As many know, Cashmere High School is putting on Once Upon A Mattress for the winter musical. Cashmere’s drama is coming off a high after their stunning performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a Shakespearean classic that had the audience roaring with laughter. CHS is known for its stellar drama department, from captivating sets, amazing costumes, delicious intermission snacks, and most importantly, its incredible actors who woo the audience with their amazing vocals and lead the crowd through the story. However, lots of people don’t realize that after these actors step off the stage, they are regular students too. They study for Biology, walk their dogs, and go to Dutch Bros just like everyone else.
What are their lives like when they aren’t standing in front of hundreds of people with lights shining down on them and stage makeup caking their faces? What inspired them to take to the stage and fall into a role that is so different from their reality? Has being in drama changed who they are?
The cast list for the winter musical was announced on Sunday, November 9th, and made public on Thursday, November 13th. For more information about the upcoming musical, check the Paw Print website.
Meet The Actors
Eliana Thomas (Senior)
Eliana, who once broke her foot while skipping, moved to Cashmere during the pandemic and plays piano, guitar, and violin, though she admits that the latter isn’t too good.
Eliana was given the leading role of Princess Winifred the Woebegone, who goes by Fred, a character Eliana describes as “Very energetic . . . super outgoing”. Eliana explained how Fred does not fit the “sensitive princess” role that her mother, the queen, wants her to be. When asked if Eliana thought this role was going to be easy for her to play, she replied, “It’s my first lead, so I think that that’s going to be exciting because I have a lot more responsibilities and things to learn, but I think . . . Mrs. Gubsch has a plan, and I think that after practicing it for like three months, it’ll be good.”
Eliana has been doing the winter musical for the last four years, all at CHS. She explains that she takes the fall to do swimming, her sport of choice for the autumn. “My freshman year, I started because a senior Ella Sidensticker told me that they were doing Little Women, and I love Little Women the book, and so I was like ‘okay, I have to do it’, and then I did it, and I made a lot of really close friends, and I was like ‘this is what I want to do’, because I love to sing, and I’m kind of dramatic, and so it just kind of made sense. It’s a really good community.”
Eliana’s favorite production she has been a part of so far is Mamma Mia!, sharing how she was cast as a Dynamo with some upperclassmen. “It was a party every day, I loved it a lot,” she said, smiling. Her favorite part of drama is getting to sing and dance with her friends, but the hardest part is tech week. “You have super long rehearsals, and everybody gets sick, and you’re just really tired, and it’s really hard, but it’s 100% worth it.”
Now for the more personal side. Eliana is a middle child and the oldest daughter, with her younger sister being a freshman at CHS. She has a dog named Indiana Jones, whom she loves dearly, and in her free time, she does triathlons, a race consisting of running, swimming, and biking. “I read a lot, and I like to talk,” she shares. Eliana has played tennis for the last couple of years in the spring, but is unsure about whether or not she will continue this year.
If you want to see Eliana doing what she loves, make sure to go watch her sing and dance her heart out at the musical!
Trip Martin (Senior)
Trip says he absolutely loves hiking and music, whether he’s listening to it or making it. He does a bit of skiing and a lot of video games, even occasionally doing art, though he would never show it to anyone, going as far as to see that even he doesn’t want to look at it. He has a black lab named Shadow, who is around six years old, and he is the oldest of four kids, three boys and one girl.
Trip Martin has been a part of the Cashmere drama department for all four of his years in high school. He was cast as Prince Dauntless, the male role and love interest of Princess Winifred. Trip explained how the Prince is very sheltered. “The character itself is kind of . . . he’s very uncultured. He’s barely even gone outside. He is very naive and, not exactly dumb, but very oblivious. He just doesn’t really know much about the world.”
Trip, when asked if playing this role would be easy for him, he shared, laughing, “Unfortunately. I wouldn’t say he’s relatable . . . but a little bit.” Before Trip did drama at CHS, he did Stage Kids from 3rd to 8th grade. “Going way back, in like second grade, I went to see a Stage Kids show of The Little Mermaid, and I absolutely loved it and was like, ‘That’s what I have to do, I need to do that’. It looked like so much fun.” Trip shared that he then joined Stage Kids and has been in love with theatre ever since.
Trip agreed with Eliana, saying that Mamma Mia! was his favorite as well, but adding, “I think this upcoming one is going to be my favorite.” Trip shared that the hardest part of drama for him is memorizing his lines. “I’m going to be honest, it’s the worst part. Just having to sit there and read your line over and over and over again.”
For his favorite part, Trip said, “Even though it’s absolutely horrifying, the second you get on the stage and you’re actually doing it, it’s just such a good feeling. Feeling all of the rehearsals pay off and all the time spent learning lines, memorizing, such a great feeling once it actually happens.”
Trip told a funny story about how he remembers almost falling off the stage during CHS’s production of Little Women. He was supposed to get down on one knee to propose in the “attic” set, and ended up having to catch himself because he hadn’t realized how close he was to the edge. “With all the stupidest stuff I’ve done, I don’t know how I’ve never broken a bone or had a fracture of any kind.”
Ultimately, the lead actors in the upcoming musicals love theatre and have high hopes for how it will go. However, now we know what their life is like away from the lights, when they are just regular people like any other student at CHS. Make sure to go to Once Upon A Mattress to see Trip Martin and Eliana Thomas do their thing!
