It’s official: Beaver Area School District is giving a ball because this spring—they’re performing the show-stopping 2013 Broadway musical, the very lovely Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella!

The musical stars senior Sophia Hahn as the ever so humble and kind, Ella, who’s cruelly nicknamed “Cinderella” by her stepmother, Madame, and stepsisters Charlotte and Gabrielle (deviously portrayed by senior Cailin Downer, junior Alyssa Caldwell, and junior Quinn O’Leary) because she sits by the fireplace and always gets dirty with cinders, but nonetheless she remains hopeful and kind.

“Every girl dreams of being a Disney princess when they’re little, and now I actually get to embody such a kind and compassionate character. I can’t wait to see how I can develop this character and maybe even apply her own tenants of charity and compassion in my own life,” Hahn joyfully stated about scoring the role of Cinderella.

As for the rest of the starring cast, we get Manny Garcia as Prince Christopher Rupert Windemere Vladimir Karl Alexander François Reginald Lancelot Herman (yes, Herman) Gregory James—or just Prince Topher for short, and senior Amara Stewart as Marie, the Fairy Godmother, who helps Cinderella to make the impossible, possible, and seniors Klayton Kaunert and Anthony Tabone as new characters from the 2013 version of the musical, Jean Michel and Sebastian.

“Jean Michel, who’s kind of wanting to question the monarchy and part of the plot is to have an election for a prime minister as part of this, he’s also romantically involved with one of the stepsisters (Gabrielle) who’s not so evil in this version, and there’s another character named Sebastian, which is a new character, who is sort of guiding the Prince until he becomes king, but he sort of has ulterior motives,” explained music teacher and the new director Mrs. Beth Damesimo (replacing former director and music teacher, Mrs. Susan Metelsky).

The rest of the cast includes the ensemble including Katharine Lang, Nicky Wang, Ava Mrkonja, Mary Berenbrok, and Aiden Connelly, and Charlotte Schultz, who is also a dance captain alongside Caldwell.

Mrs. Damesimo will be assisted by social studies teacher Mr. Dane Schlenke, while librarian Mrs. Erin Bechdel will help organize the production.

“I think we really have a perfect cast this year. This particular show has a lot of strong female roles, and we’re really excited about that, and we’re excited about kind of bringing the magic of Cinderella to the stage, especially to get some of our young school students excited about musical theater and hopefully get them interested in participating one day,” shared Mrs. Damesino.

Many are excited to perform this production of Cinderella, but there may be some challenges along the way as Mrs. Damesimo noted: “One of the biggest challenges is making the magic happen on stage, so there’s a lot of costuming that we have to mindful of as well, and we’re going hopefully do some fun lighting with special effects as far as you know, we got to make a pumpkin turn into a golden carriage. How do you do that on stage? So we’re excited with working with some of those challenges and hopefully making that come to life before every bodies’ eyes.”

As the Fairy Godmother says, “Impossible things are happening every day,” in a song she sings to Cinderella as she helps into her happily ever after by reminding her that to make her dreams possible, she’s got to make it happen herself.

Cinderella will be first performed March 14, 2024 for the Student Showcase and the senior citizens. Full public performances will be March 15–17.