The Craft Theater was full to capacity as teachers, students and parents alike waited anxiously for the Community Ensemble Theater (CET) production of ‘Evita’ to begin.The show, by Andrew Lloyd Webber, tells the story of the life and legacy of Argentinian legend Eva Peron. In the opening scene, Argentina mourns the death of Eva Paron. The rest of the play is a flashbackof Eva Peron’s life leading up to the time she dies. Che narrates the play and takes us through her life.
The lead role in ‘Evita,’ Eva Peron, is demanding. CET director Quinn Strassel cast two leading ladies to play the part: two CHS juniors, Hannah Hesseltine and Alexandra Cubero-Matos.“It was a totally new experience,” said Hesseltine, who played Evita during all of the evening performances. “I think we both were challenged by [the role]. But I think we both learned a lot.”
Cubero-Matos shared Hesseltine’s sentiment.“At first I was a little bit concerned about how it was going to go, but we ended up sharing all of the same experiences,” she said. “We sang together until we were both comfortable with it. When we started blocking it became more difficult; we were always there together. It was kind of tricky at times, but we both got a lot out of it.”
Other actors in the show were also challenged by the double casting of the lead role. “At the beginning I was uneasy about it,” said Isaac Scobey-Thal, a CHS sophomore who played the role of Che. “It was hard for me to build a character relationship from me to them when there were two of them.”
Hesseltine and Cubero-Matos each portrayed the role of Eva differently. “[Hesseltine] has this classic soprano voice and [Cubero-Matos] just belts and puts so much emotion into it.,” said Scobey-Thal. “They are different, but they each give a great performance.”
Hesseltine, who has performed in several Pioneer Theatre Guild shows and plans to audition for Future Stars later this year, decided to try out for the show earlier this school year. “I spent my first two years at Pioneer and it was fun and I really liked it,” Hesseltine said. “I wanted to try something new and CET seemed like a good way to do that.”CET provides a different environment than the theatre guild at Pioneer. “I like the smaller theater,” said Hesseltine. “The contrast between the two spaces is pretty big, and both have their advantages and disadvantages.” Cubero-Matos was more familiar with the smaller theatre at CHS. “I’ve been in CET shows since my freshmen year, the big difference with this show was getting a main role,” said Cubero-Matos.
The cast and crew worked long and hard to get ‘Evita’ ready in time for opening night. In addition to the rehearsals after school, the actors would have to practice their parts on their own. “[After rehearsal] I would probably practice 30-40 minutes at home,” said Scobey-Thal. “It was hard and I put a lot of work inside and outside the rehearsals. I was hard pressed to watch the Tigers World Series run. It was pretty much eat, sleep and memorize for the play.”
Even with all of the preparation that the cast and crew put into ‘Evita,’ they had to remained focused throughout the performances.“It’s easy to get into auto-pilot mode,” said Scobey-Thal. “I had put in so much work that I didn’t want to just zone out. The shows are where you have to put in the most work. You always have to be locked in. I wanted to have a fresh start every performance.”
Cubero-Matos also found the production to be challenging.“I was a little worried at first because this is the biggest show CET has done and we had our smallest cast,” she said. “I think we were really able to pull it all together.”
Overall, Evita was a wild success. The audience went away praising the cast and crew of CET.
Photo Source: M Ruth Morris
