The foot injuries to two cast members, Sofia Vanterpool as Cinderella and Jaralin Truselo as Princess Leia, just before this past weekend’s SPFHS production of “The Game of Tiaras” left directors in shock. Many at SPFHS assumed the actresses facing these challenges would have to bow out of the show, but in a play with no understudies, that was not an option. As the old saying goes, “The show must go on,” and director Morgan Knight remained determined to make sure it did.
“I honestly expected that [my director] would replace me with someone else,” Sofia Vanterpool, the actress for “Cinderella,” told The Fanscotian. “[I guess] he still saw the [potential in] me to [portray] the role in a boot.”
As a principal in the production, Vanterpool being replaced by someone else would be a larger hassle than if she kept her role. Knight decided to put a twist to her story, embracing her injury to make it a known aspect of the production. As opposed to slipping her foot in a glass slipper, Cinderella was found in a boot for this past weekend’s “Game of Tiaras” production. The narrators of the show, Mac Bastable and Josie Berthold added a line to the script regarding the injury.
“The glass slipper doesn’t fit, but the boot sure does. It’s Princess Cinderella!” Berthold said.
The final rehearsals for SPFHS’ fall play looked a little different, as two cast members were being pushed around in wheelchairs and on crutches, and their peers were sometimes expected to act with an invisible version of princesses Cinderella and Leia. Despite their concern for the outcome of the show, the “Game of Tiaras” directors, cast and crew remained calm throughout the final rehearsal process and consistently supported their injured cast mates.
“[Even for the production], I was very limited in the movements that I could do, so acting was definitely a lot more difficult,” Truselo said. “[However], I [know] to push through in order to make something successful [and] that was demonstrated with this show.”
Truselo and Vanterpool made sure to focus on their acting especially more to portray their role in the story of “The Game of Tiaras” due to their mobility struggles.
Students reflect on the SPFHS 2024 Fall Play as “cursed,” since both injuries happened on stage during rehearsals. Vanterpool faced a fall during her fight scene with another cast member and Truselo’s foot had gotten run over by The Little Mermaid’s bathtub. Overall, the question remains: will the experiences from this show influence the directors to implement understudies in the future?
