Trollwood’s 2021 Musical: Cinderella

Located at the Bluestem Center for the Arts, Trollwood Performing Arts School is an exceptional organization focused on building your skills in musical theater, while also creating a safe environment for exploring your abilities and talents. Trollwood holds a lot of programs for different capabilities in the world of theater, like Trollwood Academy, Trollwood Players, ArtSpark, and most popularly, the Mainstage Musical.
This summer, the Mainstage Musical was Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. This magical adaptation of a timeless fairytale was enchanting to those who watched it, but also wondrous to those who worked in this show. This show was composed of high school actors and actresses who dedicated themselves for roughly four months to put on this production.
Cinderella was originally scheduled to perform in the summer of 2020, but due to Covid-19 restrictions, Trollwood deemed it unsafe to put a show together during those times. So, these actors patiently waited until this summer to get back at it! Starting right at the beginning of summer, these performers hit the ground running with daily rehearsals to learn the intense choreography and technical vocals for this show. Once they got to July, they began full run-throughs, where they worked with the orchestra and the technical aspects, which included lighting, sound, set, costumes, and hair and makeup. Finally, on July 14th, Cinderella was ready for a crowd!
Starting at 5:30, our techies and actors are called to start getting ready for the show. This is when the actors would start doing their makeup, and get into their wigs. Fun fact, every single woman in this production had a wig! Even some of our lead men had wigs, such as Lord Chancellor Sebastian and Lord Pinkleton.
During this time, the actors also do cast rituals, like circling up in the field for warmups and chants in the dressing rooms. This would also be when techies would fix any broken microphones or tears in costumes from a previous run. At around 8:15, all the actors are called up backstage for the beginning of the show. Kathy Anderson, the Executive Director of Trollwood makes some announcements, and then we’re off!
If you’ve never seen Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, the show is about how our Prince Topher is feeling unprepared for his role as incoming king and the peasants’ displeasement with how things are being run. His chancellor, Sebastian, reassures him and tells him that with his help, he will run a wonderful country. To distract the country from its conflicts, the kingdom holds a royal ball to find the prince a bride. Most of the upper-class citizens get invited to this extravagant ball, including Cinderella’s stepmother and two stepsisters. Cinderella gets left behind and gets a special visit from her Fairy Godmother, who also happens to be the town’s local crazy. The Fairy Godmother grants her wishes during the song “Impossible,” and Cinderella is off to the ball! Like every classic Cinderella story, she goes to the ball, amazes the Prince, and then runs away. Only this time she takes her shoe with her, setting up more plot to unfold in the second act.
In the second act, the prince holds a banquet to find his true love. Cinderella arrives with another magnificent gown and informs the prince how much his people are suffering under his rule due to the laws being put in place. Midnight strikes once again, only this time, she does leave her shoe as a clue to her true identity. In the end, we have a show fitting ceremony, the prince finds her true love, and all is well in the magic kingdom.
In this production, Mckenna Brye, a 2020 graduate from Davies played Cinderella, and Logan Lang, a 2020 graduate from Sheyenne, played Prince Topher. We also had a good number of North High students participating in this production. On stage, we had Graduated Senior Cameron Murphy, Senior Natalie Syverson, Senior Gavin Nordeng, Junior Catherine Bailey, and Sophomore Tyler Hoverson all in the ensemble. In tech, we had Senior Vivian Behm and Senior Gretchen Krout on the costume run crew.
Trollwood has a special place in a lot of people’s hearts in the Fargo-Moorhead area. If you haven’t seen a Trollwood production yet, they have so many programs for the general public to enjoy, especially the Mainstage Musical. This year’s production of Cinderella may have taken an extra year to make it to the stage, but it made it a little extra special for not only those who participated, but also those of us who can come out and watch such a wonderful adaptation.