Cherokee High School’s fall show will be Berlin Irving’s “White Christmas”, a stage musical based off of the movie “White Christmas”. This musical opened on Broadway in the 2008-2009 season. The plot follows singers Bob Wallace and Phil Davis as they join with Betty and Judy Haynes’ sister act to perform a show in rural Vermont. The four end up helping Bob and Phil’s old army general, Waverly, along with Martha Watson to help save his struggling inn. Opening night was December 7, with three performances that Saturday and the following weekend. The show is approximately 2 hours and 34 minutes long and features popular songs like “Sisters,” “Blue Skies,” and the titular song, “White Christmas.”
Cherokee’s cast and crew have been working hard since September to make this a good show. The audition process started on September 6 with an audition meeting and the full cast list came out on September 13. The cast meets after school and on Saturday mornings to practice and rehearse their scenes. Within the cast, there are featured dancers, tap dancers, ensemble members, and leads. Leads are the stars of the show. They still dance but are mainly center stage and usually have solos within group numbers. Featured dancers are Cherokee’s most exceptional dancers and the same goes for the tap dancers. They are a small group of only about 10 actors, and they learn different dance routines than the rest of the ensembles do, often more intricate or difficult. The ensemble members are actors who come on to sing in a large group of people. Each ensemble member is usually in three or four ensembles in the show and each member usually assembles their own costume to fit the scene.
Cherokee’s cast is taught and led by Mr. Fisicaro and Dr. Aaronson. Mr. Fisicaro is the director of the show and Dr. Aaronson is the conductor. Both Mr. Fisacro and Dr. Aaronson help the cast members know their lines, dance moves, and lyrics. They allow for the show to happen, along with all of the cast members. There are many leads in each production: Drew Tyson ( ’26) plays Bob Wallace, and Marc Chrupcala (’26) plays Phil Davis. Ella Bree (’25) plays Betty Hayes, and the role of Judy Haynes is double casted with Gabriella Harkins (’26) and Mackenzie Brown (’26).
While the student leads allow a show to go on, the sets and lighting are under the control of stage crew student leadership. Jess Raio (’25) is the stage manager, calling the cues for the entire show. Evan Scarpula (’25) and Evan Tyson (’26) are wing managers for left wing and right wing respectively. The wing managers take orders from the stage manager and convey that to the crew members in the wings, while also organizing the sets and calling standbys. Our lighting tech is Noah Pirotta (’27), who controls all of the many lights and will call for spotlight cues. There are two groups of stage crew: build crew and tech crew. Build crew works throughout the year constructing, painting, and doing everything else needed backstage for the show to run. And finally, our tech crew are the many crew members backstage during the show, manipulating and placing the sets.
The first full run-through of the show was on December 1, tech day. This is the first day the cast and crew run through the show, and this practice continues through the following days of tech week. Make sure to encourage your classmates in drama- it’s a long week!
If you missed the first weekend of “White Christmas,” you still have plenty of opportunities. The final two performances will be on December 13 and December 14.
Tickets for White Christmas are $15 dollars per person. Each show starts at 7 pm. Even though the show starts at 7, cast and crew are called in at 5 pm each night to prepare. Actors are getting their costumes on and mics working, stage crew is prepping the wings and checking everything over, and everyone is preparing to put on a great show!
