With day two opening for the choir and Westlake TEC’s production of Disney’s Frozen, cast members are navigating choreography, late-night rehearsals and the challenge of bringing beloved characters to life on stage.
The musical, running Feb. 5-7, features sophomores, juniors and seniors in choir and represents months of dedication. From intricate songs to complex emotions, cast members are pushing beyond their comfort zones.
“We’re not all dancers, obviously; we’re choir kids,” junior Isabella Risk said, who has been in choir since sixth grade. “But the choreographer Daisy has been really good at teaching us everything with such ease.”
The production members returned from winter break, and they immediately dove straight into auditions, which left the cast members with less preparation time than a typical musical. Junior Andy Dailey, who’s a member of the Royal Court ensemble, has spent nearly every afternoon and evening at the theater, leaving most days at 10 p.m.
“I’ve been at rehearsal almost every day since January,” Dailey said. “Compared to other schedules for other musicals, we’ve not had a lot of time.”
When the directors happen to catch something amiss, a cue, an off-step in the choreography, the scene is re-run by the cast until they reach perfection.
“The rehearsal vibe is really upbeat and super fun, and everyone’s hyping each other up,” Risk said. “But sometimes people get fed up because we’ve been there for so many hours.”
Beyond the main ensemble, some of the students auditioned for feature roles in smaller groups. Dailey earned a spot on the royal court, which appears during the coronation scene alongside the leads.
“It’s a lot more intimate because it’s a smaller group, and we have to be a lot more secure in our sounds because there’s less of us,” Dailey said. I’ve really loved being a part of the royal court because it just feels more personal.”
Senior Sophia Miley, who plays Anna, didn’t expect to land the role as she had previously auditioned for Elsa. Now she’s wrestling with Anna’s rapid emotional shifts and trying to make them feel authentic on stage.
“I struggle with understanding how she’s processing what’s going on around her,” Miley said. ”She has moments where she flips into being funny and then serious, and then sad, and then back to happy. Trying to figure out how to bring depth to her character has challenged me.”
To embody Anna’s chaotic, bubbly, high-energy personality, Miley has developed a pre-show warmup routine that contrasts with her own demeanor. As someone who’s not a musical theater person, she has faced every hurdle with unexpected solutions.
“I’m pretty chill, I think, and [Anna’s] not,” Miley said. “So I like to warm myself up. I do jumping jacks, I’m running around, and I’m squealing and screaming and giggling.”
What started as an unexpected casting has evolved into something deeper for Miley. As she’s spent more time with the character, she’s developed a new appreciation for Anna’s personality and her motivations. She hopes to bring that depth to the stage and that audiences will be able to pick up on all of the little nuances she’s worked to capture.
“Anna has really been through a lot,” Miley said. I think that she’s really easy to just view as like the dumb character who just wants love, but I think that she’s like, the optimism of the show, and it’s really brave that she, keeps trying to be with her sister and feel the love that she never felt because imagine like her parents died and her sister wasn’t there, and so her only friends were her handmaiden. So I think that she’s brave, even though it may come off as dumb sometimes.”
The stage adaptation is working to stay faithful to the film’s storyline while still adding theatrical flourishes that can only happen live, such as Elsa’s ice magic effect to life-sized puppets for Olaf and Sven.
“There is a lot of theater magic with watching everything come to life in person compared to watching the movie,” Dailey said. “I think the audience will be really pleased with how the technical elements came together.”
The rehearsal schedule has tested everyone’s endurance, but recently, the final dress rehearsals have shown the cast members that their hard work is finally coming together.
“For our last dress rehearsal, it was so magical seeing it all come together,” Dailey said. “I was like, wow, okay, I get it. This looks pretty cool.”
