Standing Room Only (SRO) Theater, a community-based theater group with a mission of creating, maintaining and growing a live theater presence, will host its first musical performance in five years with four showings of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Cinderella” in mid to late August.
The showings are 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 17; 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 23; and 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 24. Tickets for “Cinderella” can be purchased online at srotheater.org.
Daniel Wyman, co-director of SRO Theater’s “Cinderella” musical, said he and co-director Dale Sharp have been responsible for casting the show, running rehearsals and ensuring that the cast is “ready to perform at the highest level.”
With “Cinderella” serving as SRO Theater’s first musical production since “Mamma Mia” in 2019, Wyman said the community-based organization is feeling an added sense of excitement for the upcoming performances.
“There’s definitely a lot of excitement, certainly within our group and the audiences that we’re still connected with. I’m hopeful that the community as a whole will be excited to see it as well,” Wyman said. “The community should expect a magical community production. People from all parts of our community will perform a really fun, classic musical.”
The cast features a total of 23 members including Sophia Tate, Jennifer Weber, Carolyn Cornwall, Savannah Creamer, Natalie Hodges, Spencer Cornwall, Kalen McCrea, Tamara Bell, Adam Cornwall, Adrian Roberto, Alicia Lucia Garcia, Amy Levanel, Audrey Van Kooten, Britney Levanel, Gabe Levanel, Karie Fountain, Kaydince Wampler, Kingsten Warner, Lucy Toompas, Lucy Cornwall, Oliver Barber, Ray Francis and Saria Amezola.
Aside from the two co-directors, the production crew includes Kelly Cornwall, Mackenzie Cornwall, Dawn Young, Yvette O’Keefe, Steve Harshfield and Carolyn Cornwall.
Wyman said auditions for the four performances of “Cinderella” began in April, and SRO Theater had a “really great” turnout.
“We saw a lot of new faces there. We started music rehearsals in June, and all through July we’ve been meeting multiple times a week to really learn the dances and the singing to get the scenes worked out in order to work on the relationships between the characters. This has helped our new actors develop,” Wyman said. “The majority of the 23 cast members are new to our company. Six of the performers have done shows with us in the past, and quite a few of them have performed at the high school or other venues. They’re just new to SRO Theater.”
With more SRO Theater performances planned, Wyman said the support from the Yelm community means everything to the organization.
“It’s really the reason we do this. Our mission is to bring the magic of live theater to this community. Our murder mystery shows at Farrelli’s these last couple of weekends were wonderful,” he said. “We’re really looking forward to Cinderella and bringing in great crowds for that.”
Wyman also wanted to give a “special shoutout” to his co-director Sharp, who taught drama at Yelm High School during the 2023-24 school year. During his time at the high school, Sharp and the YHS drama club hosted several shows.
“He’s worked with a lot of our current cast that are coming from the high school level,” Wyman said. “Unfortunately, that particular drama role is not one that ended up returning to the high school for the upcoming school year, given the levy failure. That missing from the high school has been a big motivator for our company to see what we can do to step up and fill some of that role for those students who may no longer have an outlet at the high school to learn about theater.”
