Cast of ‘Legally Blonde’ at GFESS having a ‘great time’ performing

Olivia Desilest has taken the stage on many occasions in her life, but the one she is on now is easily the biggest.

She is playing the lead role in the Greater Fort Erie Secondary School (GFESS) production of ‘Legally Blonde’ adapted from the 2001 movie starring Reese Witherspoon, as well as the novel written by Amanda Brown.

The Grade 10 student plays Elle Woods, a sorority girl who applies to and is accepted at Harvard University as part of her plan to win back the love of her life, Warner Huntington III, played by Owen Eberly.

The production, a musical with close to 30 songs, opened on Friday and continued Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

In an interview with Fort Erie Radio after the Sunday matinee performance, Desilest said she and the rest of the cast and crew are having a blast performing in front of close to 200 people at each show.

“I’m having such a great time and it’s such an exciting opportunity to do this,” she said a few minutes after the entire cast gave their final bows to a standing ovation on Sunday.

Desilest is an active member of Down the Rabbit Hole, a local theatre company based out of Ridgeway.

“I’ve never had a role this big before,” she said as audience members filed out of GFESS and congratulated her and other cast members on their impressive performances.

She admitted that after the third show, many of the student actors have grown more comfortable than they were on opening night.

“It’s better with each show we do,” she said.

Drama teacher and director Samantha Caldwell said they’ve been working on the performance since auditions began at the start of the school year.

A couple of weeks later, the full cast was chosen and it’s been a lot of hard work and rehearsing since then.

‘Legally Blonde’ is a story about a young woman overcoming stereotypes and finding confidence in herself.

Caldwell said these are important themes that resonate with students, part of the reason this was the story that was chosen. But the audience was also kept in mind.

“We also wanted to do something a little more comedic this time around,” said Caldwell, noting that ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ was the student production hosted by GFESS two years ago, which she described as a “dark and tragic” musical.

Teacher and producer Giorgio Fragnito agreed the staff and students are lucky to be able to perform at a state-of-the-art venue, and that audience members are fortunate to have a theatre space like it so close to home.

“We’re getting a lot of community members who aren’t necessarily affiliated with any of the cast members,” he said.

There is a sold-out dinner theatre edition this Friday, as well as shows on Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

The show takes place in the 500-seat theatre at GFESS, which opened in 2017.

Tickets can be purchased at dsbn.org/schoolcash.

For more information, Caldwell can be reached at samantha.caldwell@dsbn.org.

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