Showtime

With three full dress rehearsals under their belts, Stone Scholastic Academy’s production of “Fiddler on the Roof” is now a well oiled machine. Lines are delivered, timing is spot on, high notes are nailed, emotions are properly expressed and the technical glitches are smoothed out. All that’s left for the three adults is to make sure everything is in place and take the cast and crew through a final warm up exercise in the gym as the audience files into the auditorium. From here on it’s all in the kids’ hands.

The theater program at Stone Academy was founded in 2007 by Jamie Perry, and former music teacher Bill Marsland. Ms. Perry recalls: “I studied theater as an undergrad and had done a lot of directing before moving into education and coming to Stone in 2006. So, when Bill was hired we discussed trying to direct a musical. The first year was a total experiment. We didn’t have an elaborate set or costumes; we had a very limited budget, and we just did the best we could with limited resources. Every year we’ve added things, and tried to tackle more and more complex shows. Fiddler is my fourth collaboration with Caleb (Falle). His unbelievable talent and incredible work ethic is the reason the shows have continued to grow and evolve into the high level of productions we now produce. “