The cast members of Cherry Hill High School West’s spring musical, “In The Heights,” couldn’t be any more different from one another.
All the students on stage come from a different place. A melting pot of heritages, races, religions and backgrounds has come together for this year’s play.
However, through their differences, the cast couldn’t have more in common.
Diversity is something in which teachers and students at Cherry Hill West take pride. Carole Roskoph, an English teacher and the director of student activities at the school, said the diverse and friendly student body is what makes the school unlike any other.
However, Roskoph and much of the cast also feel a divide in their hometown, a split between residents from the east side and the west. She said many views about the west side of town are incorrect.
“There’s a perception of what this community looks like,” Roskoph said.
Roskoph said there are negative perceptions of the west side in part due to its vast racial, ethnic, religious and economic diversity. This was a primary reason why “In The Heights” was chosen as the school’s spring music.
Opening on March 21, “In The Heights” depicts the Washington Heights section of New York City. The characters in the show come from a vast range of Latino countries, and learn to overcome their differences throughout the show.
Many members of the cast feel the characters of “In The Heights” closely represent the Cherry Hill West community. There are many themes in the story that relate to the cast in their own lives.
Jose Hernandez said “In The Heights” has a message of accepting people for who they are rather than where they come from or what they look like. This is an attitude the school community embraced when he first moved to Cherry Hill.
“They were all inviting,” Hernandez said of his first days in the township. “They didn’t seem intimidating at all.”
“In The Heights” is the first musical Morgan Smith is participating in at Cherry Hill West. She said despite the school’s diversity, the community is incredibly close.
“You can show people this idea of acceptance or love or communication,” she said.
Valerie Wilson is different from many of her classmates as her family resides on the east side of town. She recalled receiving remarks from members of the community after they found out she chose to go to “that other school.” Wilson and other students said people sometimes look down upon them compared to their fellow high school students at Cherry Hill East.
“I tend to say I go to West for the pride,” Wilson said. “I want to experience new things.”
Wilson added that West’s diversity is more representative of the United States.
“This is what our country is,” she said.
The musical’s diverse characters also allowed the school to consider a larger pool of students. Roskoph said the school wanted to reflect its diverse population in this year’s play. Because of the characters in more traditional musicals, minority students are sometimes shut out of big opportunities.
“Those types of musicals were limited in the people we could cast,” Roskoph said.
With “In The Heights,” the door was open for any student to participate, emphasizing the school’s diverse community even more.
Many of the students are heading into the March 21 opening with something to prove. They are hoping to showcase “the reality” of the Cherry Hill community through their play.
“Through this show, people will see what the reality really is,” Roskoph said.
