- Fol-de-rol and fiddledy dee! Fiddley faddley foodle!
All the dreamers in the world are dizzy in the noodle!
- Well, isn't every girl in the kingdom wishing she were at the ball tonight?
- Well, why aren't you there?
- My stepmother.
Well, somebody has to mind the house, don't they?
[Scott] We were looking at a few different scripts.
Because it's Christmastime, you always want something with a very heartwarming story towards
the end of it, right - and Cinderella is a script that's been around for a long time,
Rodgers and Hammerstein, they were writing the script so long ago, and it just seemed
right for the people that we had this year.
Well, you know, it's always a challenge for me to find shows that are big enough to accommodate the
size of our program, so that was one of the things, but we thought it would be like a
really great way to start the Christmas season off, too, just with the - a fanciful fairytale
where anything's possible.
- [Singing] It's possible for a plain yellow pumpkin to become a silver carriage.
It's possible for a plain country bumpkin and a prince to join in marriage.
- And four white mice are easily turned to horses!
- Such fol-der-ol and fiddle dee dee of course is...
Quite possible!
- It's possible!
[Breanna] Well, we went through an audition process, so I went in, I got to read a couple
scenes as her, I sang a song as her, and then about two weeks later, Mrs. Gilchrist, who
is the director of the show called us in to get the cast list, and I was lucky enough
to be cast as one of the two Cinderellas.
The most challenging part of the play is definitely my solo, "In My Own Little Corner" - it's
just, you're on the stage by yourself, you're thinking about what notes you need to sing,
where you need to be, but still making sure that the audience feels that joy and you bringing
it to life.
But the most fun part is most definitely after the ball, when Cinderella comes back home
and she's dancing with the stepmother and the stepsisters, and she just gets to feel
that love from the family that she hasn't felt before - it just feels amazing singing
and dancing that song.
- [Singing] Why would a fellow want a girl like her, a frail and fluffy beauty?
Why can't a fellow ever once prefer a solid girl like me?
- She's a frothy little bubble, with a flimsy kind of charm, and with very little trouble,
I could break her little arm!
[Brya] Well, for Joy, she's the complete opposite.
She's very angry, and rude, and sarcastic, and I just thought that was really fun to
take on and portray on stage.
[Laken] With Portia, her dumbness, her aloofness to everything definitely drew me into her,
from not being able to say words correctly, to finding situations hilarious that everyone
else is very serious in.
- It fits perfectly!
Ha ha - oh! [shrieks] - Let me try!
Let me try!
It fit me perfectly at the ball!
You shrunk it!
[Brya] Whenever we snap at each other, yell at each other, all the kids always shout out
in laughter.
[Laken] Before this show we spent a good fifteen minutes practicing our proper ways to roll
around on the ground without...
[Brya] ...hurting each other and making it look real.
Some of the harder parts of the show that I think the cast and crew have handled really
well are the magical qualities, the pumpkin turning into a carriage, and things like the
quick change of Cinderella's ball gown.
[Zachary] It is actually quite intriguing, cause, like from the outside you sort of see
the wall, or like bodies sort of in the way, but behind the scenes there's a lot going on.
There's a lot of people, like - the costume department does a really good job of coordinating
all the quick changes, like you get into a routine and you practice a lot offstage to
get ready, so everyone has their roles.
For example, my role is to get the crinoline down on the ground so the fairy godmother
can step into it and pull it up and velcro it behind her waist, and other people are
there to pull the crinoline out of the way, others are there to pick up her clothes that
she leaves behind, and there's others that are there to throw the dress on over top and zip that up,
so there's lots of different moving parts in these quick changes that you really have
to work together to truly have a good quick change, cause if no one's on the same page,
then it gets really difficult to pull off.
[Megan] There's so much time and energy spent by everyone - the cast, the crew, Mrs. G,
Mr. Boomer, even our choreographers Spencer and Dara - you just have to be ready to work,
it's a lot of work, a lot of energy put into this, but it's all worth it in the end, and
you can start with no skills - we teach everyone everything, people come in and don't know
how to dance and sing, and we teach them.
[Carol] When you first join the program, you're more than likely in an ensemble role, and
as the years go on, you take on more and more responsibility.
And that doesn't mean just bigger roles or bigger jobs in the tech crew, it also means
mentoring and leading your fellow students, too.
[Breanna] When I came into high school, I was so excited to be in these ensembles, and
to get to see the Grade 12s be the leads and everything, and I just looked up to them so
much, and now I'm in one of those lead roles, and there's kids that are, you know, kinda
looking up to me and asking me for help, and it's really just - it's so cool to watch yourself
go from looking up to those people to being one of those people.
[Laken] Even when you are in Grade 10, you may be in the back, part of the ensemble,
but there's this family aspect that you do not realize is part of this program until
you really, like, step in and join it, and it's really worth it, because these friends
that you make, they're some of the best people that I know.
[Brya] Yeah.
They're so much more than friends, and you can just trust them with anything, because
you have to do all these things that people normally don't put themselves out of their
box to do.
[Laken] Yeah, high school's rough and this really gives a lot of us a real home.
There's people that get really excited about the idea of theatre and they join, but it's
just not their thing, and it isn't for everyone, because it can be really taxing at times,
but it's something everyone should try, and if you love it, you LOVE it.
It's an amazing feeling being out there on stage or being out there for tech or helping
with costumes.
When you find your niche, it really is an amazing experience.
[Scott] It's a dynamic of people that are together so often that you don't get to see
very often outside of this space, and especially when it's so accommodating with so many different
people and so many different - almost misfits, that can find a home, and a lot of these kids
need that, and it's really, really great to see.
- [Singing] And because these daft and dewy-eyed dopes keep building up impossible hopes,
impossible things are happening every day!
[Applause]