Cinderella: Dreams Really Do Come True
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ It's a Cinderella Story in more ways than one.
Football players who have never ball-room danced before and three months of rehearsals that unlocked the beautiful voices of theater students who had never sung before.
You can thank Du Quoin High School producer and director Lisa Coleman, whose Rodgers and Hammerstein's time-honored musical "Cinderella" comes to the R.P. Hibbs Auditorium for three performances beginning tonight.
But, you'd better come early. "We're not selling tickets two at a time. We've had calls for 16 tickets," Coleman told her cast during final dress rehearsals Thursday night.
Performances are tonight and Saturday at 7 p.m. with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday. All seats are $5 and there are no reserve tickets.
It's a production that's "all in the family," said Coleman, who has not only saved the DHS speech and theater program, but is watching it flourish.
Husband Kevin Coleman did the set carpentry. Daughter Holly Coleman, a French major at SIU, did the set drawings. Holly's boyfriend, Nick Eastman, is sound director. Son Alex Coleman is in the backstage crew and son Noah--the school's gifted Indian mascot--has one of the leads as Prince Charming. He's both charming and gifted as a freshman actor.
He co-stars with sophomore Linnea Cheek who was meant to be Cinderella.
Alex Coleman's girlfriend, Lydia Dunmyer, loans the experience of her high school and collegiate career as a performer to the voice and music direction.
She and DHS alum Dillon Heape routinely performed together in high school.
"We hired a choreographer--a 19-year old SIU student named Tim Wessel and he has been wonderful," said Coleman. "He came up here three or four times and I asked him if we were better or worse than he imagined," she said.
"Much, much worse," Coleman smiles.
"But, look what we had to work with. If you look across the stage only one girl was an Indianette with dance experience and we turned a football star into a ballroom dancer," she said.
Tim is currently working with this weekend's production of "The Secret Garden" at SIU, and after all of his long nights alongside the R.P. Hibbs stage will not be able to attend a single performance. "But, he wants to fly up here at 4 p.m. this afternoon to wish everybody good luck."
"Music director Denise Smith has been a great help to all of us," Coleman adds.
Pianist Brenda Morse of Murphysboro will be at the keyboard in the pit band.
Twenty-four students attended tryouts on Friday, Jan. 23.
Play director Mrs. Lisa Coleman said she picked "Cinderella" because girls at DHS are traditionally more interested in musicals than boys, and it has six strong female leads. She said, "Plus, I love the music."
All told, 55 students and a half dozen adults are involved in the production.
The show's magic includes some front stage hijinx and a beautiful black light transformation scene where Cinderella goes from being an abused stepsister to the focus of Prince Charming's love.
Linnea and Noah come to the walkway in front of the stage to perform, "Do I love you simply because you're beautiful or are you beautiful simply because I love you."
The cast includes Cinderella- Linnea Cheek; king- Neil Patel; queen- Hannah Ebersohl; stepmother- Haley Conner; Portia- Katie Stephens; Joy- Hannah Hollis; Prince Charming- Noah Coleman; fairy godmother- Kailah Kelly; herald- Chris Maddox; steward- Nathan Jackson; and towns people Betty- Brittany Duff; Maria- Molly Miller; Ellen- Jenna Doerr; mother- Cashmiere Bledsoe; daughter- Tammy Bandur; grandma- Shayla Otto; Gertrude- Blaire Hester; oldest sister- Brittany McKinnies; and youngest sister- Lauren Tenant.
Look for a complete story and photographs in the next upcoming edition of The Magnavox.
It's the weekend's best ticket, and a performance you don't want to miss.
Good luck to all.