From Aug 5-14, Carlsbad Community Theater brought to life the play Fiddler on the Roof at the Avo Theater. Fiddler on the roof is a Jewish story based on the character Tevye, the father of five daughters, attempting to maintain his jewish cultural and religious traditions. The three oldest daughters are looking for love and Tevye must learn to cope with it.

Carlsbad Community Theater is a relatively small group of volunteers who work to bring shows to the community. Director Ric Henry worked together with musical director Jessie Bullock and the Choreographer Kathryn Baker to make this production happen.

Ric Henry directs plays for Carlsbad Community Theater and is director and founder of Showcase Company, a group of experienced performers ages 8 through 18 dedicated to expanding their skills and education in musical theatre through weekly classes and performances throughout the Carlsbad Community.

“I loved working with the professionals because they already know what they’re doing and you can work with them on a different level of perfecting and bringing so much to the characters. That’s always really exciting,” director Ric Henry said. “On the other hand, it’s really fun to work with the kids who haven’t done as much and need the experience and a little more guidance on how to develop the character and learn how to do the accents on people from different countries. It was really cool to work with that.”

Cast members ranged from ages 10 all the way to adult. There was three hours of rehearsal every night seventy times during the summer.

“My experience was super awesome it was such a fun musical to be in,” senior Brandon Blackman said. “I liked it a lot because all my friends were in it and it made my summer awesome.”

Blackman played the part of Yussel. Yussel is one of the men Tevye’s daughters want to marry. With a cast of 47 it was difficult to fit all the cast members on stage. They had to make an extra circle of people inside the circle in the beginning scene. Despite the difficulties, Ric Henry was able to use his directing skills and work through it.

“My favorite part of being director of this show was making the dream sequence my own,” Henry said. “It was really fun for me to be able to do that, especially working with the lead we had for Tevye. He’s a local professional actor and he did such an amazing job. He has so much experience that it’s really easy for him to take everything that I asked him to work on and make it happen.”

There were 26 people out of 47 were part of a family. In the future, Carlsbad Community Theater is preparing for Elf junior and Little Shop of Horrors.

“We had a lot of families in the cast so it was a real community feeling,” Henry said. “I was super proud of this show. I think we put on a really professional show which, here at CCT, we really strive to do for the kids.”