Lauren Haiduc, Avette DeMoore, Rylee Pursell, Zoey Sheffield, and Olivia Capellini pour over a letter as part of the high school fall play.
This year’s fall play, performed by the CHS Drama Department, is a significant achievement for the cast and crew. It is the first in-person play since the production of the musical Brigadoon in February of 2020. After more than a year of virtual plays, “It has been wonderful to work with the actors in person again,” said Mandi Wickline, the head of the Drama Department at Cascade High School.
“It was nice to have an audience after a year of not doing the plays. I loved having my family and friends there seeing us preform too,” commented cast member Zoey Sheffield.
The play selected was Little Women, the coming-of-age story about the four March sisters and the struggles they went through going from childhood to entering adulthood. Originally written as a novel in 1868 by American novelist Louisa May Alcott, it is considered a semi-autobiographical story with main topics being morality, self-sacrifice, and the connection between wealth and happiness. The story has silly, comical moments as well as more serious topics like social expectations and conformity, poverty, and loss and grief. This juxtaposition between light and heavy subjects is one of the reasons this piece of literature translates so well onto stage. “It is a story a lot of us knew and loved, so we were able to really get into our characters. It also allowed us to have a smaller cast which was a good fit for our drama program,” explained cast member Lauren Haiduc.
Auditions began on September 7th, and the cast chosen included Olivia Cappellini as Jo March, Lauren Haiduc as Margaret "Marmee" March, Zoey Sheffield as Beth March, Rylee Pursell as Amy March, Avette Demoor as Meg March, Breanna Loomis as Hannah, Miles Hunt as Laurie, Derek Sheffield as Mr. Laurence, Gabe Summers as Mr. Brooke, Rhonan Allen as Professor Bhaer, and Danielle Totman as Aunt March.
The cast had limited time to put on this show. During September, rehearsals were Monday through Friday, from three to five, but in October, Speech and Debate started on Wednesdays. “I'm the speech coach as well as the drama coach, and we couldn't rehearse on Wednesdays, so we had a pretty limited rehearsal period for a two hour and 15 minute production. We spent a lot of time running lines, blocking, which is where the director shows the actors where to move during each scene, and running each scene. We really didn't work the end of the show very much, but it turned out great because the actors cared so much about their roles. This was an ambitious show, but everyone really pulled together to create believable characters,” Ms. Wickline explained.
Additionally, Mandi created the props herself. “Our set was very minimalistic, but captured the poverty that the family was experiencing during that time in the Civil War-era,” she said. A costumer, Barbara Roberts, also came in periodically to fit the cast for their costumes, which included full length dresses and hoop skirts. “This was definitely the most costume-intense show I’ve been in. It was super fun to wear the hoop skirts and learn how to sit and move in them. When we first got to try them on, we spent a while just dancing and twirling and running down the hallway. I wish everyone could have the opportunity to try a big dress like that out,” said cast member Olivia Cappellini.
The play could not have performed smoothly without the help of the stagehands and light and sound technicians. Mr. Mitsuyasu, band teacher for CHS and IRMS, was responsible for the lighting and sound design for Little Women, and sophomore Kestrel Foley served as head light and sound technician. Several stagehands including Rhonan Allen, Paige Runions, and Mackenzie McLeod, also enabled this play to operate efficiently by preparing the stage for the next scene.
“I was really proud of what we accomplished, and I think the students are as well. I'm definitely very proud of the students, crew, and staff that brought this lovely show to life,” concluded Ms. Wickline.
The CHS Cascade Drama Department is looking forward to their new production: Peter Pan the musical. Auditions have been held and the cast list has been posted. Performances will be on February 4th, 5th, 10th, 11th, and 12th.
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