A real-life fairytale for Petaluma couple
“There it is,” says Brittany Law. With a sizable smile and royal gesture of her arm, she indicates a large structure on wheels, parked tightly backstage between various set pieces for Spreckels Theatre Company’s current production of Rogers & Hammerstein’s “Cinderella.”
It’s still a few hours before the Saturday night show begins, and Law, who plays the title role, along with Zachary Hasbany, who plays Prince Topher, are leading a small tour of the theater’s backstage area. The ornate vehicle she has just pointed out it, of course, Cinderella’s magical pumpkin carriage, which - in one of the musical’s most iconic moments - will carry her off to the Prince’s ball, pulled by a team of mice who’ve been transformed into horses.
But first, the carriage will have to be un-wedged from its parking place.
“In little while, the stagehands will roll it across the stage and get it ready for its entrance from the other side,” says Hasbany. “This is a huge show, with a lot of literal moving parts.”
“It’s definitely a game of Tetris, to make all of this stuff fit offstage,” notes Law, stepping around a large mossy garden wall, to get to where the Prince’s royal horse Buttercup is waiting to be re-positioned as well.
“Hey Buttercup,” calls out Hasbany, speaking to the inanimate object, on which the imposingly tall actor will make his entrance in the show, in a scene where he battles a giant, steals its sword, and then tackles a dragon. That takes place offstage, of course. With all of these other props, there would be scant room in which to store an actual dragon. Hasbany approaches the fake horse, offers his hand, and then strokes its head, already at work practicing the art of theatrical make-believe.
“The trick,” he says, rolling Buttercup forward a few feet to demonstrate its mobility, “is making something on casters look smooth and seamless when you have a massive 6-foot-7-inch man sitting on it.”
“The funny thing is, Zach just got his very first riding lesson last week,” laughs Law.
“I’d never ridden a horse before,” Hasbany admits. “But Lauren, our assistant stage manager and spotlight operator for the show, she owns a horse. So she took me out and gave me a riding lesson so I’d know what it’s like to ride a real horse.”
Law and Hasbany, who are a couple in real life, are currently living in Petaluma, where Law grew up. She attended Kenilworth Junior High and then Casa Grande. Hasbany grew up in Morgan Hill, but attended SSU when pursuing a degree in communications. The two met at Santa Rosa Junior College, while playing the leads in a production of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.”
They’ve been together ever since.
Saying goodbye to Buttercup, Law leads the way through some large double doors, and back to where a number of actors are arriving and signing in.
“I have some more fun stuff in my dressing room,” she says, opening the door to the room she shares with actor Mary Gannon Graham, now arriving as well, who plays the Fairy Godmother. By “fun stuff,” Law means Cinderella’s iconic glass slippers, which she picks up from a rack against the wall and shows off, glittering in the light. “These are the shoes we use for all of the action in the show, running away from the prince and all that,” Law explains. “But they’re impossible to dance in, because they’re too narrow, so I switch them out for these other tango shoes for the ball.”
To maintain some element of surprise, we shall refrain from describing the similarly iconic magic ball gown hanging near the shoes.
“Let me show you my favorite prop,” says Hasbany, taking over the tour for a moment. He leads the way out onto the stage, past some waiting woodland animal puppets, and into the wings on stage left. “My favorite prop is the giant’s sword,” he says, hefting the enormous wooden weapon that, when perched on end beside Hasbany, actually stands about 8-feet, making it one of the few things around that is taller than him.
“When our director, Sheri Lee Miller, had the idea that I would battle the giant and then steal its sword, the first prop they gave me was just six feet tall,” Hasbany says. “But one of our amazing stage guys, Patrick Taber, he made this. It’s a pretty cool prop.”
Hasbany says he’s always had an affinity for Rogers and Hammerstein, ever since listening to “Oklahoma!” with his grandmother, who’d coax him into joining her in singing “Surrey With a Fringe on Top.” But for Law, it wasn’t just Rogers and Hammerstein that made her jump at the chance to be in “Cinderella,” originally created in 1957 for television, and adapted for the stage in 2013 with a new script and some updated plot twists.
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: