Operetta has a ball with ‘Cinderella’

Published 4:12 pm Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella”

Sequim High School Operetta Club’s 50th production

Where: Sequim High School Auditorium, 533 N. Sequim Ave.

When: Opening night gala 7 p.m. Friday, May 6

Matinee: 2 p.m. Saturday, May 7

Other shows: at 7 p.m. May 7, 12-14, 19-21

Tickets: $10 and up at shsoperetta.org, showtix4u.com, Sequim High School and at auditorium one hour before showtime.

In a milestone year, cast and crew with the Sequim High School Operetta Club find the stage cues and spotlights are lining up perfectly.

Their adaptation of “Cinderella” by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein running May 6-21 may be the most elaborate production yet doubling the club’s usual budget and using techniques only seen on Broadway for the school’s 50th operetta.

“This isn’t the “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” (Disney) version,” director Robin Robinson Hall said.

“This is the new 2013 version that features a few new songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein with some new twists.”

“Cinderella” remains true to the core story with Ella, played by Alysha Graham, serving her stepmother and stepsisters. Elements and atmosphere remain similar with the grand ball and the glass slippers still integral but one change at the end of Act I had students surprised.

Nicholas Fazio, who plays Prince Topher, said on the casts’ first read-through there was a collective gasp.

“I had seen it before so I knew what happened but it was fun to see their reactions,” Robinson Hall said. “(One change) makes you really want to stay for the second act. You’re saying ‘Wait a minute. This isn’t what I was expecting at all.’”

One change Robinson Hall wasn’t expecting though was a major player becoming unavailable.

“We had cast a Cinderella before (Graham) but she moved,” she said. “I didn’t have a Cinderella anymore but I didn’t want to just cast anybody.”

That’s when Fazio approached Robinson Hall about Graham, who last appeared in the school’s senior class play.

“When she came to audition, there might as well have been lights from above that shone down on her,” Robinson Hall said.

Whether there was a divine intervention or not, Robinson Hall said it’s “intriguing that my prince found Cinderella.”

But the irony didn’t end there.

Graham, a senior, said she had to quit her job at a shoe store to make time for the production.

“Robin told me this is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Graham said. “Who gets to be a lead in their senior year?”

“After high school, you can go do community theater or professional theater but there’s nothing quite like high school theater,” Robinson Hall said.

A grand experience

This is Sequim’s second production of “Cinderella,” with the first coming at the 25th operetta in 1991.

Christy Rutherford, operetta director for 18 productions, said over the years the operetta has become a part of the community and an integral part of the Irrigation Festival.

“Fifty consecutive years of the operetta is amazing,” she said. “I don’t know many schools that can say they’ve done that.”

During Rutherford’s run, Robinson Hall assisted her with productions up to 2011 when Rutherford retired from directing the shows.

“Robin does an incredible job,” she said. “I’ve only kept my hand in it when I’m needed.”

Robinson Hall said they decided to bring “Cinderella” back, in an updated version, for the 50th show, because “it’s a magical show. The music is great, the sets are amazing and the cast is so strong.”

A few special touches include Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother (Victoria Hall) transforming their characters without leaving the stage.

“It happens before your eyes,” Robinson Hall said.

Graham said there’s something special about becoming a princess for the stage.

“After growing up seeing a bunch of princess movies, now I get to be a princess and it’s a lot of fun,” she said.

Victoria Hall is finding herself living the stage life and royalty life too as queen of the Sequim Irrigation Festival.

“It’s crazy. I’m either with the royalty or here or at school,” she said. “I go home to sleep or eat. It’s been great though I’m able to do both of these things. It’s stressful but totally worth it. It’s just an amazing part of my life right now.”

Fazio, a senior like Graham, said it’s cool to portray the classic character he remembers from the fairy tale and Disney cartoon.

“I’ve been in operettas before but to be in the 50th one for my senior year is a cool thing ending on this note,” he said.

Robinson Hall invites former cast and crew members from previous operettas to attend the $10 gala night on Friday, May 6.

“We encourage people to come see it the first night because people will want to see it twice,” she said.

“Cinderella” features about 40 actors of different ages.

For more information about the play, call Sequim High School at 582-3600 or visit www.shsoperetta.org.

Prince Topher, played by Nicholas Fazio, tries to catch Ella, played by Alysha Graham, in Sequim High School’s production of “Cinderella” before she leaves the ball.