BHCT Brings Frozen to the Mainstage

Disney’s Frozen opens Friday, Sept. 25, at the Historic Theater in the Performing Arts Center of Rapid City, kicking off BHCT’s 59th season with a production that has drawn more than 90 people to auditions and dozens more behind the scenes.

The final cast numbers 34. Sixteen musicians will play the score live. A 17-person production team is joined by additional volunteers working on costumes, props, scenery and the technical problems that come with adapting a movie built around literal magic.

Ryan Puffer, BHCT’s Development and Marketing Manager, said that has been one of the biggest challenges of bringing the show from screen to stage.

“Taking such an iconic piece of media from the screen to the stage is a huge challenge, especially when one of the most important aspects of the original source material is literal magic,” Puffer said.

The production team and volunteers have spent weeks finding ways to make those moments feel familiar without the benefit of animation or a film edit.

That has meant, Puffer said, “the tweaking and rigging of dresses, gloves, staircases, puppets, lights and everything in between.”

Elsa, Anna and a Big Local Cast

Kaitlin Petrushev plays Elsa, with Gretchen Lindenberg as Anna. Jacob Schendzielos plays Kristoff, Matthew Vidal is Hans, David Herr takes on Olaf and Penny Stevens plays Sven. Hollen Rice and Tilly Van Sambeek appear as Young Elsa and Young Anna.

Eleven members of the cast are making their BHCT Mainstage debuts.

Puffer said the show seems to have given new performers several reasons to audition.

“No matter how old you were when Frozen first came out, the movie holds a very special place for lots of people,” he said.

There is the draw of performing in a Disney musical, he added, along with a story centered on Elsa and Anna and the relationship between the two sisters.

The production also reaches back to an earlier Frozen at BHCT. Two members of the current cast appeared in BHCT’s youth production of Frozen JR. in 2019 and are returning to the story seven years later as part of the Mainstage company.

Director Kristol McKie has previously directed Sister Act, Fiddler on the Roof and City of Angels for BHCT. She is joined by Assistant Director and Choreographer Anna Auchampach, Vocal Director Jen McNabb and conductor Skye van Duuren.

“Directing Frozen has been a joy, and I can’t wait to share this iconic story with Black Hills audiences,” McKie said in the production announcement. “It shines even brighter as a stage musical, bringing its beloved characters to life on stage for audiences of all ages to enjoy.”

There’s More Music Than the Movie

Audiences who know Frozen from the animated film will recognize Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff and the kingdom trapped in winter, but the stage musical has more room to wander into parts of the story the movie passes over quickly.

Puffer said the musical spends additional time with smaller characters and storylines, including more of the royal family’s backstory.

It also includes more than 10 songs that weren’t in the film.

And in Rapid City, those songs will have a 16-person live orchestra behind them.

“The musicians are playing almost non-stop in this production,” Puffer said. “There are very few scenes that don’t have some kind of orchestral underscoring or effect.”

Skye van Duuren conducts an orchestra that includes three keyboards, flute, oboe, reeds, trumpet, horn, trombone, violin, cello, bass, guitar and drums and percussion.

Puffer described a score that can get big and sweeping, but also follows the emotional movement of individual scenes and characters.

That music is only one part of the machinery surrounding the actors.

Isla Woodruff and Matthew Vidal designed the scenery. James Randle handles lighting design and Sven construction. Chris Lee, Josselyn Vasquez, Jordyn Icenhower and Jackie Mangnall make up the costume design team, while Cindy and Terry Hillman designed props.