West Linn High School Performing Arts Dept.

RODGERS + HAMMERSTEIN’S CINDERELLA

Set and Lighting Design by Jon Ares.

November 2024.

Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella - Music by Richard Rodgers, Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Original Book by Oscar Hammerstein II, New Book by Douglas Carter Bean. Direction and Costume Design by Annie Kaiser. Music Direction by Kevin Egan, Vocal Direction by Annie Kubitschek. Maggie MacKenzie, Production Stage Manager.

I’ve designed this show before, but it was the “older” original 1957 script. This script has been updated quite sensibly, and is a really lovely show for modern times. The main set element consisted of a (really quite large!) rotating stone wall/palace staircase. I wanted to play up the elegance of the palace, without a lot of scenery, so I relied on soft goods and a magical star field. The home of Ella and her stepsisters plays up more of the fairytale-architectural style, but due to limited offstage wing space, needed to be double-sided to show both inside and outside. (The author created a lot of very FAST scene changes where characters would flow from one location to another, which makes set changes VERY challenging.

I forgot to bring my camera, so these photos are from an iPhone, and others are graciously offered by Ramiro Gomez Photography. I have also included a few Vectorworks renders of the set model.