Bethel Park High School students hope to perform this year’s musical to a capacity crowd.

Seating restrictions have been modified for the upcoming presentation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella.”

District officials have decided to make nearly 1,200 seats available in the auditorium. Attendees will still need to abide by the district’s mandatory mask policy while in the building.

“We have health and safety protocols that we intended to honor as we do for everything,” district spokesman James Cromie said. “We want this experience to be enjoyable for everyone and also safe for everyone.”

Students performed “The 25th Anniversary Putnam County Spelling Bee” last year to about 230 people due to limited seating as a result of the pandemic.

“We were happy with whatever we could get, but there’s something different about performing for a full crowd,” said senior Anna Rosemeier. “I’m really excited to be able to do that. … It will be a really nice show for anyone to come see.”

Those who do go to the show will also be able to see more of the students compared to last year. There were only about a dozen in the cast at the time and a skeleton crew tending to the stage and in the pit.

Director Todd Kuczawa said nearly 120 students are involved in “Cinderella,” including cast, crew and orchestra. Kuczawa, who has been the high school musical director for 29 years, said that is usually the amount of people participating in a production.

However, students are practicing and expected to perform wearing masks.

“It feels wonderful,” said Kuczawa about returning to near normal. “I forgot how busy and time-consuming and overwhelming at times it is, but seeing how hard the students are working on the show keeps us moving and inspires us to keep moving forward with it. It’s crazy busy, but it’s so good to have everybody be able to be a part of it. Last year, we had to turn people away.”

The show is double-cast, meaning there are two students for every main role.

Kuczawa said that provides more opportunities for people to be involved and saves the voices of those characters over time.

Each group of leads will have two performances with one group March 16 and 18 and the other March 17 and 19.

Getting into character

Rosemeier and her fellow young thespians have been working on the musical since early January.

The musical tells the story of Cinderella, a woman whose father has died and is treated cruelly by her stepmother and stepsisters. She gets an opportunity to meet a handsome prince with the help of her fairy godmother (Marie), played by Rosemeier.

“My character is a lot about showing Cinderella how to persevere and get what she wants in life,” Rosemeier said. “I think it’s really cool to be able to play that on stage and be like an older figure. I really enjoyed having the connection with the other people on stage during the show.”

For Rosemeier and other seniors like Kessid Wicker and Katey Muench, the show will be the fourth and final high school musical together.

“Most of us have always been pretty good friends,” Wicker said. “I feel like putting us up on that stage has forced us to build a stronger relationship with each other. We’ve always been respectful to each other and always been each other’s cheerleaders.”

Wicker plays Lord Pinkleton, a royal town crier who makes key announcements throughout the show.

“He’s more of a singing role, and I would say singing is more of my strong suit,” Wicker said. “When it comes to the style it’s more of a classical style and really fits my voice.”

He said everyone has been working hard to deliver what promises to be an all-time classic performance.

“Being able to have that full crowd is really going to light up everybody’s spirits,” Wicker said. “When the show’s over, it’s going to be an amazing feeling. If anybody is free, they should definitely come watch it. I think it’s going to be a great show, and it’s going to be one of the things that hopefully will bring people back to something normal.”

In the Broadway version Bethel Park is adapting, one of the stepsisters, Gabrielle, turns out to be not as mean as one thought. Muench plans to highlight Gabrielle’s humanity in her performance.

“She’s kind of crazy, and I like crazy,” Muench said. “I have a lot of fun playing that part and making it me. I just love the character change in Gabrielle. She just becomes such a better person and I like that.”

Muench commended Kuczawa for his guidance and motivation to all the cast members.

“Mr. K is so great,” she said. “Throughout every year that I’ve been in the shows at the high school, he’s really made me a better singer and actor because he pushes us to our full potential. We can always count on him to make us better at what we’re doing on stage. He’s always being honest in the best way possible.”

One of the things the director instilled in the students is “mistakes aren’t dumb until you make them over and over again,” Muench said.

“There’s a phrase that he says that I really like,” she said. “It is a really good reminder that mistakes are OK and you’re going to fail again and again, but the goal is to get past those mistakes and learn from them and do better the next time. I love that he has drilled that into my brain the past four years.”

Muench said being a part of musicals has helped her become a better overall student and person.

“Cinderella” dance captains are sophomores Alayna Banks and Aubrey Manion. Seniors Angelina Magnotti and Stefi DiPrampero are student directors.

Tickets can be purchased individually or in groups.

There will be an empty seat between groups of people to help with social distancing, meaning not all seats will sold.

More information about the musical is available at bpsd.org.