Preparing for the final bow

Photo by Ann Gill
COAL CITY HIGH School senior Cody Rogers will take the stage as Dom Claude Frollo, archdeacon of Notre Dame Cathedral in the theatre department’s upcoming production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

By: 
Ann Gill
Editor

Taking the stage as Dom Claude Frollo is, by far, the most difficult role Cody Rogers says he’s ever played.
Rogers, a senior at Coal City High School, will assume the persona of Frollo, archdeacon of Notre Dame Cathedral in the theatre department’s upcoming production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
The musical is based on the French Gothic novel of the same title penned by Victor Hugo and published in 1831.
In preparation for the role, Rogers has spent a lot of time researching his character, the writer who created him, the time period for which the story is based and Hugo’s motivation for writing the novel.
As Rogers said, “It’s actually a really interesting story.”
According to published reports, Hugo wrote the book to support his thoughts on the value of Gothic architecture as part of French history and the need to preserve the cathedral that at the time was in disrepair.
With the cathedral as a backdrop, Hugo’s story tells the tale of Quasimodo, the half-formed man who is left to the care of his uncle Claude Frollo and lives out his days in the bell tower of the famed cathedral.
What makes the role of Frollo so difficult is that at the surface he’s a simple man dedicated to his church and standing within it. But deep down he’s a man with desire who’s torn between passion and following the rules.
“So it’s how do you create all this meaning, desire, and drive when you can’t necessarily act that way, so it’s extremely complicated and complex,” Rogers said.
The research has helped him take hold of the role and find a way to show the multiple sides of Frollo in a way that fits the time and place for which the story is set.
Rogers also spends a bit of time coming to understand the intention for each line of dialogue, “because people just don’t speak for no reason,” he said.
Frollo is among the favorite characters he’s played, and there have been several over the years, but at the top of his list is Monsieur Thenardier in the school’s 2018 production of Les Miserables, another musical based on a Victor Hugo novel.
Thenardier was the first lead role Rogers landed in a high school show, but at first it wasn’t the spot he really wanted.
“I wanted to be Javier really bad because he’s one of my favorite characters. But once we got into things the entire process was so much fun and then every time I got on stage I had one goal and that was to make people laugh and by any means necessary, and everytime I was on stage it was non-stop fun because if I had fun the audience was having fun,” he said.
Rogers began performing in elementary school, his first role playing Jesus in a church production. Over the years he’s played everything from Bert Healy in his sixth grade production of Annie, Jr. to Man in the Yellow Suit in last year’s high school production of Tuck Everlasting.
His interest in performing goes back to a time when his dad was producing an outdoor television show and Rogers would take on the persona of Cowboy Cody who would grab his guitar and cowboy hat to perform in front of the non-recording cameras.
“That was the first taste I got of performing. I can’t tell you how many times I was out in my yard acting like Jack Sparrow or Anakin Skywalker. I just always wanted to entertain,” he said.
It was when he saw Coal City theatre alumnus Lauren Phillips take the stage as Ariel in her middle school production of The Little Mermaid, that he was determined to be on that stage himself.
So he walked into auditions as a sixth grader, made the show and kept coming back year after year.
“Jack (Micetich) and Sherfy (Browning), and everyone gave me a chance and that first time I took a bow I knew whether I did this for a career or not it was going to be something that I would hold very close to my heart,” Rogers said.
While theatre won’t be his major when he heads off to college next fall, he hopes to stay connected to the program he’s grown up in.
In his senior year Rogers has taken on a unique schedule that finds him in school two to three days a week, the others heading into the city of Chicago where he’s participating in an internship program.
“I find myself thinking I want to go to school so that I can do musical,” he said.
“To be honest my four years have been so focused on this theatre program. When I reflect it’s based on a show-to- show basis. So I think far and away what I will miss most (after graduation) is the family that (theatre) provides. It’s hard to explain, but there is something about it that feels like home and I don’t want to say when I graduate that home will be taken away, it will be here, but the performance part will be gone, however when I look back the performance part was the smallest part of the experience,” Rogers said.
So many lessons have been learned through the performing arts and the people he’s worked with along the way.
“I can’t tell you who I would be if I wouldn’t have walked into the audition room in sixth grade. When you talk about life skills that I’ve learned and all of that there are obviously the cliché answers, but there are so many other things I can’t name but have effected me subconsciously as to who I am as a person and that comes down to the adults in the program. What I know it has completely changed me, my course, my path and it’s for the better,” Rogers said.
Audiences can see Rogers take his final bow as a student performer March 6-8 and March 13-15 in the Coal City Performing Arts Center. Reserved tickets are available at cchunchback.brownpapertickets.com.