The protagonist of “Legally Blonde” was the toast of the Harvard campus. And the University of Southern Maine is proving to be just as receptive to her charms.
Elle Woods, or at least the actress who plays her in a local stage production, visited USM’s Portland Campus on August 4. A photographer followed her every move to get pictures for use in promoting the upcoming run of shows by the Portland Players.
Alyssa Rojecki Forcier plays Elle. The photo shoot was a homecoming for her as a 2015 graduate of USM’s Theatre program. She has fond memories of her student productions, especially a 2014 staging of “Bus Stop.” Beyond the stage, Media Studies was another focus of her academic interest.
“There’re so many opportunities at USM, and I always took anything I could,” Rojecki Forcier said.
Those memories also helped Rojecki Forcier with her latest performance. For scenes where Elle struggles to fit in at Harvard, Rojecki Forcier tapped into the jitters of her own first day at college and the desire she felt to impress her new classmates.
“Legally Blonde” originated as a 2001 movie starring Reese Witherspoon. When we first meet Elle, she’s the queen of the UCLA party scene. Her perfect life is shattered when her Harvard-bound boyfriend dumps her. Elle finagles her way into Harvard to win him back. In the process, she discovers her inner intellectual and charts a new future for herself.
The movie was a huge hit and launched Witherspoon to the Hollywood A-list. A 2003 sequel sent Elle to Washington, D.C., to try her hand at politics. The franchise moved from cinema to stage in 2007 when “Legally Blonde: The Musical” premiered on Broadway. It retold the story of the first movie with a full slate of original songs.
The director overseeing the new production by the Portland Players is Taylor Gervais, a 2017 graduate of USM’s Musical Theatre program. He and Rojecki Forcier first met as Huskies. They both had small roles in a 2014 student production of “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.” Ten years later, the photo shoot brought them back to campus.
“It feels good. It’s nice to return to the place that taught me everything I know,” Gervais said. “USM is what moved me to this area, so it feels a little full circle to come back here.”
Gervais gave direction during the photo shoot just as he would during rehearsals. He and the photographer exchanged ideas for the settings and poses that would best represent the spirit of the show. The principal cast performed for the camera in full costume.
USM was their second stop. Their first shooting location was the Artisan Hair Studio in South Portland. It doubled for the salon that employs Ellie’s trusted friend and beautician, Paulette. USM likewise stood in for Harvard. The Portland Players make a point to include familiar locations in their promotions to strengthen their community ties.
Their destination at USM was Glickman Family Library. The building is usually closed on Sundays during the summer. But the Portland Players received special permission to be there from Zach Newell, the Dean of Libraries and Learning.
Newell had already planned to be at the office and didn’t mind the extra company. By hosting them, he hoped to spread the word that the library is more than a storehouse for books. It’s a hub for exhibits, workshops, educational resources, and more.
“Connecting with the community helps us evolve that traditional perspective into something else,” Newell said. “It’s so meaningful that they (Portland Players) can look at this as a performance space, as a photo shoot space, and then connect with the larger community in different ways which is, for me, fun.”
After hearing from his guests about the tone they wanted to strike, Newell knew exactly where to go. He herded them onto the elevator and up to the Great Reading Room on the seventh floor. Its long wooden tables and austere desk lamps might as well be the official furnishings of distinguished academia.
The cast members got into character as the photographer hovered around them. Rojecki Forcier’s flashy wardrobe made her stand out from her more staid co-stars. They ran through a variety of poses, gazing alternately at their books and each other.
A second round of photography spilled into the stacks just outside of the reading room. The cast played a game of cat and mouse as they wandered through the rows of books. Elle might have been unaware she was being spied upon, but every time her rivals craned their necks around a corner, the camera was there to catch them.
The Portland Players started posting the photos on social media by mid-August, with new photos hitting their feeds each subsequent day. The promotional push builds until opening night on September 13 at Portland Players Theater in South Portland. “Legally Blonde: The Musical” runs for three weeks, ending on September 29. Rojecki Forcier is eager for the audience to see it.
“The reason I love doing theater is because it brings the community together,” Rojecki Forcier said. “But also, in scary times as now, it’s a great way to distract people and make them as present as possible and bring a smile to their face.”