SCOTTS VALLEY >> For years, Scotts Valley High School drama teacher Kendra Kannegaard has been waiting for the rights to “Hadestown,” Anaïs Mitchell’s musical adaptation of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, to become available for her students to perform.

That opportunity came last April.

“The second that the rights were released, I applied,” she said. “It was April 23 last year, and I was like, ‘We have to do this show.’”

Not only will Scotts Valley High be performing “Hadestown” as its spring musical, which opens Friday, but Kannegaard said it is the school’s biggest production yet, with a double cast and major technical assets like a rotating platform.

“This is our most technically advanced show we’ve ever done,” she said.

“Hadestown” was written by folk singer Mitchell and performed at a few theater venues in Vermont and Massachusetts in 2006 and 2007, before she decided to rework it into a concept album in 2010. In 2016, Mitchell brought “Hadestown” back to the stage as an off-Broadway production and then to Broadway three years later, where it won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

The musical is an adaptation of the Greek myth of Orpheus, the Thracian poet whose wife, Eurydice, is killed by a snakebite and sent to the underworld until he uses music to convince Hades and Persephone to allow her to return with him to Earth, as long as he never looks back. “Hadestown” recasts the backdrop to Prohibition-era America with a jazz score reminiscent of the 1920s and ’30s.

Dani Dunn, a senior who plays Hermes on some dates and performs in the dance ensemble on other dates, said “Hadestown” is very different musically from other contemporary Broadway productions.

“It’s very jazzy,” she said. “It’s not very heavily dependent on elements of comedy that a lot of other Broadway musicals are.”

Dunn said the play is also unique in the way it tells its story by retelling the classic Greek myth in a 1920s setting with references to jazz and speakeasies.

“It’s retelling the Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, but it does it in a really artistic way,” she said. “The main focus of the play is to tell that story in a way that it’s never been told before, and I think that’s what I like most about this play, is how it’s totally different from anything we’ve ever done and anything that Broadway has ever seen.”

“Hadestown” will use a double cast, with the performances split among different performers on different dates as the Rattlesnake cast and Songbird cast. Kannegaard said this is nothing new for Scotts Valley High, as the department has used double casts for different productions.

“We have so many talented students here at the high school that it’s always really hard for me as a director to just pick one person,” she said.

Kannegaard said this system allows individual actors to play off others, and in the event an actor falls sick, an understudy would be available to take over for a performance on short notice.

“It’s just really great to give as many opportunities to as many people as possible in theater,” she said.

V Nivelle, the play’s student producer who portrays Orpheus on some dates and also performs in the ensemble, said there are challenges to performing in a double cast beyond just memorizing more dialogue and songs.

“Specifically for this show, we have to memorize two different harmonies,” they said. “I have to know what to sing as Orpheus, but then I also have the tenor harmonies that I sing when I’m in ensemble. I just have to put extra work in what I do to make the musical look great.”

Adding to this, Kannegaard said “Hadestown” is a sung-through musical, meaning there is no spoken dialogue and all communication among the characters is done through song.

“It’s 21/2 hours of uninterrupted music and dancing,” she said. “People in double casts have to learn both parts for the lead and also the ensemble role. It’s a fun challenge for them, but they figure it out every time.”

Dunn said “Hadestown” being a well-loved musical among Scotts Valley High drama students has certainly helped.

“It’s so much to learn,” she said, “but it’s been really, really fun, especially because ‘Hadestown’ is kind of a collective drama family favorite at Scotts Valley High School.”

This is also a very technically advanced play for Scotts Valley High, marking the first time the school has used a dance turntable in any production.

“That’s been a challenge that, as a director, I’ve never had to encounter,” said Kannegaard. “Thankfully, we have a really incredible team of technical theater artists who have worked so hard on this, so it’s been a challenge in and of itself to manage all of that, but it’s just our biggest show we’ve ever done, and I’m so proud the work everyone has done.”

Kannegaard said that with the rights for theater companies to perform “Hadestown” only recently becoming available, this will mark the musical’s first production in the Santa Cruz area. It won’t be the last, either. The play is already scheduled to make its way to All About Theatre in May and Renegade Theatre Co. in July.

“We’re really excited that we get to be the first group that does it here,” she said.

Dunn said there are a lot of themes for audiences to take away from “Hadestown,” including dedication to the ones they love and the risks that come along with it.

“It’s essentially the story of how far would you go for the one you love,” she said.

If you go

“Hadestown” opens Friday and runs through May 3 at the Scotts Valley High Student Union, 555 Glenwood Drive, Scotts Valley. Tickets are $18 for students and $20 for general admission. Most performances begin at 7 p.m. except for two Saturday matinees at 2 p.m. April 19 and May 3. For tickets, times and additional information, go to Cur8.com and start typing “Scotts Valley” into the search field after clicking the “Buy Tickets” link.