The Wet Paint Players, Lebanon High School’s drama club, is partnering with Upper Valley Circus Collective (UVCC) for its production of “Water for Elephants.” The show will be performed December 5-7 at Lebanon Opera House.
Set during the Great Depression and told through memories and flashbacks, this musical adaptation of the 2007 novel by Sara Gruen tells the story of student veterinarian Jacob Jankowski who joins a circus and falls in love.
Charli Swan
The show is brought to life through a mix of acting, vocals, choreography, and circus elements. For the past few months, the students have split their rehearsal times between Lebanon High School and Northern Lights Gymnastics in White River Junction.
“When I found out we had plenty of kids in the school that do circus, I got really excited,” said Shannon Aridgides, Lebanon High School’s music and theater teacher and the show’s director. “These kids really do circus. We’re talking silks and lyras and crazy acrobatic and aerial stuff.”
“Our coaches are amazing,” said Meg Tenney, director of Upper Valley Circus Collective. “We have a bit of a tag team. They’re all either professional performers or in a professional program themselves right now.” She said three coaches did the choreography for the first 10 weeks and two coaches will oversee safety and rigging changes. “We have a large team behind all of this.”
“Wet Paint Players has never partnered with another group like we are with UVCC,” said Ollie Hermanson, a senior at Lebanon High School and the show’s stage manager. “This is brand new, and it allows us to explore this territory and open up new opportunities in the future.”
Creating Community
Although this is the first collaboration between the Wet Paint Players and Upper Valley Circus Collective, many of the students in the show have been involved in theater or circus arts for years.
Blaise Yuan (pointing) playing August and Sam Smith (R) playing Jacob and cast
Junior Rachel Horak started attending circus camps when she was seven or eight years old. After a five-year break, she got involved again and is happy she did. “It’s my favorite place to be,” she said. “I love to move, and I love when people get to watch us and be amazed. It feels really cool.”
Sophomore Gardell Wetherington started in theater and then found circus at the age of 10. “I just like the idea of getting to do what I love and then sharing it with people who go to the show,” he said.
This is Blaise Yuan’s first theater production. “I do it because my friends are doing it,” he said. “And I thought it’d be fun.”
“Community is a really big part of it,” said Hermanson. “It’s such a tight knit community, we’ve become basically like family.”
Junior Caroline Cloud, who has been doing circus for nine years, agreed. “My favorite thing about rehearsals is getting to be with everyone,” she said. And her favorite part of performing? “Getting to show everyone what we worked so hard to do.”
A Pioneering Production
The high school version of Water for Elephants only recently became available for production in the fall of 2025, so Lebanon High School is one of the first schools to perform the show.
Abigail Tremblay and Blaise Yuan
The script offers suggestions for incorporating circus elements, but it also allows for a lot of freedom depending on a school’s available resources.
Aridgides said the first few pages of the script offer guidance for staging the show, but it’s not prescriptive. “It says this is a memory play, Mr. Jankowski is remembering things, so it can be abstract,” she explained. “We understand you’re a high school, we understand you’re all from different places with different opportunities. Maybe it’s your local gymnastics team, and that’s what you’re going to showcase… We do have circus people and, not only that, they’re good.”
“Do they say the silks or the lyra or the tumbling pass will be here? No, but it lends itself perfectly to it. It’s a perfect marriage,” said Susan Lamontagne, the show’s choreographer.
“I think it’s really, really cool that we get to do something new and especially something so cool that we get to invite the UVCC circus and get to work with them,” said Abigail Tremblay, a senior. “It’s a little challenging at times, though, with so little character studies, never having seen the show, and then not having many references to go off of. It’s a lot off the top of your head. A lot of research. I’m digging around for interviews on the actors and characters to work on certain scenes. But it also feels kind of special, and I really like that.”
Junior Sam Smith agreed. “Since the only people who have performed this were on Broadway, we don’t have a lot of information on how the show actually works, which is bad but it’s also good because we can make it our own,” he said. “Especially with all the circus stuff… we can do cool, special things because there’s no rules.”
The performers all have their favorite parts of the production.
For Tremblay, it’s the music. “I feel like there’s not enough folk and bluegrass on Broadway, especially not in high school shows,” she said. “I feel like it’s underrated. I love every single banjo moment in this piece, but I also like that it dips into a rocky feel sometimes when it gets angry. The composition is so amazing.”
“I really like to see how everything grows and grows and grows,” said Simon Trussell, a junior. “We start out with nothing. Just like, what show is it going to be? Then we’re casting the actors, and we’re learning the songs, bringing in the props, getting the costumes, and then we’re getting on stage. And it’s really cool to see little by little how we’re building this whole show up from scratch more or less. That is awesome.”
“I’m so excited for the audience that isn’t really ready for the circus stuff to be so amazed,” said Horak. “I really hope it gets more enjoyment in circus in general, because I think circus is really cool.”
Something for Everyone
“I picked the show because once I knew we had the cast for it, it has something for everyone,” said Aridgides. “You can be someone who hates musicals and you can still have an awesome experience with the show.”
Meg Tenney, Shannon Aridgides, and Susan Lamontagne
Tenney has read the book twice and loves the story. “I’m the sappy one – as soon as the show starts, I’m going to cry,” she said. “The end of this show really gets me every time.”
Smith appreciates that the show allows many performers to take the spotlight. “Oftentimes with musicals it focuses on three or four people and everyone else is an ensemble, but I feel like in this musical there’s at least 10 people who all get their own song and get to show off how really good they are at acting,” he said.
“No matter what scene, no matter where you’re sitting, there’s something everyone will enjoy,” said Hermanson. He described a typical scene that includes dancing, singing, and circus, all while platforms and lighting are moving and changing. “Even if you’re not a theater lover, even if you’re not a circus lover, there’s something that you will enjoy on stage.”
Lamontagne said one of the most rewarding parts of this production has been working with the students. “Getting to work with kids that are young, relatively inexperienced and getting to teach them steps, musicality, characterisms, some of the things they’ve learned through circus, and watching their confidence in themselves grow, watching them start to create these characters and become the show – watching it build, for me, will always be the most wonderful thing to be a part of,” she said.
Many of the students in the show have been involved in theater or circus arts for years.
Presented by Lebanon High School’s Wet Paint Players and Upper Valley Circus Collective, Water for Elephants will be performed at Lebanon Opera House on Friday, December 5 at 7 p.m., Saturday, December 6 at 7 p.m., and Sunday, December 7 at 1 p.m. Tickets, by donation (suggested $5-10 per person), will be available at the door. Cash and check accepted.
For more information, visit: lebanonoperahouse.org/events/water-for-elephants.
