Laura Kattilakoski

Staff Writer

When the story of Cinderella clashes with a very different setting of a trailer park in a small village, the result is a dramatic comedy titled “Cinderella Waltz”.

This was the play performed by CHS at the zone level UIL competition on March 25 at Denton Guyer High School.

“We took third at our competition and we needed to take second to advance. That’s just the way that it goes, but they did exceptionally well considering the entire cast was made up of freshmen and sophomores and one new Junior actor,” Director Bruce Hermans said. “We were really young competing against juniors and seniors from the other schools.”

Despite not advancing to the district competition, several CHS actors were recognized for their performance. There are three awards an individual actor can win: best actor or actress, which usually goes to someone with a lead role, All Star Cast, which goes to any cast member the judges feel did an exemplary job and honorable mention All Star Cast.

Sophomore Amanda Clark and freshman Roberto Williams were awarded All Star Cast.

Williams played the part of Zed, the village idiot. His character is disregarded by everyone in the village, but wins Cinderella’s heart in the end.

“Cinderella, or Rosey as she’s called in the play, wants to have this fantastical fairytale life and I bring her back to reality and tell her there’s no such thing and in the end she falls in love with me,” Williams said.

Williams has only been in drama since last year, where he was the only eighth grader in a class of sixth graders. Although he does not have the experience some of the other actors do, his hard work has earned him his place in the play.

“In all respects [Roberto] probably had one of the two biggest parts in the show and really grew during the rehearsal process. He was not even the first person that was cast- he was the understudy. But improved so dramatically that we moved him into lead cast role and obviously he did really well,” Hermans said.

Clark was the other student to be awarded with the All Star Cast award.

Clark’s feat was especially impressive because her role as Regan, the ditsy stepsister, was not one of the major parts.

“It was not a huge role by any means but she had a lot of stage time, and to win an all star cast for a role that size is pretty darn impressive. Most of the time the all star cast are the kids that have really big roles on stage so that was really cool,” Hermans said.

Clark has been involved in theater productions since the fourth grade, when she played a camel in her school’s production of ”The Best Christmas Pageant”. Since then, she has been involved in numerous plays.

“Amanda is one of our leaders, without a doubt. She has the heart to desire to really do great things. She works really hard and she’s always willing to help with whatever going on. She’s always there, you never have to worry about Amanda not being there or not working hard to get better, and she does because of that. She is always very willing to play whatever role we need her to play,” Hermans said.

With 12 weeks of rehearsals and practice put into the play, overall it was a worthwhile experience for both cast and crew.

“For me it means a lot because we’ve been putting our sweat, blood and tears into this and finally we get some recognition. A lot of times when a show is over, it’s just like ‘ok great’. It’s not like its changed my life or anything, its over, its done and you’re not going to go back to that,” Clark said. “But this just sums up the entire experience in One Act and getting this honor, its pretty awesome.”