As Director of Arts Education David Solomon circled the cafeteria, he scanned the array of students to try to find someone willing to help him out with a last-minute hiccup in the middle school’s production of “Frozen Jr.” Upon entering the lunch line, Solomon found his saving grace: junior Skye Feinstein.

On March 14, the same day as “Frozen Jr.’s” opening night, the production’s Olaf, seventh-grader Gilah Evans-Dredze, fell ill with COVID-19. In the 26 musicals Solomon has directed in his career, this was the first time that one of his actors has ever felt too sick to perform.

“I was really sad because I was very excited to perform and I didn’t want to just leave all [of a] sudden because if I left, who would be Olaf?” Evans-Dredze said.

Evans-Dredze’s sudden absence did not leave Feinstein a lot of time to prepare, so she started learning lines, blocking, choreography and her solo song right away. Luckily, Feinstein had been playing piano in the pit for the musical, so the material was not completely new to her.

“I literally just was walking [and] pacing around the stage, trying to try to learn my lines as quickly as possible,” Feinstein said. “So I learned them in 30 minutes, And then [music teacher Samuel Grob] shows up and … I have legitimately 10 minutes of a music rehearsal to learn the song. We run it once with people on stage, and then the next thing I know, I’m walking on stage to [perform].”

Many other students jumped in to help with the abrupt change in plans. To fill Feinstein’s missing spot in the pit, sophomore Hadriel Dayanim volunteered to play piano for the show, and junior Alana Udell and freshman Ash Cohen helped Feinstein learn her lines by quizzing her on her dialogue and various cues.

According to Feinstein and Solomon, neither of them were nervous about this last-minute switch. Solomon, who had worked with Feinstein on the high school’s production of “Into the Woods,” had complete confidence that Feinstein would do well. Feinstein, on the other hand, attributed her lack of nerves to the fact that the quick turnaround period didn’t give her enough time to fully process the situation.

“It was the craziest experience of my life,” Feinstein said. “I felt like I was dreaming the whole time … I was so not nervous because it was just happening so fast that I didn’t realize that it was happening.”

Evans-Dredze was able to recover and performed, masked, at the second and last show on March 17. Solomon and Evans-Dredze were upset that she was unable to perform after she worked so hard to prepare, so being able to close the show was a relief to both of them. However, the two of them were incredibly grateful for Feinstein’s generosity and cooperation.

“I’m so proud of the kids,” Solomon said. “I’m still on a high.”

This story was originally published on The Lion’s Tale on March 19, 2024.