Behind the Scenes of "Les Miserables": Q&A with Filmmaker Aurora Song '26

When the NMH Theater Department announced its intention to produce the famous musical “Les Miserables,” Aurora Song ’26 knew it would be special, and she was determined to document the experience.

Armed with a camera, microphone, and some guidance from her workjob supervisors in communications, Song set forth to capture the magic on stage, in rehearsal, and behind the curtains. It was a journey that would take her the better part of a year as she waded through hours of interviews and film, crafting a narrative out of the raw materials.

We sat down with the filmmaker to discuss her recently completed documentary, the process of creating cinematic work, and what she learned along the way.

NMH: What inspired you to create a documentary about the production of “Les Miserables”?

AURORA SONG: My workjob is assistant for communications, so I am, I guess, instinctually more inclined to think about what I can record and show to the public. Since I'm really involved in the theater at NMH, I thought: “What more could I do for the theater community and for the school community as a whole?” 

“Les Mis” is a big production; I knew it was going to be a lot of work, with a lot of people and a lot of things going on. I happened to not be [cast in] a major role, so I thought: “Why not use that time to capture what everyone else was doing?”

I went into it just trying to record everything I could see, from the cast learning and acting, to the tech people designing and creating everything. I approached it more like a bystander: just prop the camera up and try to capture as much as I could.

NMH: As the project unfolded, did your approach change at all? 

SONG: It was very different from what I first imagined, because theater rehearsals are not as repetitive as you’d think. You can't expect that if you missed this scene today, they're going to do the exact same things tomorrow. I was not 100% prepared for it, but I quickly realized what was going on.

NMH: Did being in the play help inform the direction of your film?

SONG: I knew when really interesting things were going to happen, so I was prepared to capture them. I also know the tech crew very well – I know what kind of work goes into that and just how much effort they put into creating everything. Even within the theater community, there's this lack of appreciation for the people working backstage. I think part of my goal was to really show how awesome the backstage people are.

NMH: That's the tricky nature of working backstage, right? If they're doing their jobs correctly, you won't notice them. 

SONG: Right! We don't want you to know, but we also really want you to know how much we put into this.

NMH: What was it like editing all that footage down into something cohesive?

SONG: Painstaking! It’s kind of like picking cabbages out at the supermarket. There's so much that I wanted to show: the acting, the dialogue, the visuals, people's movements, and then also the music – instrumental and the vocals. How do I blend all these without it seeming very chaotic?

I didn’t really have an idea how big the scale was until I started sorting through everything – I had over 20 hours of footage! I used the interviews that I had with the teachers to try to create some kind of a narrative. With those in mind, I decided what footage fit into the story. Blending all those together took a long time, but everything was smoothed out in the end.

NMH: What lessons did you take from this whole process of putting this film together?

SONG: You need to be very organized! And you have to ask yourself: “What do I want to convey through the documentary?” For me, it was the passion for theater: I wanted to make sure that the documentary looked professional but that you'd see that we all really love this production and the theater at work.

NMH: What do you think the film conveys about the NMH Theater Department and the community in general?

SONG: One special thing about the theater community is that in creating a production, you create a new world – every single person in the production has to believe in it. It takes a lot of faith, passion, and effort to maintain that level of energy, especially for “Les Mis,” because it's a miserable world. But in the end, there's also hope. It was really intense, but the students were able to put it together and be together within this journey – it's very amazing. 

NMH: How did your workjob experience help you put this project together?

SONG: I first brought up the idea right when I started working with communications. Everyone was very supportive, even though it was a very vague plan. [Digital Asset Manager] Harry Van Baaren gave me a lot of wonderful ideas about how to go about doing the storytelling. I got to spend workjob hours doing it, and they provided equipment. Even though it took a really long time for me to create the whole thing, people were really patient and very supportive.

NMH: So what’s next? Any new projects on the horizon?

SONG: “Hadestown” [the Theater Department’s next production] is coming up this winter, and I'm thinking about what I might be able to do for that. I heard that the set is going to be enormous, very big and very complicated. I'm thinking about what I might be able to discover through that aspect to show to a larger audience.

NMH: Is filmmaking something you’re interested in pursuing beyond your time at NMH?

SONG: Yes, I want to major in film. Could be film studies; could be filmmaking. Maybe even in the documentary field. There’s a lot of possibilities!