The description of the senior CAS project is simple: develop a plan for an activity that allows for creativity, activity and community service. Nearly every senior chooses to do a CAS project, many seeing it as a simple way to get out of school early without doing all that much work. 

For Ben Demase, however, his CAS project is a chance to make Valley history by writing, composing and directing his own original musical, “The Gunslinger.” 

“We haven’t done one of those, a student-written musical,” theater teacher Diego De La Espriella said. “We have done some stage readings of student written work and some student written plays, but a musical? Not so much.”

Traditionally, a senior will volunteer to direct their own classic play for their CAS project (or Capstone, as it was formerly known) in the spring of each school year. Students may remember last year’s romantic comedy “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw, directed by senior Bridget McNally.  

Demase hoped to take this tradition one step further. 

“The idea of doing a western musical popped into my head over the summer,” he said. “I’ve been sitting on it ever since.”

Inspired by the fantastical visuals of “Kubo and the Two Strings” and “Rango,” Demase set to work on writing the first iteration of “The Gunslinger” as a 20 page short story. In its current form, the musical follows its titular character, The Gunslinger, as he wanders alone through the desert, looking to escape his abject past. As he travels, he encounters a cast of characters who usher him along his journey. 

Landing on this final concept took Demase some time, however. When he first approached De La Espriella with his idea, he pitched a completely different story.

“Originally, it was a different musical. It was called ‘The Death of Francis Parker,’ which I thought was cool. And then he passively mentioned the idea of ‘Gunslinger,’” De La Espriella said. “He just kind of fell in love with that idea, and he dropped the other one.” 

Even once Demase had settled on “The Gunslinger” as the musical he would move forward with, the play underwent many changes. Initially, the story was meant to be a fantasy western — drawing more heavily from his inspirations — but eventually lost the fantasy element. To this day, the script still gets revised as needed to tell the story as Demase envisioned it.

“The show is about guilt, and it’s about escaping your guilt and how not to do that, ironically,” Demase said. “It’s this character that’s trying to escape their past, not quite running away, but trying to free themselves from all that’s shackling them.” 

Now, Demase faces the trying task of taking his story from the page to the stage. Auditions were held in January and rehearsals are currently taking place every Friday after school, with more frequent rehearsals to begin in April.

“He’s working on playwriting, composition, directing and designing,” De La Espriella said. “He has his designers, but part of the director’s duty is to provide an idea of, you know, ‘where are we going?’”

The show’s small, six-person cast features several familiar faces in the theater department: Emma Tulowitzky as The Gunslinger, Charlotte Abbe as The Gravedigger, Sarah Bader as The Lover, Mia Templeton as The Preacher, Abby Landes as The Father and Enaya Bokhari as The Sinner — with Jojo Apfeldorf, Jenna Amro and Eleanor Waldschuetz acting as understudies. 

Aside from the actors, Demase works with a whole host of other students to bring this vision to life — whether that’s to create choreography and costumes or to assist with directing. 

“For the most part, it is written. It really comes down to revising, redrafting all of that, getting the music ready,” Demase said. “I’m terrified of that process, because it’s a lot to put together a pit and work with all these people.” 

The music of “The Gunslinger” deviates from the traditional style seen in most musicals. Demase describes the style as folk with some blues influences. The instrumentation is guitar-led, inspired by Demase’s own strengths as a musician.

“Personally, one of the issues I always have with musical music is it’s very showtune-y,” he said. “I wanted to stray away from that as much as possible to create a sort of unique experience.” 

Previews of some of these songs are available on the official “The Gunslinger” Instagram page, @gunslinger.musical.official. 

“They’re the kind of songs that hit you right in the soul,” “The Gunslinger’s” choreographer Madelyn Piodela said. “My first thought was just ‘I want to be front row when they perform this.’”

The promise of being a part of an original, student-made musical — particularly one that had Demase as a creator — appealed to many of the students now involved in the production of “The Gunslinger.” 

“I love Ben. He’s super talented, a very, very talented musician,” sophomore Mia Templeton said. “When I heard that he was writing, not only a piece of theater, but a musical specifically, I was really interested to see what that would be like.” 

Demase, having performed in nearly every Viking Theatre show in his four years at Valley, is well-known among the students he now directs. Among his many roles, Demase has played Percy Jackson in “The Lightning Thief,” Black Stache in “Peter and the Starcatcher” and, most recently, prepares to play Nino in “Amélie.” 

“He is one of the most musically talented people I know,” Piodela said. 

“The Gunslinger” is set to take place on May 23 and 24, and while there is much work to be done before then, De La Espriella is confident in Demase’s ability to put on an impressive performance. 

“We have worked on upwards of 10 shows together and I have seen him operate as an actor, musician and composer,” he said. “It will be fun to see him work within our ensemble in a new capacity before he graduates.” 

Even Templeton, an aspiring professional actor who’s acted in countless plays both in school and outside of it, was impressed by the ease at which rehearsals are moving along. 

“Ben is also just a great director. You wouldn’t expect that from a first time director, but he is very efficient, very good, knows his way around the stage,” she said. 

Demase, for one, has found himself growing more and more excited by the show he sees coming to life before his eyes, rehearsal by rehearsal. 

“The thing I always hear is that some scripts look amazing on paper and perform terribly,” Demase said. 

“But sitting there and watching the actors performing scenes,” he said, “this feels good — this feels like theater.”

Interview contributions by Enaya Bokhari