Northwood’s theatre production of “Cinderella” brought a timeless classic to life. From Feb. 13-15, families and students filled the theater to watch the magical fairy tale unfold on stage.
The production, based on the 2013 Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella,” expands on the classic fairy tale featuring Ella (junior Meiwen Zajtmann and sophomore Grace Huang) and Prince Topher (sophomore Matthew Chan) to explore themes of kindness, self-discovery and overcoming self-doubt.
“Everyone has that part of themselves that believes that ‘I can’t do that,’ and Cinderella is such a good embodiment of that,” Zajtmann said. “I really admired the role, because despite that, she stays a good person and finds the strength within her.”
Attendees praised the production for its acting and humor, especially commending junior Kathleen Shumate’s performance as Madame, Ella’s stepmother. The audience audibly gasped at some of the practical effects used to show fairy godmother’s magic, particularly enjoying the two onstage dress transformations that took Ella from a modest frock to a ball gown.
“My favorite part was Cinderella’s transformation for the ball, especially the golden carriage reveal,” sophomore Claire Tu said. “I would describe Cinderella as very magical and immersive.”
A full 34-member orchestra accompanied the show for the first time since the 2018 “Little Mermaid” production. Director and theatre arts teacher Danyelle Bossardet and instrumental music teacher Ben Case chose “Cinderella” as this year’s show in part because it could allow many students to participate, in comparison to past productions.
“‘Cinderella’ really suited our needs in terms of instrumental music,” Bossardet said. “We also liked the option with the show to have a large ensemble and a lot of people in the cast featured.”
In an effort to reduce the theatre program’s carbon footprint, the crew rented set materials from Top Billing Entertainment, a performing arts group in Glendora, instead of constructing it themselves. Although certain props were manually altered, this decision freed the technical team to focus on storytelling elements like projections, background animations and lights.
“It was a little bit easier on the construction aspect,” technical director senior Mary Indes said. “However, changing certain aspects of the set pieces from what they originally were to fit our space has been a big challenge.”
Northwood’s next theatre production, “Call Me Obsessed,” will run from April 16-19. Written and directed by senior Charlie Parris, this will be the first ever student-written play to be produced as a main stage show.
