October 17, 2025

This semester, Hughson High School Drama is performing Disney’s Cinderella with a concert before the show featuring excerpts from Wicked by Hughson High School Sound Investment.

With singers dressed in black and gold, with Hughson Husky Choir shirts, the songs from “Wicked” are fast-moving and sung with heart, befitting its Broadway tradition. The students use risers in front of the stage, moving briskly between numbers and choreographed hand movements without detracting from the vocals that make up the heart of the show.

After a brief intermission, the main performance begins.

The play takes the story and, by telling it in flashback, shortens it to less than a class period. It features Cinderella and her prince, played by Ava Reynolds and Caleb Hoem from the Period 1 cast, as a seasoned married couple celebrating their fifteenth wedding anniversary. Meanwhile, the younger Cinderella, played by Sarah Forshey, sings her sorrows away while her Fairy Godmother (Bella Hall) makes magic with the laundry. Disney’s best sidekicks, led by Anthony Mendonca and Tyler Plum, make an appearance whenever all feels lost, sewing her ballgown, calling for a ride, and catching the previous slipper.

Perhaps most entertaining in this telling were Cinderella’s stepsisters, played by Genevieve Waddell and Bailey Bilson, who, along with all the humor of multiple movies, add a jazzy dance to their singing performance, livening up a mellower story with a bit of whimsy.

By the end of the week, the two casts of 65 performers will have performed two public performances and nine additional performances for school and community groups. That includes eleven elementary-level classes from seven different elementary schools. Altogether, approximately 1800 people from Hughson schools and surrounding schools will come out to see it.

Cinderella is Eric Anderson’s debut as Hughson’s High School Drama Teacher. As a long-time volunteer, Anderson and his wife, Robyn, who volunteers with lighting design during the show, are no strangers to Hughson High School’s talent. Following the retirement of Brad Thompson, Anderson stepped into the role, following the pattern of showcasing a Disney musical that includes a choral performance.

The director's chair is “exciting, scary, exhilarating, frustrating, and rewarding all at the same time,” he said. “It is wonderful to watch many students make their characters their own.”

Anderson has focused particularly on helping empower students to work independently and invest in what they do. “There are many parts of the show that I enjoy, but I have to say that I very much enjoy curtain call,” he said. “It's wonderful to watch the performers enjoy the recognition of their hard work.”

The show continues this week with two public performances on Saturday, October 18. The first period cast will perform at 5:30 p.m. with the second period cast at 7 p.m. Ticket prices are $10 for adults, $5 for children and youth, and can be purchased at the box office outside the Ella Webb Theater, at Hughson High School, 7419 E Whitmore Ave, Hughson.