News
THEATER TEEN TAKES ON CINDERELLA AND HER 'HILARIOUS' STEPSISTERS
Publication: THE CHARLESTON GAZETTE
Published: 04/28/2005
Page: 15D
Byline: BOB SCHWARZ
Dancer Jennifer Arnold will take center stage Friday night at the Clay Center, but like it or not, she'll have to share the spotlight with two bothersome stepsisters. Arnold will dance the title role when the River City Youth Ballet Ensemble performs " Cinderella " in a combined production that also features the West Virginia Youth Symphony and the Appalachian Children's Chorus' 50-voice Concert Choir.
Cinderella , you may recall, had two stepsisters who were jealous and vain, but lacked the beauty and charm of their hardworking stepsister. Arnold will dance in a ballet based largely on the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, which has often been staged with men in the roles of the not-so-dainty stepsisters with the big feet.
"I have to act, which I don't usually have to do," Arnold said. "Most of what we normally do is pieces."
Charleston Light Opera Guild veterans Bob McCarty and Brian DeWeese will dance the stepsisters in this production. The flamboyant McCarty has often played comic characters during his more than 20 years acting and dancing in musicals.
"They may steal the show," said Arnold, a 15-year-old sophomore at George Washington High School. "They attract a lot of attention with their wigs and dresses."
Arnold took her first movement class at age 3 in Texas and has had company status with River City for five years. Between classes and rehearsals, she dances six days a week, including Saturdays and Sundays, when rehearsals last up to six or seven hours. She has been rehearsing Fridays with those irksome stepsisters.
"They are absolutely hilarious," she said. "They'll have everybody laughing."
Eventually, she gets to partner with the prince, played by Ben Starcher, formerly of Charleston and now working and taking dance classes in North Carolina. "That's a challenge," Arnold said. "A lot of times, I practice the pas de deux by myself and just imagine that he's there."
Rodgers and Hammerstein created " Cinderella " as a film for television before adapting it back to the stage. Julie Andrews starred in that 1957 film, taking a break from her Broadway leading role in "My Fair Lady."
Only the dancers, of course, will be on stage. The youth orchestra will provide the instrumental music in the pit and the children's chorus, also in the pit but on risers, will sing Rodgers and Hammerstein songs that add color and clarity to what would otherwise be a wordless story told only though dance.
"It's important to expose the kids to other disciplines," said River City Artistic Director Michelle Raider, who learned the value of such matters when she went away to a performing arts high school."We all have the same hopes, dreams and goals, and it's important to be around people with the same aspirations."
Raider hopes the three groups - loosely banded together into YOU, or Youth Organizations United - will offer one collaborative production each year.
The evening opens with the Appalachian Children's Chorus spring concert, which features the combined talents of 120 children from three choruses. " Cinderella ," which also features Margaret Lieberman as the stepmother and Joanna Radow as the fairy godmother, takes place after the intermission.
