In April, at CenterPoint Legacy Theatre three student writers brought their favorite book to life. Heartless the musical is based on the best selling novel by Marissa Meyer. The show’s writers Isabel Wilson, Heidi Thomas and Ellie England along with the show’s Composer Ivy Robbins share about their experience, new production company and future plans.   

“It was so surreal to perform our original play,” said Ellie England who plays Cath, the female lead actress and is also one of the show’s writers. “We got to see a play come to life that began in our heads. There is just nothing else like that experience.” 

“It took me some time to realize that it happened, we had performed our play, because there was so much to do beforehand,” said Heidi Thomas, the show's co-writer, lyricist and director. “The writing experience was a lot of fun. It was so inspiring to learn that we could do it. In order to produce this play we created our own production company called White Rose Productions. Having a production company makes things more accessible to us as minors and it makes us more official.” 

“Right now, we are working on publishing our original Heartless the musical soundtrack. We copyrighted the lyrics and music for Heartless,” said Ivy Robbins, the show’s composer and co-lyricist, and music director. “For the play and soundtrack, I put together an orchestra to record all the music and sound cues and special effects. We are hoping to release the soundtrack by late summer or early fall.” 

“In the future, we are talking about taking the play to a festival or performing it for a longer time at a local theater on a full stage,” said Isabel Wilson, the show’s co-writer, director and costume director. “The show was intended to be performed on a full stage instead of a black box theater like our first two performances were. We are working on the copyright and licensing for the play and coordinating with Marissa Meyers’ team on that, so that we can have future performances.” 

“Marissa Meyer came to watch our live performance of the play and she re-watched the play with us once we published the online version,” said England. “She seemed really excited to see our final production. She even threw a cast party for us the day after our performance. The day of our performance she came in to meet George Marriot (who plays Jest, the male lead) and I and she had the biggest smile on her face.” 

England said her favorite part of this experience was the relationships she made. “The whole cast and crew became a family and it was incredible to meet Marissa Meyer. In the future, I plan to pursue acting and musical theater in college and as a career.”  

“My favorite part of this experience was (spoiler alert) at the very end of the play Cath says, ‘Off with his head!’ and I got to cue the beat when the ax comes down and the lighting changes,” said Robbins. “That scene brought together what all of us had written and made the final scene so powerful.” 

Robbins hopes to continue composing in the future. “Writing the music and songs for Heartless is one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life,” she said. “I am also planning to collaborate with Ms. Thomas on an album.”  

“I loved directing,” said Wilson. “I also loved creating the graphics and posters for our shows. When I graduate, I am planning to pursue my newfound passion for illustration. It’s a field that is still in the arts and I hope to interact with other artists by making show posters or book covers.” 

To stay up-to-date on future performances follow Heartless Musical on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok or visit their website at heartlessthemusical.com. λ