Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat tells the bible story of Joseph, his coat of many colors, and his jealous brothers. This telling is based on the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber play, which is a fully sung-through musical.

The play is directed by Justine Hanan. It is the first play she has ever directed, after being an actress at State Street in plays such as “Beauty and the Beast” and “Much Ado About Nothing.” Hanan said the opportunity came from the theater’s Facebook page.

“[They said] ‘Hey, we’re looking for a director for the show,’ she said. “I had always wanted to direct a show. “The opportunity hadn’t come up because I’d always wanted to be in the show. I was like, ‘Maybe I can give this a shot.’ I interviewed some of the board members over there. In January, they let me know they picked me.”

Hanan said the experience has been a lot of fun and a lot of work. After several years across multiple acting arenas, she had seen enough to want to give directing a try.

Jacob (Richard Gurska) cries with his sons and daughters after they find out Joseph “died” protecting their home, not knowing his brothers sold him off into slavery because of their envy.

“I saw the opportunity,” she said. “I thought, why not? Previously I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I’d be good enough.’ I wanted to prove to myself it was something that I could do.”

With this experience under her belt, she said she is set on continuing her journey as a play director. Part of that experience was grappling with a less traditional play like Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. She said teaching and rehearsing the show was different because of the musical aspect.

“Typically in a play, you’re working on blocking,” Hanan said. “You’d be like, ‘Okay, today we’re going to enact scenes, one, two, and three.’ If it’s a musical you learn a song and then you learn the choreography. We had to spend a lot of the first few weeks just learning the songs because it was hard to do any sort of blocking when they don’t know the songs.”

Jared Gleisner plays the titular Joseph. He said the role is really fun to play because everything happens to him.

“I’m involved in a lot of different stuff and I get to do a lot of the numbers,” Gleisner said. “It’s really cool because everybody in the cast plays off of and around my character in some way.”

Ashley Sondag (green) helps Taylor Wyczawski, Jason Malcolm, and Logan Klawitter (L-R) with their choreography.

Gleisner said this is his first State Street show in several years, as he has been focusing on high school plays. He said his growth between his last State Street show and now has allowed him to feel more confident in handling larger roles like Joseph.

Even so, Gleisner is still feeling the nerves as it gets closer to showtime.

“To experience something like this, I think people are going to really enjoy this kind of musical,” he said. “I’m really excited to see people’s reactions. I’m also a little [nervous]. Everybody’s nervous before a show. I think if you’re not nervous, you probably don’t care that much about the result.”

Shows are Friday through Sunday, July 26-28. Performances start at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, with an early Sunday performance at 2 p.m. For more information, visit https://statestreetnewulm.org/