Katelyn Crall’s role in the hit musical “Hadestown” is an intense one. Playing one of the three Fates of Greek mythology, it’s a role where Crall isn’t supposed to show too much emotion.
That may be a challenge this week when Crall, a 2015 Shenendehowa High School graduate, and the “Hadestown” tour roll into Schenectady for a three-day, four-show run at Proctors.
“It’s going to be pretty hard for me to keep them down,” Crall said in a recent phone interview from Waterbury, Connecticut, the night after the tour’s first performance. “I grew up going to see shows at Proctors. It’s the theater that I performed at for the first time as a kid, and now I get to bring myself with a national tour — and that tour being ‘Hadestown.’
“I have family members that haven’t been able to see me in years, since I was in high school, and they’re finally able to see me in a show. I can’t really speak to the importance and just how special that is.”
Born in Troy before her family moved to Clifton Park at a young age, Crall took a little while to catch the theater bug.
“I was not a usual theater kid,” she said. “I was very into sports, especially in my young adolescence.”
She’d done some performing while growing up — a couple local productions of “Annie,” a typical piece of childhood musical theater exposure for an auburn-haired youngster — but it was once she got to Shenendehowa High School and auditioned for a play that she knew she’d found something special.
The theater bug, she said, had been “simmering,” but in high school, it took off.
“I kind of slowly came to the understanding,” Crall said, “that I would like to do this forever.”
After graduating from Shenendehowa, Crall attended SUNY Fredonia, where she graduated in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in musical theater.
Since then, she’s made her living as a working actress, traveling far and wide to make her way.
In a half-decade as a professional actress, she’s laid down temporary roots in South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Virginia.
“I’ve lived in far too many places,” she said. “I’ve been just kind of traveling around.”
Now, Crall is primarily based in New York City, but for the foreseeable future, that’s nothing but a mailing address.
The “Hadestown” tour opened last week in Connecticut, and is currently scheduled to run through May. It includes stops in more than two dozen states, as well as a three-night run in Monterrey, Mexico, in December.
With the exception of a two-week run in Chicago at the end of the tour next May, none of the stops are for longer than four days.
“It’s definitely difficult. I won’t sugarcoat it,” she said. “There are times when you’re living in a hotel and you’d really like to have just one mailing address, instead of a million. It’s a hard adjustment, and I don’t think we talk about it enough, but with all of the things that are inconvenient, getting to play pretend every day as my job makes everything kind of worth it.
“As I get older and more established in my career, I hope to really settle down roots. But, life is long, you know?”
“Hadestown” is a retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, transposed into an industrial, almost post-apocalyptic setting.
Written by Vermont’s Anaïs Mitchell in 2006, the show had a long journey from concept album to off-Broadway before premiering on Broadway in 2019, where it opened to rave reviews and secured 14 Tony nominations — winning seven, including Best Musical and Best Original Score.
The tour that will visit Proctors for four shows this week — Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. — is a brand-new production, reimagined by director Keenan Tyler Oliphant from the Broadway show and the national tour that visited Proctors in 2023.
“It’s exciting to feel like we have this history and this story behind us, and the world of ‘Hadestown’ is supporting us,” Crall said. “I mean, we’re wearing the same costumes, it is still ‘Hadestown,’ but it’s also our version, and we are very proud of it, and we’re so proud of our storytelling. It’s like we’re carrying the legacy and feeling all those people behind you, supporting you, but also knowing that it’s our story to tell.”
While Crall is embracing every stop on the tour, she admitted that, when she got the job offer, the prospect of returning to Proctors as a professional actress was a major factor in accepting the job.
“I checked the tour route, I saw Schenectady, and I was like, ‘Alright, let’s do it. Let’s go,’” she said.
Those three days at Proctors are going to be a whirlwind, Crall said, but one she’ll treasure for the rest of her life.
Because she can’t even fathom counting the number of people close to her that will be in the audience for those performances.
“It’s everybody. I think it’s everyone I have ever met in my life. And I’m very excited for it,” she said. “I’ll be at the stage door, and I can’t wait to see everybody.”
