When theater teacher Jaclyn Stickel was casting the spring musical, she realized she was going to need more guys. So she got creative and looked behind the curtain where she found stage crew technicians.
Specifically the crew needed to perform during the song “Lay All your Love On Me,” the scene in Mamma Mia! when several ensemble members dance in snorkels and flippers. Included in the group number is technical director Jett Shields.
“[Stickel] told me straight up that I was going to be in the number. And I was, like, all right,” Shields said. “Why not? Senior year, so just do it.”
Still, Shields and the others were hesitant initially. As a freshman he took a semester of Theater 1, but mostly he has been around the stage not on it. Plus, he had no dance experience.
Choreographer and dance instructor Andrea Oberlander, however, was impressed with the backstage techies. “They came in just super focused and open-minded. They were excited,” she said. “That’s all I could ask for—for them to try the things that I asked them to try.”
Oberlander was surprised when the group asked to extend rehearsal time to keep practicing.
Shields said: “All of us started to realize this is what we have to do, so we have to do it well.
We’ve got to make it look good. We can’t make everyone else look bad by doing this wrong.”
As the rehearsal continued, the backstage group viewed the dance less of a favor for Stickel and more as team-building.
When Shields returned to his technical theater class the next day, he and his fellow technicians used the period as an opportunity to practice together. “It was fun because all of us were laughing about it in class and in the dance rehearsal,” Shields said. “And it’s just a bunch of guys. We were just all hanging out.”
After four performances of “Lay All Your Love on Me,” Shields has lost any stagefright. “I’m more scared because those flippers are so hard to dance in,” Shields said. “They’re so long that it feels like we’re just flopping around instead of dancing.”
Technicians are not the only new faces performing on the FUHS stage in Mamma Mia. Seniors Noelle Lidyoff and Andrew Cazares play the leading roles of Donna Sheridan and Sam Charmichael. Neither of them have participated in any Fullerton High School shows before.
Both seniors, however, have plenty of performing experience. Lidyoff writes and performs original music. In 2024, the Tribe Tribune featured Lidyoff after she won a national YoungArts Award and was an OC Artist of the Year finalist.
In middle school, she performed with professional theater company 3D Theatricals before she fell in love with songwriting.
“With music and songwriting, it’s very expressive of your own emotion and kind of telling your own story,” Lidyoff said. “But when you’re playing a role, it’s a lot different. I feel like you’re telling someone else’s story and you have to figure out how to embody someone else while still adding parts of yourself.”
Cazares has been training with a vocal teacher since third grade. He’s been a member of the FUHS choral program since his freshman year. He started performing in plays and musicals when he was in elementary school.
“They made us do yearly plays and everyone had to participate. I really enjoyed them,” said Cazares, who last performed in a musical his freshman year for a community theater. “And then I started doing it outside of school and it was really something that I gravitated towards.”
Alongside Cazares and Lidyoff is senior Jonas Baesel, playing Harry Bright. Baesel has been in the choral program since spring semester of freshman year. Along with Cazares, he performed in his elementary school’s plays. In his sophomore year, Baesel played the young persona of Daddy Cane in the FUHS production of Bright Star.
Baesel also comes from a family of performers. His dad is a professional actor. His brother Nate (FUHS class of 2022) was the lead in multiple FUHS shows.
For Lidyoff, Cazares, and Baesel, the show Mamma Mia! is their return to the musical theater stage after years. A major reason for the hiatus was not having enough time to commit to a large production.
All three have been in AP and honors classes. On top of Vocal Ensemble, Cazares and Baesel are in water polo. In their off season they play basketball and tennis. Lidyoff is the student district board member, in ASB, and on Dance Production.
For Cazares, though, limited time wasn’t the only thing holding him back. “For me, especially with singing and theater, it’s a comfort thing,” Cazares said. “If I feel comfortable doing it, I will enjoy doing it. I just didn’t really know the people [in theater] until this year.”
After forming lasting relationships in Vocal Ensemble, Cazares felt ready to audition.
“I’ve been in choir and I’ve known these people for a good amount of time,” Cazares said. “And I feel comfortable enough to, you know, put myself out there.”
Lidyoff shares the role of Donna with junior Zoe McLaughlin, each performing in three shows. Throughout the process, Stickel says she has admired how the girls supported each other.
“They’re playing the same character, but they’re not doing it in the same way,” Stickel said. “I watch them in rehearsal. They watch each other perform and applaud for each other and laugh together.”
When casting for Mamma Mia!, Stickel was reminded of her experience in high school theater. She starred as Maria in La Habra High School’s production of The Sound of Music her senior year. Her co-star was a varsity football player. The ensemble had water polo players who had never been in a theater class before.
“I really wanted it to be inclusive. I wanted to cast a show that felt like it was representing people across our campus and not just people who are taking theater classes,” Stickel said, “Staff is super supportive, administrators are super supportive, students are super supportive. I want it to look like that on stage too. I want everybody from all over campus to be wanting to be a part of this.”
With this mindset, Stickel built a cast of fresh faces. Not only are there two leading seniors new to Fullerton theater, but freshmen Erin McLaughlin and Anthony Ervin play the principal roles of Sophie Sheridan and Sky. Mamma Mia! is also Dance Production Captain senior Hannah Cheon’s first musical.
The experience level of the actors in Mamma Mia! is wide-ranging. Some have only been dancers, others are Triple Threats. In the rehearsal room, Stickel was impressed with all of the new actors.
“It always surprises me how much natural instinct people have,” Stickel said. “It’s just reminding them that, when you’re in a scene, you should be listening and reacting. That’s the basics of being an actor.”
As a first-year theater teacher herself, Stickel is excited to build a broader community of students starting with Mamma Mia. This show is also her first time working with Oberlander, music director Stacey Kikkawa, and orchestra director Troy Trimble.
“I’m coming into this group of people who know each other really well and have worked together for years,” Stickel said. “It’s strange to be the artistic director of these talented directors.”
Stickel was the student teacher for the theater department last school year, which allowed her to get to know the assistant directors. Coming into Mamma Mia, it’s helped her to not feel like a “complete stranger.”
Oberlander said: “Stickel brings a totally different vibe to things. I think our students are really accepting of it. All I wanted to do was to just be a support for her and let her have vision.”
Mamma Mia closes this week. Junior Zoe McLaughlin will play Donna on Thursday, March 13 and senior Noelle Lidyoff will play Donna on Friday, March 14. Both shows are at 7 p.m. in the Fullerton Auditorium. Tickets can be purchased at fuhs.booktix.com. General admission is $16. Student tickets are $12.
