On April 24th, 2026, Iowa City High will be one of the first schools in the country to perform Frozen: The Musical after it was made available by Musical Theatre International (MTI) to theater communities nationwide on August 1st, 2025. As the fateful day approaches, the many moving parts that make a musical are coming into place.
“At this point, there are about a million tasks that need to be done. Some large, some small,” Lauren Darby, the director of the City High Theatre Program, said, “But the thing that’s most important to me is not all of those details. It’s the acting and that the students are going to be feeling connected, feeling confident, feeling sure of themselves and where they’re supposed to be and really coming together as a cohesive company, because that’s the thing that makes the biggest difference in the quality of the show.”
The musical will star Jillian Leman ‘26 as Anna, Clara Meehan ‘26 as Elsa, Cameron Echols ‘26 as Kristoff, Ev Mozena ‘28 as Olaf, and Nate Malone ‘27 as Hans. The City High Theatre Department has been working on the show for over a month, and it’s beginning to take shape as the last stretch before opening night, known as Tech Week, begins.
“I think it’s great to bond more with other actors and with crew members and stuff like that [during Tech Week],” Mozena said. “I think that this is the moment where all of the show starts to come together and it’s really exciting,”
It’s not just hard work for the leads. The show wouldn’t be complete without characters like the Duke of Weselton (Ben Haines ‘27), Pabbie (Mickey Cochran ‘27), Bulda (Esme Hutchinson-Reuss ‘26), King Agnarr (Micah Hartwig ‘28), Queen Induna (Miriam Hachtman ‘26) and Oaken (Auggie Dickerson ‘28). In addition to their roles, these characters are sometimes part of the ensemble, giving them a taste of both the spotlight and the background.
“It is something you have to be conscious of when you’re in the background. It’s two different things from when [Weselton] actually has lines from when he’s singing or just in the background or something,” Haines said. “You have to be aware that there is a main show going on. But then also maybe allowing the audience to think, ‘Oh, what’s that guy doing back there? He looks nefarious.’”
There’s more to a production than the actors, however. For the past month, the construction, paint, sound, light, and prop crews, led by Doug Lestina, have been meeting and working to get everything ready for opening night. The production has had a few challenges, including dealing with special effects and having to work around the construction of Opstad.
“Our sets are very, very big. They’re meant to take up most of Opstad. So, to be able to make these huge structures, we obviously need a lot of space and Opstad being inaccessible for so long, we had to create all of these structures in the shop or in the basement,” Zoee Noble ‘27, a paint crew lead, said. “It really affects every single crew. The actors need the stage, Paint Crew needs the stage, Construction Crew needs the stage. Costumes and Makeup both need the painting room in the basement. It was a lot of people trying to work in not a lot of space, which is obviously very difficult.”
A cabin, mountains, and enormous columns have been the major projects on the set for both construction and paint crew. While the construction in Opstad complicated the completion of these projects, most are now finished, and with opening night approaching, the end is in sight for construction and paint crews, with only a few small projects left before April 24th.
“I think the most challenging project was probably the cabin because there were just a lot of different parts to it, and so many different materials that had to be used to build it,” Lucy Buckley-Hooks ‘28, a construction crew lead, said. “Sometimes it is a bit hard to pull your weight, but it’s also been pretty fulfilling and satisfying.”
Another integral part of the production is the pit, a collection of musicians playing a variety of string, wind, and percussion instruments. The pit provides the soundtrack for the musical, as well as occasionally giving cues to the actors.
“Things are changing constantly. It’s important to be in tune with the rest of the people in the pit. But the most important thing is just watching the director one hundred percent of the time and always staying locked in with Mrs Stucky,” Gabe Bales ‘28, a keyboard player in the pit, said, “Sometime we’re giving the actors cues, sometimes the director is cueing people from in the pit. Sometimes [the actors] are cueing us. It’s a really hard balance to achieve, but we do it.”
In addition to a live soundtrack, the performance will include a couple of ‘special effect surprises’, a fog machine onstage, and new lights effects thanks to the upgrades in Opstad. The lighting crew has been working on programming the improved lighting system in Opstad for the last month. Though not currently in the lighting crew, Micah Hartwig ’28, the actor for King Agnarr, has been helping out throughout the production.
“The special effects for this show are just some of the top special effects that I think we’ve done for a while. It’s going to be pretty impressive to see the special effects, especially in person,” Hartwig said, “Getting the [new special effects] to work with the rest is kind of challenging, but it’s very rewarding when you get to look back and watch the show.”
The show will be playing at Opstad on Friday April 24th- April 26th, with two shows on Saturday at 2 and 7 and a final show on Sunday at 2, making City High Theatre one of the first schools to perform the show since MTI’s 2022 ‘United States Frozen’ contest.
“There isn’t much of a blueprint for it. We can’t just look online at what other schools have done for a lot of these things, which makes it challenging,” Darby said. “But it’s also been really exciting to be doing a show that is getting so much excitement in the community. I’m hearing from so many people about how glad they are to be able to bring their kids to this show. I think all of that is going to be really cool to see coming together.”
