Jasper High Stages Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella, Community Turns Out

Jasper High School’s Performing Arts department mounted Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella in three performances over the weekend beginning November 20, 2025, offering a full length staging of the beloved musical to Dubois County audiences. The production presented the lush score by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II and followed the familiar narrative of Cinderella as she overcomes adversity with the help of her Fairy Godmother and attends the royal ball.

The cast featured students in principal roles, including Sam Shappard as Topher or Prince Charming and Ava Claire Werne as Ella, who meet for the first time at the ball. The school’s decision to mount a large scale musical with ensemble numbers, period costuming, and orchestral accompaniment required coordination across classroom schedules, technical crews, and parent volunteers, demonstrating the organizational capacity of the school and community to support complex extracurricular offerings.

Audience attendance over the three performances included families, classmates, alumni, and local residents, reflecting the way school productions serve as community gathering points beyond the school day. For many patrons, those gatherings provide a social focus that keeps adult stakeholders involved with school life, and they create visibility for student achievement in arts disciplines that do not always receive equal attention in district budget conversations.

The production also underscores policy questions that surface regularly in local governance. School arts programs require funding for rights, costumes, sets, instruments, and technical staff, and those line items can become focal points during school board deliberations and budget cycles. Maintaining robust performing arts offerings depends on allocation decisions made at the district level and on community willingness to support student programs through attendance, volunteering, and local giving.

Beyond immediate entertainment value, high school theatrical productions contribute to student development in ways that intersect with civic outcomes. Students practice public speaking, teamwork, project management, and time management while engaging diverse audiences. Such skill building can influence community perceptions of school quality, which in turn shapes how voters evaluate candidates and ballot measures related to schools in local elections.

As Jasper High’s production closed for the weekend, the event left a clear impression on the community about the role of public schools as cultural hubs. Continued support for performing arts will depend on both institutional commitment from the school and sustained civic engagement from residents who value the educational and social returns of those programs. For local officials and voters, the show provided a timely reminder that arts education is a visible element of public schooling and a topic worthy of attention in policy and budget conversations.