musical Theatre cast member playing lead role Ti Moune in one of the production’s two casts, also puts a great effort into giving everything she can to the story’s hero. “I’ve been listening to the show since the summer, I listen to the whole soundtrack every day so I can be as prepared as possible. I want to make sure I’m doing Ti Moune’s story justice, because it’s so important to me…[Ti Moune] ends up making a really big sacrifice for love, and that’s my connection to the show: I want to be someone who spreads love around me. The selflessness of Ti Moune to make a sacrifice for someone else really resonates with me.”

Jada Marie Williamson plays

the lead role in one of the

production’s two casts: Ti Moune.

| Photo by Abbey Griffin

As a story, Once on this Island thrums with both heartfelt tragedy and a theatrical, feel-good energy. Its resonant emotions make it easy for anyone involved with the production to connect, in their own way, to its creative spirit and its timeless characters and plot. “I saw the revival of Once on this Island on Broadway a few years back,” Beaman notes. “It wasn’t until then that I understood the power of the show. It’s a really cool adaptation of a classic Anderson story.” 

In addition to its strong narrative core, the unique cultural and historical roots of Once on this Island offer a wealth of creative opportunities and knowledge to performers, combining a rich cultural mythos of gods and fate with the settings and dynamics of real-world history. The show’s setting is modeled after Haiti’s history, and involves a ruling class that consists of lighter-skinned people with both European and African ancestry, living separated from the darker-skinned and much poorer side of the island. In the history of the Caribbean, unique cultural developments led to many similar real-world situations of strong class, racial, and social divides such as this.  

“The original Douglas Anderson production’s cast took out the show’s element of race, and switched it from race to wealth,” says associate director Beaman. “I think the country as a whole has shifted in how we do storytelling [now].” 

Not only is the 2024 performance of Once on this Island a return to DA for the show itself—one of the cast members from its first performance here in 1994 is now in charge of the new production. Director DeWitt Cooper played Agwe, the God of Water, in the ’94 production. “It was a mixed-race cast,” he mentions, “and that was in the news a bit since it’s usually an all-Black cast. But it was a very special cast—everyone in it has touched Broadway some way before. My best friend, who recently passed, played Papa Ge. And Liz Pearce played the lead role as Ti Moune, she’s starred on Broadway.” Liz Pearce graduated from Douglas Anderson in 1996, and has starred in the Broadway and off-Broadway casts of shows including Billy Elliot and Sweeney Todd. 

DeWitt Cooper (left) returns to

Once on this Island after thirty

years to direct DA’s new production.

| Photo by Abbey Griffin

“A lot has changed then versus now, back then they really went with a color-blind casting,” Cooper adds. “But at some point we have to acknowledge that color is here. Some roles in the show can cross it and some can’t as much.” 

When asked about the impact of the ’94 DA production of Once on this Islandon him, Cooper remembers that “The cast was like a huge family. Never any arguments, the support among each other was amazing. And as soon as we got on stage, you could feel it, the audience felt it. We found a way to make it work—there’s a universal language to the show. Once on this Island kind of switched something in me, like a lightbulb came on inside. It was the moment I thought, ‘I want to do this for the rest of my life.’ Being on the other side as director now, there’s lots of new challenges making sure everyone has what they need…but I love the process of letting the cast develop things, letting them bring their ideas to the table and seeing what works.” 

Once on this Island, directed by DeWitt Cooper, opens February 7 at the Black Box theatre. Tickets are are sold out.