Hillside students deliver an inspiring "family" musical performance

They are student actors who delivered a rousing performance.

But more importantly than how they acted on stage, these 5th and 6th grade students from the Hillside Intermediate School are more thrilled to be classified as a family rather than a cast.

The students worked together as one close-knit unit when they delivered a stimulating musical performance of “Into the Woods Jr,” before family, friends and classmates at Hillside's all-purpose room on the evenings of Thursday, March 2, and Friday, March 3.

The Tony Award-winning musical was a new take on Stephen Sondheim’s and James Lapine’s groundbreaking fairy tale about wishes and choices we make. The musical featured all of our favorite characters growing up—Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and his beanstalk and the Witch. 

The student actors performed with charisma and energy–and worked together as an inspired family.

Emma Brown played the role of the Baker’s Wife. Her delivery was helped in that she was surrounded by friends on stage.

“We are a family and we respect each other,” said Emma, who is in 6th Grade. “We work together and practice together and this was a team effort.” 

The role of Little Red Riding Hood was performed by Noelle Sapp, another 6th Grader who absorbed the relationships of working with her friends.

“I loved how many friends I made during rehearsals,” Noelle declared. “There are a lot of kids from other classes who I may never see  but I was now able to make a lot of friends because of this (musical)..”

Noelle cherished her part on stage.

“Little Red Riding Hood is cunning and charming,” Noelle shared. “She adds comedy to the play. I loved this role.”

Heather Diaforli-Day, who was the musical’s director, was taken back not only by how well her student actors performed but how they merged into one unified team.

“The show went incredibly well. The students were emotional on Friday as we circled up to focus before the final performance,’ revealed Ms. Heather-Day, who delivered a pep talk before each show that would make athletic coaches envious. “They most definitely did feel like a family.”

Ms. Diaflori-Day, whose position in the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District is as the  K-4 Music Teacher at the Crim Primary School, jumped at the opportunity to direct what she claimed “is her favorite musical.”

Her team who she worked closely with to produce this stirring finished product were Hillside teachers Tara Hueston and Anna O'Brien, Patrick Blood, who teaches at the Adamsville Primary School, and Teresa Gunning, the renown Co-Director with her husband Tom of the highly successful Bridgewater-Raritan High School Theater Arts Department.

They are all under the guidance of Dr. Laura Bassett, who remains as the school district’s Supervisor of Arts Education, until her replacement, Matthew McCarthy, assumes the role once his commitment as a Teacher of Arts in East Brunswick is concluded on March 26.

Meanwhile, Dr. Bassett now serves as the Principal of the Eisenhower Intermediate School, a position she began on February 1.

She was among the pleased and entertained audience who shoehorned  into Hillside’s all-purpose room for both performances.

And she was proud of both the students and her staff whose passionate work was clearly shown both evenings.

“Into the Woods Jr. was such a phenomenal production. The cast was well prepared. They sounded absolutely wonderful singing such challenging material,” Dr. Bassett said. “And they were so funny and so confident. It was clear how proud the students were of their work”

She delivered a message to her staff.

“Thank you for all of the energy and effort you put into this. And thank you for leading a team of additional staff and volunteers who helped make the entire process a success.”

Emma felt that all of the rehearsals and practices paid off.

“We all worked hard for one final effort.”

Noelle was proud of how her “family” and how they teamed up to produce such a glittering performance., 

“It is great to see how we can pull it off. It was in my heart to see this work.”

Ms. Diaforli-Day summed up the entire production—both on stage and behind the curtains.

 “That is the most important piece of theater—learning how to come together and work as a disciplined, creative team to tell a story on stage. I am very proud of everyone.”

Here is a look at the students —-32 actors and 16 stage hands–who made everyone proud on March 2 and 3.

Their character, their name and their grade are listed.
 

Into the Woods Cast List 

Character	Performer	Grade
Narrator	Dara Wolff	6
Witch	Whitney Heiden	5
Baker	Shaant Sachdeva	6
Baker’s Wife	Emma Brown	6
Cinderella	Anushka Khedlekar	6
Little Red Riding Hood	Noelle Sapp	6
Jack	Aarush Bhatnagar	5
Rapunzel	Grace Ricart	6
Cinderella’s Prince/Wolf	Holden Fechter	5
Rapunzel’s Prince	Aaron Zuniga	6
Jack’s Mother	Jamie Byun	6
Milky White	Riley Romanak	6
Steward	Ashvath Choudhary	5
Cinderella’s Stepmother	Jamie McGeechan	6
Florinda	Briella Alvarez	5
Lucinda	Sophia Zavodnick	5
Mysterious Man	Kyle Johnson	6
Cinderella’s Mother	Madison DeRosa	6
Cinderella’s Father	Anvay Jain	6
Granny	Charlotte Dixon	6
Wolf	Holden Fechter	5
Ensemble	Gianna Barca	6
Ensemble	Lexi McGeechan	6
Ensemble	Danila Quevedo	5
Ensemble	Amirtha Veenadevi	5
Ensemble	Eva Nelson	6
Ensemble	Reilly Chery	6
Ensemble	Faith Alexander	6
Ensemble	Valerie Moran	6
Ensemble	Erin Nodes	5
Ensemble	McKenna Pearson	6
Ensemble	Sharon Javadala	6

 

Stage crew members:

                            Mia DaSilva                    Shreya Mittal

                           Matthew Gill                     Hugh O’Malley

                        Riley Guzman                     Shaylin Patel

                          Aania Kartha                     Rachel Ryan

                         Jaiden Lopez                     Miles Schrage

                     Avery Mahovetz                     Ketan Tayi     

                 Robert (RJ) Matos                     Riya Tayi

                        Tyler McCann                     Rhoda Trey