Stacey Mindich, the Tony-award winning producer of “Dear Evan Hansen,” journalist and Syracuse alumna, shared her advice on storytelling and the power of human connection Friday at a discussion through Newhouse’s monthly Leaders in Communications Series.

Mindich graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 1986 with a degree in Magazine Journalism. Since then, she has found success in the world of theater, as a Grammy, Tony and Olivier Award-winning producer.

“What you learn (in college) are the skills that you take with you in any creative medium,” Mindich said. “At first, my terms might not have been so correct on Broadway, but the concepts are really the same.”

Prior to her career in theater, Mindich worked as a journalist and editor for several different magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, Savvy Magazine and Town & Country.

To Mindich, producing and writing aren’t all that different. At their core, both are about finding or creating a story that everyone wants to hear, she said

“As a magazine editor, my job was to find a story that would continue to fulfill the magazine’s mission and keep the reader engaged,” she said. “That story had to be sold in a variety of ways, and in theater, it was the exact same job, only a lot more extensive and dramatic, and there were songs.”

“Dear Evan Hansen,” was a huge hit, winning six Tony Awards in 2017, the most out of all the other productions of that year. The show follows a misfit, young man named Evan Hansen who longs for a sense of belonging and begins his path of self-discovery.

When a fellow student suddenly commits suicide, a sequents of events leads Evan’s peers to believe that Hansen was the student’s best friend. Though this was untrue, it gave Hansen the sense of belonging he always wanted.

Throughout the show, Hansen shows signs of mental illness, struggling to make friends and socialize with his peers. But Hansen’s diagnosis was purposely never included in the show.

“Everyone could relate to Evan,” Mindich said. “The beauty of that with the audience is that they can diagnose Evan with what their own kids had, or what they had. If you were anxious, you were Evan.”

When choosing a project to produce, Mindich said she looks for something that moves her and that she thinks will move others. Mindich said she believed the show had something for everyone — teenagers, parents, siblings — and that they would feel seen and represented by the story.

The response was overwhelming, with fans writing letters, posting on social media and sharing about how the show resonated with them, and helped them feel like they belonged.

“(The show) struck in popular culture at a moment when people seemed to really need it,” Mindich said.

Juliana Rama, an SU freshman, was grateful to hear from a successful figure and hoped to learn from Mindich’s experiences.

“(I attended) to be a little bit more inspired,” Rama said. The more I hear from people, the more I’ll develop an idea of what I possibly want to do.”

In her closing remarks, Mindich said that at the heart of every article and production is a story, and ultimately she fell in love with capturing each tale.

“I learned to love words, to love telling stories, to love listening to stories, to love helping others tell their stories,” she said.

Published on October 2, 2022 at 10:55 pm