{"id":28866,"date":"2024-03-01T17:49:27","date_gmt":"2024-03-02T00:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-senior-lily-sandner-continues-to-build-theater-family\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:43:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:43:13","slug":"montezuma-cortez-senior-lily-sandner-continues-to-build-theater-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-senior-lily-sandner-continues-to-build-theater-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez senior Lily Sandner continues to build theater family"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lily
Lily Sandner (front middle) at the dress rehearsal for the upcoming MCHS play \u201cHello Dolly.\u201d (Nicholaus Sandner\/Courtesy Photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

For a theater program brimming with creativity and high energy from its dozens of members, it can take a strong ballast to keep the ship from sailing off course.<\/p>\n

Step into any Montezuma-Cortez High School theater production in the past few years, and the evidence is clear to see, senior Lily Sandner provides that guiding presence to keep an ever-growing program pointed in the right direction.<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s in her genetics \u2013 Sandner is the daughter of M-CHS theater director Nicholaus Sandner \u2013 but her passion for the program extends far beyond having been surrounded by the arts growing up. Sandner now takes it upon herself to make the M-CHS theater program a family of its own, bringing in dozens of students who can play key roles \u2013 whether as actors or in tech, stage crew, and set design \u2013 in creating a cohesive large-scale project that can be showcased to the whole community.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez High School junior Lily Sandner (Milly) and classmate Chandler Snyder (Adam) play the lead characters in the production of \u201cSeven Brides for Seven Brothers\u201d in 2023. (Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lily
Lily Sandner and Piper Singleton as \u201cMilky-White\u201d the cow and Ellai Black as \u201cJack\u201d at the Cortez Middle School's premiere of \u201cInto the Woods Jr.\u201d in 2017.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lily
Lily Sandner showed her art during an exhibit at the Zu Gallery in April. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lily
Lily Sandner as \u2018Tock the Watch Dog\u2019 and Oliver Caceres as The Senses Taker rehearse Tuesdayfor Cortez Middle School\u2019s play \u201cThe Phantom Tollbooth\u201d in 2018. (Emily Rice\/The Journal)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cMy family has always been creatively-minded, my mother through painting, my father through theater,\u201d assessed Sandner of her development of theater as a passion, \u201cand it\u2019s always been a release for me \u2013 it allows me to get \u2018in a moment\u2019 and show my true self \u2013 but through the medium of a character.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTheater is a \u2018family unit\u2019 here,\u201d she added, \u201cand I learned that from some of the upperclassmen like Jadon Cruzan, Koral Jackson, and Savannah Story when I was first starting at M-CHS, who helped teach me how to interact in a more professional setting, but also how to encourage the underclassmen. I like when people can be their best \u2013 and I appreciate having examples of how to get there \u2013 I want to provide a way to help them be their best selves, and for them to teach me to be the best version of myself, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

In many ways, Sandner has served as a matronly figure for the theater program \u2013 quite literally in her female lead role as Milly, the guiding conscience in \u201cSeven Brides for Seven Brothers\u201d during her junior year, following up on her role as Lady Volsius from \u201cJourney Through the Impossible,\u201d where her character acted as a steadying influence for the protagonist George through his various travails. Sandner will wrap up her major production career with M-CHS with her role as Irene Molloy in \u201cHello, Dolly.\u201d However, it\u2019ll be her work behind the scenes that helps kick the performance up an extra notch.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019Hello, Dolly\u2019 has a lot of dancing \u2013 and usually my father takes on the choreography for that \u2013 but with so many people, it\u2019s hard to keep track of it all,\u201d said Sandner. \u201cWe\u2019d spend two hours going through one particular dance, and we\u2019d pick a chunk and we\u2019d teach it, then add another chunk, and put them together. It\u2019s been a new experience for me, and it\u2019s shown me just how difficult it is to be an actual choreographer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandner has shown her range on stage, deviating from a script in her various theatrical enterprises, including as one of the leaders of the M-CHS improv acting troupe. In 2021, Sandner joined forces with seven classmates to earn the Critic\u2019s Choice Award at the Colorado State Thespian Conference \u2013 an event that has brought Sandner back for other competitions during her high school career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love having characters that have a lot of personality, and I always enjoy making people laugh. It\u2019s part of the reason that \u201cThe Play That Goes Wrong\u201d was my favorite from my time here \u2013 I could be goofy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acting is but one of her many artistic contributions to the M-CHS community, as she earned a spot on the Honor Choir at Adams State University, while serving on National Honor Society, along with earning a high score on the Advanced Placement Art exam.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s in the visual arts where Sandner finds her most profound love, enjoying the process of depicting a narrative through drawing and graphic design.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy calling is art,\u201d said Sandner, \u201cand I love storytelling \u2013 both through movies and through animation \u2013 I enjoy being able to tell a story through a picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHello, Dolly\u201d premieres on Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m. from Ralph Vavak Auditorium with performances also on Saturday, March 9 as well as March 15-16, with shows at 7 p.m. on Friday evenings, and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. performances on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that really draws me to acting is the community.\u201d Sandner said. \u201cWe\u2019re here to have fun and develop family units \u2013 and to do it with people I know and trust.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

family, Sandner promotes the arts and brings out the best in her peers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,36,2401,29,910],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-28866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-musical-theater","tag-newsletter","tag-theatre"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80560,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28866\/revisions\/80560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28866"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=28866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}