Student Theatre Cooperative puts on classic tale with a twist

Transformed from the classic tale many are familiar with, “Cinderella Waltz” takes a refreshing spin with comedy, romance and everything in-between.

Student Theatre Cooperative (STC) is an independent origination that produces shows not normally featured in USD’s main-stage season.

Senior Leah Geis was the director for the play “Cinderella Waltz” that took place this past weekend at Farber Hall in Old Main. The play was all-student produced.

Geis said “Cinderella Waltz” is like a Cinderella story that has little to do about Cinderella.

“We wanted something that was fun and comedic,” Geis said “Something that was exciting and fun for our audience, but would also be feasible technical wise. (Something) that is both a challenge for us and fun.”

STC, which is open to all majors, provides students the opportunity to grow their skills in management and leadership through theater production.

“Cinderella Waltz” brings the classic tale to life and gives it a new, modern twist, Geis said.

“The show is about a woman who lives in the trailer park setting and is in kind of a love triangle,” said Jackson Whitaker, a first-year who played the prince in the play. “She wants (to) have this life in the castle with the prince, but she has to follow her heart and love the village idiot.”

The cast and crew worked for about two months to put on this show, working around different challenges.

Geis said rehearsal for the show started in early February, and the cast and crew rehearsed six days a week for around four hours a night. The show had a cast of nine and a crew of three people.

“The actors have to be pretty self-reliant in this show,” Geis said.

One of the biggest challenges STC faced was the fact that they were an all-student produced show.

“We’re kind of flying solo here,” Geis said. “All of our theater faculty members are happy our help if we come to them. As far as our design process, our building, everything has all been done by students. So, that has been one of our biggest challenges.”

Farber Hall also sometimes  presented an obstacle to the production.

“Sometimes we have a hard time reserving the space,” Whitaker said. “We’d set up the whole set and then have to take it down because Farber would be reserved for something else.”

Senior student costume designer Morgen Porter also faced difficulties in Farber Hall.

“Someone had to haul all the costumes from the fine arts building,” Porter said. “We have to rent the costumes.”

Though it took considerable work, there are benefits to being in a student-run show, Geis said.

“It takes a lot of different skills,” Geis said. “It shows that everyone has a place in theater. It also shows what can be accomplished through hard work and passion of really determined artists.”

The time and hard work it takes to put on a show without the guidance of a department is rewarding, Geis said.

“We’re able to take skills that we’ve learned through our degree, or even if we aren’t a theater major, it shows that anyone can do theater if they really want to,” she said.