“Theater has always been there to push those bubbles and limits:” Great Falls Theatre Company performing Fiddler on the Roof in July
Story by Jenn Rowell | Photos by Laurel Hunt, The Electric’s summer intern
“A story about people who happen to be Jewish,” with universal themes, takes to the stage this month with the Great Falls Theatre Company’s latest full scale musical.
Fiddler on the Roof is a classic, Tony award winning story and songs that have delighted millions since it debuted on Broadway in 1964.
Set in early 20th century Russia, Tevye, a Jewish dairyman, tries to find a balance between the old and the new, family and religion, love and practicality, all “without breaking his neck.”
It’s a cast of 44, plus 24 orchestra members, for a total of 68 local performers, plus the backstage crew and volunteers.
The show includes original costumes and sets, created by locals, with a 2.5-hour run time and a 15-minute intermission.
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It’s the company’s biggest cast so far, since their 2021 founding, with Ryan Hurley directing.
“It’s a really big show,” he said.
Hurley first saw Fiddler as a high school freshman in 2004, as a “shy, introverted kid” who loved theater.
It was a first time he saw a musical and realized it’s more than just the singing.
“It gives you a look at the human experience,” he said of Fiddler. “It’s a universal story that can be relatable to anybody.”
It’s not a story about Jewish people, rather, “it’s a story about people who happen to be Jewish.”
The show was adapted to play in Japan and Hurley said in that culture it still resonated with arranged marriages and the patriarchy.
When he first saw the show, he was a young impressionable teen from small town Ohio.
“You get that bubble of how life is supposed to go,” but musical theater “opens your mind to see things from more perspectives. To look outside of your small little bubble.”
Hurley hadn’t thought much about Fiddler since high school, but when the Great Falls Theatre Company started talking about performing the show, he said he’d love to direct.
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Some of the songs are well known, but he “didn’t really know the depth of the story,” and it changes as he’s aged, experiencing life, losses, gains, love and grief.
“It’s like boom, in your face,” Hurley said, after having lost both his parents over the last two years.
The show looks at parents trying to do what’s best for their children, who want to choose their own paths, while parents are caught in tradition.
“It makes you question your own beliefs and traditions and faith,” Hurley said. “It’s very relevant today and forever.”
The musical is on its surface about a father and daughter, he said, but has broader themes of displacement.
The show was set around the turn of the century, with imperial Russia threatening to throw the Jewish people there from their homes.
Similar things are happening today, but in different ways, Hurley said, with people being forced from their homes, “not because of what they did, but who they are.”
It’s a testament to their resilience, Hurley said, “it’s a very beautiful show.”
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It’s a show that might seem like a bad idea to perform during certain geopolitical realities, but considering that could be a form of self imposed censorship, leading to the stopping of art out of fear, leading to the death of art, he said.
“Theater has always been there to push those bubbles and limits,” Hurley said.
People are so caught up in their daily life, scrolling social media and fighting online, he said, “theater brings us to these levels of this is happening, this is present and how can we make a better life for ourselves.”
Having directed Steel Magnolias for the company last spring, he wanted to direct a full-scale musical.
“I love that I get to do these, and anything I do, I bring a lot of heart to it,” Hurley said. “You have to bring the subconscious of the human experience to life, and that comes from the heart.”
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Preparing for the show and processing grief at the same time, Hurley said sometimes he catches himself crying and laughing, experiencing sadness and joy, living in all of that.
This spring, 60-70 people auditioned for Fiddler, showcasing the growing community awareness of the Great Falls Theatre Company.
The large cast includes some new faces and company regulars, he said, all “beautiful people.”
The cast includes some board members who wanted to perform and some who had been behind the scenes but wanted to try a different role and be on stage.
Jennifer Cantley is a company board member and served as the music director for previous shows who is taking to the stage for Fiddler. Her husband, Dave, is a local architect who designed the sets for Fiddler and joined the cast.
The company has been busy since the spring auditions with rehearsals moving between some locations until they could get into the Great Falls High School auditorium, where they’ll be performing the show over two weeks.
Hurley said he arrived in Great Falls in 2013 and participated in a local theater program where one of Fiddler’s cast members was his director.
