Magic of ‘Cinderella’ comes to the Rogers Theater
The magic of Rodgers and Hammerstein is coming to the local stage with the Rogers City Community Theatre’s production of “Cinderella.” The play opens Friday for a two-weekend run, many familiar songs, a cast of 26 and fancy costuming that fits the production.
The play has many similarities to the television version starring an 18-year-old Leslie Ann Warren, that first aired on CBS in 1965 and rebroadcast eight more times through 1974.
“The reason why I chose to direct ‘Cinderella’ was because my grandmother loves ‘Cinderella,’ and we would always go over to her house, and we would watch that version of ‘Cinderella,’ because we just loved it. I chose to do this version, that is the Broadway version, and it has a couple different songs in it, like adaptations, and then a couple of script changes. But, I liked it a little bit better just because there was a little more character development that went into it. But it’s very similar and it stays very true to the original,” said Cozy Janowiec, co-director along with Pennie Hoeft.
The large cast has been working for weeks on the production, many with stage experience.
“It ended up being the perfect size cast and a lot of people are playing double roles, because it could have been a bigger cast. People were just so willing to jump in and take on new roles, and really just give it their all. So, I’m really happy with the people that we had show up for it,” she said.
Rogers City High School sophomore Makayla Dodge is cast in the lead role.
“She can sing beautifully. I love her voice. She is a great, phenomenal singer,” said co-director Janowiec.
Other cast members include: Robert Starnes IV, Hallie Janowiec, Carly Gleason, Lawrence Anderson, Hope Evans, Ashley Nowicki, Jeff Janowiec, Baylee Lijewski, Jessica Claus, Alex Claus, Nadine Ciarkowski, Lily Janowiec, Ivy Janowiec, Brooke Crawford, Cas Haske, Ashlynn Coburn, Daisy McFray, Asher Haske, Walter Janowiec, Everly Puravs, Jordan Janowiec, Alison Marx, Mike Marx, Elaine Heidemann and Charlotte Heidemann.
Other crew members include: Valerie Schalk, producer and costumes; Amy Rabeau music director; Sarah Mulka, accompanist; Lily Janowiec, choreographer; Brad Schulwitz, projections; Al Hoeft, set design and builder; Erica Ataman, costumes; Becky Puravs, backstage manager; Daniel Janowiec, tech; Azalea Kortman, tech; and April Coburn, tech.
The play features the songs “In My Own Little Corner,” “Impossible” and “It’s Possible,” “Ten Minutes Ago,” “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful?” and “A Lovely Night.”
Cozy Janowiec co-directed, with her father Jeff, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” last year and is excited to work with the cast in her second time as director. After Jeff was cast in a lead part, Cozy took on a greater leadership role in that play.
“From what I learned from last time compared to this time, was to be more prepared. I feel like the first time I was kind of more thrown into it, because, my dad was going be doing most of the directing stuff, but then he had to be a main character. So, then I just stepped up and I was like, oh, well, I guess I’m doing this now,” Cozy said.
“But this time around, I was the one who put in the applications to direct, and it was all my idea to do it, and I had well enough time to prepare for it and really think about how I was going do it and really dive into the script. Being prepared is good, but also leaves enough room for the creativity to flow.”
The production opens this weekend with shows starting at 7:30 p.m. both Friday and Saturday along with a matinee Sunday at 2 p.m. The same schedule is set for Nov. 13, 14 and 15.
“This is definitely family friendly, and I want everyone to bring their family, friends, grandparents, everybody. Just come and enjoy the show. There’s a lot of humor in it, a lot of sweetness and it’s a really heartwarming show,” Cozy Janowiec said.
