Mariott Theatre’s Production Of ‘Cinderella’ Filled With Magic

Jaeda LaVonne plays the role of Cinderella in the Marriott Theatre’s production. PHOTO BY BRANDON DAHLQUIST.
Jaeda LaVonne plays the role of Cinderella in the Marriott Theatre’s production. PHOTO BY BRANDON DAHLQUIST.

Mariott Theatre’s Production Of ‘Cinderella’ Filled With Magic

By Tia Carol Jones

Jaeda LaVonne knew theatre would be the thing she did for life when she went to see Romeo & Juliet at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. She was dressed up, sitting in the velvet chairs and compelled by the actors she saw on the stage. She recalls saying that she wanted to do what the actors on the stage were doing and she knew she would do it and she would be really great at it.

Jaeda LaVonne comes from an arts family, with her father majoring in theatre in college. She started doing plays in school and in church, from middle school and high school. While in college, she realized she couldn’t step away from the arts and ended up getting her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting and a Master of Fine Arts in Acting.

“Clearly, the love and passion, I just couldn’t get rid of it. I couldn’t leave the stage,” she said.

Jaeda LaVonne plays Cinderella in the Marriott Theatre’s production of “Rogers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” which runs through December 29th. She found out about the Marriott Theatre from other actors. She initially submitted a taped audition for the role of one of the stepsisters and received a call from the director who wanted her to read for Cinderella.

While the production tells the story of Cinderella, Jaeda LaVonne said there are some new magical elements added to it. She said Laura Rook, the director of Cinderella, has done a great job of grounding the story, while making the characters feel connected even with them being over the top. Cinderella is running in the theater at the same time as “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas” so there is Christmas décor on the stage, that magic has been added to the production.

“I feel like that just adds to the magic of Cinderella because Christmas can feel like a magical time, as well, so I feel like that’s going to be a new offering that people might not have seen before,” Jaeda LaVonne said.

For her performance as Cinderella, Jaeda LaVonne is going back to her childhood, with a childlike imagination of how she felt watching the story. She also is bringing a lot of herself and her quirkiness, with the way she likes to play. She said the great thing about Cinderella is the way she uses her imagination and dreaming and it’s how she’s able to create new reality despite her circumstances. Jaeda LaVonne gets to come to the character and think about how she uses the elements and bring that to the character.

Jaeda LaVonne hopes that the young people who come see the production are inspired. She said they are the next generation of theatergoers.

“I hope that if there’s someone in the audience like me when I was a little kid and it is their first experience in a theater, that it feels magical, that they feel transported into a new world and I hope they walk away dreaming of ways in which they can use their imagination more and newer ways of looking at the world, maybe on stage themselves one day,” she said.

Jaeda LaVonne is encouraging adults to also come to see the production, because it is a season and time where people can come together and dream a little bit more and add a little imagination and magic.

Marriott Theatre is located at Ten Marriott Drive in Lincolnshire, Ill. For tickets, visit www.marriotttheatre.com.


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