Being part of the company is working with people that they grow with and see the talent here in Great Falls, Hurley said, including teachers performing with their former students, spouses and siblings.
“I think community theater is one of the best things,” he said. “It’s something you can’t really get anywhere else.”
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Having live theater in Great Falls is as important a cultural and recreation element as sports, he said.
“I think we’re all getting really accustomed to living life ourselves with a phone in our hand all the time. There’s nothing like live theater. It’s a whole different experience,” Hurley said. “People need to have that exposure to art that has come from a certain age in time, it’s our history, it’s human history, it’s the history of our world.”
“Theater opens up your mind a bit to the bigger picture. What you can do as a person in this world,” Hurley said, especially with Fiddler.
For local artists, Hurley said, it’s “important for people who want to come out of their shells and perform. There are people who crave performance or the spotlight, that human exchange of emotions. It’s important for artists to have that outlet. They have that need of performance, of putting on a show.”
For those who participate in arts in school, but maybe don’t pursue a degree or career in the arts, can return to community theater.
“It’s great to have this to come home to,” Hurley said.
The June 24 rehearsal was the first meeting of the cast and the orchestra. Both groups had rehearsed separately, but in the seated rehearsal, they learned to work with each other, listening for cues to coordinate the performance.
Elizabeth Quinby, the GFH orchestra teacher, recruited the musicians to play and said to the group that Tuesday to have “patience and grace” as they worked through kinks, starting with the song “Tradition.”
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Kara Baugh, a rising C.M. Russell High School senior, is performing in her first show with the company.
She participated in theater as a kid and played in the pit for her school drama department’s recent performance of Pirates of Penzance, remembering “how much I love it.”
Her vocal teacher encouraged her to audition for the show and she’s found the production to be a “welcoming environment.”
Everyone is accepting of making mistakes and learning new things, Baugh said.
Theater, she said, tells a story and “opens eyes to the world around us. It helps us connect with others, bringing the emotions of the culture and places around the world.”
It’s very emotional, heartfelt and human, and theater reminds us of “some of the different human emotions we feel,” Baugh said. “It teaches us a story of other cultures and I think it’s really cool in our little corner of the world.”
Laureen Asa-Dorian Johnson is serving as the dramaturg for Fiddler and is also a cast member.
As the dramaturg, she’s got a job that’s hard to describe, but it’s like a historian, working with the content of the play and serving as liaison between the audience and the production. She created a sort of database with background and minutia of the show.
Johnson has been involved in the company with a role in it’s opening musical Oklahoma!, followed by roles in their productions of Steel Magnolias and Music Man.
“I’ve been enamored with the theater since I could talk,” she said, and community theater is the “most noble” of art where “everybody does it for the love of it.”
Theater is rich and involves so much that all comes together on the stage, Johnson said, and there’s “so much to be gained from the arts in general.”
The Great Falls Theatre Company as an organization pays attention to details, she said, helping it thrive.
“I’m so glad that we have this here. It enriches the soul,” Johnson said. “It allows us to take stock of our lives, and our world, our community.”
Great Falls has a symphony, museums, art galleries and “theater is another component to that. Great Falls is a great city, full of friendly, talented people.”
With every show, new people show up, Johnson said, and they “become like a family, community within the community.”
Fiddler is a classic and was her parents favorite musical.
It broke Broadway records and was a box office smash when it went to film, Johnson said, with many of the songs recognizable, becoming part of our culture, such as “Matchmaker” and “If I Were a Rich Man.”
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Want to go?
All performances are at the Davidson Auditorium inside Great Falls High School.
The two weekend run includes five evening performances at 7 p.m. and a special closing matinee.
Run time is about 2.5 hours with a 15 minute intermission.
Tickets can be purchased online or limited tickets will be available in person at the box office one hour prior to show
time.
General admission tickets are $25 and $15 for students (elementary and high school).
There is no reserved seating.
Showtimes are:
- July 10 at 7 p.m.
- July 11 at 7:00 p.m.
- July 12 at 7 p.m.
- July 17 at 7 p.m.
- July 18 at 7 p.m.
- July 19 at 2 p.m.
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