News editor
When Hillsboro High School choir teacher Lynn Just realized she had a lot of talented girls who were likely to participate in this fall’s musical, she knew she needed to pick a production to capitalize on that. The result is Hillsboro’s upcoming production of “Cinderella.”
“There is a lot of female talent in the high school right now, and ‘Cinderella’ has several women’s lead roles,” Just said. “This allows me to feature more of the women.”
Hillsboro is using the 1957 version written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Senior Molly Wiebe plays Cinderella in her fourth year in the school musical.
Wiebe was excited about Just’s choice of musical. She said she dressed up as Cinderella as a little girl.
“And now I get to be her on stage,” Wiebe said.
“I really like a lot of the songs I get to sing,” she added.
Just said familiarity with the story and music made it quicker for students to learn their lines and music so they could work on the staging and acting. There are 28 students in the cast. There are also five students and six adults in the crew.
“Costuming is the major challenge — just the quantity of costumes needed for this many students with costume changes,” Just said.
Wiebe said her favorite scenes are with Cinderella’s stepmother and stepsisters, played by Claire Heyen, Daniele Melton, and Abigail Kliewer.
“They definitely have good chemistry, and all three are so talented,” Wiebe said.
The first performance will be at 2 p.m. today. There will also be performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Tickets cost $5 and are available in the high school office.