Dolphin Show students work magic over winter break to bring ‘Cinderella’ to life

Students involved in the Dolphin Show worked tirelessly over winter break to bring “Cinderella” to life.

Gabe Hawkins, Assistant Photo Editor

January 7, 2025

Most students headed home for winter break the minute their finals were finished, hoping to escape the cold. However, for Communication junior and Dolphin Show associate lighting designer Alex Yang, winter break meant work for the nation’s largest student-produced musical was just getting started.

The Dolphin Show, a beloved campus tradition with origins tracing back to 1939, requires much manpower to run. As actors and technical workers gear up to present “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella” ahead of a Jan. 24 opening night, Yang and roughly 20 other production members opted to stay on campus during winter break for an action-packed week consisting of set-building, assembling lights on lighting rigs and finalizing technical logistics in a process known colloquially as “Winter Build.”

“ The whole week [is] purely dedicated to building the set and seeing all different parts come together,” Yang said.

Winter Build demanded a lot of its workers. Along with helping to build the set, Yang juggled responsibilities like brainstorming lighting ideas and taking notes on lighting design.

Yang recalled that assembling lights in Cahn Auditorium took two days. Building the set was another undertaking entirely, he said, and won’t be completed until the end of the first week of Winter Quarter.
The intense week of production design offered Winter Build workers a unique opportunity for cohesion and bonding, Communication senior and “Cinderella” director Rachel Rubin said.

“I found it really helpful to be there and spend so much time with the design and tech team,” Rubin said, adding that Winter Build made her confident that the design and technical teams are “all on the same page” about the upcoming production.

As the production’s leader, Rubin was eager to lend a hand during Winter Build. She offered support to the costumes team, aided the hair and makeup department and assisted with scenic design.

The Dolphin Show also relies on student producers who work long hours over break to coordinate logistics for the production and spearhead initiatives to boost engagement.

Communication senior and “Cinderella” producer Rachel Olkin assists with production-related purchases, budget management and day-to-day scheduling, while Communication junior and co-producer Jay Jeon facilitates marketing initiatives like capturing social media content and budgeting paid advertisements with community newsletters.

The production managers, Communication junior JingXi Yap and Medill sophomore Sophia Casa, also balanced demanding responsibilities during Winter Build, working an average of 10 hours per day to ensure operations ran smoothly. Yap and Casa were responsible for coordinating schedules for those involved in Winter Build, assigning jobs to production workers and working with designers, among a plethora of other tasks.

“A lot of us artists come into the space with a lot of ideas,” Yap said. “ As production managers, it’s our job to help hone those ideas and shape them into one fully realized production vision.”

Students involved with the Dolphin Show are not strangers to large projects. In previous years, the Dolphin Show has presented renowned Broadway musicals like “Kinky Boots,” “Matilda” and “Little Shop of Horrors.”

Looking to the future, Casa hopes “Cinderella” will outsell “Kinky Boots,” which set the record for the highest-grossing Dolphin Show in the production’s history last year, a perfect accomplishment to encapsulate all the love the crew gave to “Cinderella” during Winter Build.

“ I love Winter Build,” Yang said. “It’s really so much fun because it’s a whole week purely dedicated to building the set and seeing all different parts come together, and you’re just surrounded by the people who are part of the process.”

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