The musical “Fiddler on the Roof” started winning awards from its first Broadway production, quickly making a name for itself as a classical musical. The production first came out in 1971 and was based on the stage musical put on by Joseph Stein. Now to continue the storytelling tradition, West Linn High School’s performing arts center is putting on the “Fiddler on the Roof” for their fall musical this year. 

The story of “Fiddler on the Roof” is set in a small Russian village. It centers on the character Tevye, a poor Jewish dairyman with five daughters, while he is dealing with tradition, faith, family, and the sweeping changes his town is going through. 

Kyla Hennessey, sophomore, playing the role of Shprintze, is the second youngest of the daughters in the play.    

“It’s about how their customs were and how their life was from before all of the pogroms started, which was why they were kicked out of all their villages and had to move places,” Hennessey said.  “It’s just about how they had their lives during this time.” 

The play presents  values of family and how traditional and new-age ideas can be contrary to these families. Lucia LaViolette, senior, plays the lead female role, Golde, who is the mother of the five daughters. Her role includes preparing her daughters for marriage.

“There’s this very common motif throughout the whole show of love and culture and religion and how they all interact,” LaViolette said.

Jack Walters, senior, plays Tevye, Golde’s husband. His character focuses on the balance of being protective towards his daughters while maintaining his love and understanding for them.

“The show’s main conflict is Tevye grappling with his daughters breaking tradition, but ultimately accepting change through love. It’s a theme that resonates beyond the story itself,” Walters said.

LaViolette has been in the school’s musical program since her freshmen year. She started as part of the company, which is made up of the background characters, and year after year LaViolette gained the bigger roles. 

“If you want to be in a lead role by your senior year, you need to start in your freshman year. It is so important,” LaViolette said.

The audition process is around three days, where the hopeful actors are present either singing, dancing, or giving a monologue.

“There’s the first day of auditions, the second day is callbacks. And then sometimes there will be a dance call, which is kind of the same thing as callbacks, but it’s just physical movement,” LaViolette said. “In the audition, it’s just singing. And then that evening, the callback list gets posted, and if your name is on it, it’ll be under a specific character or multiple and then you’ll come in the next day, which is callbacks day, and you read scenes with other people who are called for the same role or different roles, and you give a monologue too. And then if there’s no dance call, the cast list is posted, either that night or the next day.”

In anticipation of the role that the actors wanted this year, they started preparing after the show was announced so they could understand the production before auditioning. 

“I did a lot of research for the musical over the summer, because at the Thespian dessert at the end of the year, they usually announce the shows that they are going to do next year,” Walter said.

With the performances coming up starting on Nov. 7, the cast is deep into their rehearsal and practices. 

“We’re helping each other. We run lines with each other all the time. Before rehearsal starts at 3:30 we’re in practice rooms, practicing all our songs, rehearsing our harmonies,” Hennessey said. “I know people also hang out after school and practice all their lines and scenes and everything. It’s really amazing to watch how everybody is taking priority outside of school and with our school, too.” 

To learn her role, LaViolette needs to understand who her character is, if her role moves like how she does or talks like how LaViolette naturally talks. She needs to physically feel like her character.

“It usually takes me a good month into rehearsals to physically feel the character how she moves, stands, [and] gestures. I’m a teenager in 2025, not a mother of five in 1905,” LaViolette said. “For every rehearsal, I’ve been wearing a long maxi skirt to get into character. It helps me feel like I’m in 1905 Russia.”

Hennessey is playing the role of a younger girl who is mentally challenged. She has to decide how to create her character in the play. 

“Knowing how young to make her is kind of difficult because she is one of the younger ones,” Hennessey said. “It’s like, ‘oh, do you want her to be like a kid, or do you want her to have that big sister mentality?’”

The cast this year has been described as having a close-knit family bond. Having this close of ties with the cast and crew makes it a better environment for support from one another. 

“No cliques, everyone supports each other and lifts one another up,” Hennessey said. “We do this big circle, and we close our eyes, and then usually a senior will say things to get us ready for the show, and then we shake it all out and stretch and do vocal warm ups and everything to make sure we’re ready.” 

The rituals this year help the cast and crew become closer and more of a family.  

In addition to the actors, all of the designers and the behind the scene students are there to attend the full runthroughs, to help with the lights, sounds, props, and other needs. Walters helps make the props during his scene shop days, and creates set pieces with the old town feel. 

“Putting the show together, both as a performer and as someone who’s working backstage, it’s really fun,” Walters said. 

The show ran on the nights Nov. 7, 8, 12, and 13, and will also run once more on Nov. 15, you can buy the tickets from the box office or online at wlhstheatre.org.