UWL SummerStage is unlike other productions because it is open not just to students across campus but to the greater La Crosse community. The Cinderella cast included UWL staff and students, but also adult and teen actors from the area, as well as six young kids playing mice and a cat. With a lean production staff, the stage management team takes on additional responsibility in the summer, often handling props and both organizing and running backstage.  Including, in this case, the remote-control bird!​

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Summer productions have at least one fewer weeks of rehearsal, requiring careful planning and tracking to ensure each moment of the show gets needed time for music rehearsal, blocking, choreography, and review. This is especially important because the schedule must also contend with teen actors not done with high school yet, adult actors needing to take their own kids to soccer tournaments, and everyone's pay-the-rent work schedules!

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