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People Making A Difference: Strangers Stage Driveway Production For Senior Missing Out On Final High School Musical

MOORPARK (CBSLA) — From the age of two, musical theater has been a passion for Moorpark High School Senior Olivia Hymas.

She's even put her voice to work, earning money for college by entertaining at children's birthday parties. And, in January, she landed the coveted role of Golde in her high school's production of "Fiddler on the Roof."

"We had been preparing for it for like two and half months before corona canceled it," Hymas said. "And I was really upset about that."

But the coronavirus pandemic didn't just put an end to her senior year, it robbed her of her final opportunity to perform in a high school musical.

So her mom took action and posted the senior's story on the Ventura County Adopt-A-Senior Facebook page in hopes someone could cheer her up.

"As soon as I saw 'Fiddler on the Roof,' and that she was Golde, I knew exactly what to do," Stacy Hunter, Hymas's fairy grad-mother, said.

Hunter, a fourth grade teacher from Ventura, had never met Hymas, but she connected with her story. The two share a common love for musical theater, so she arranged a surprise with Hymas's mom to bring the production to their home.

"There was this man," Hymas said. "I had no idea who he was, but he was dressed up like Tevya, the lead man on 'Fiddler on the Roof.'"

Hunter asked her good friend, Conejo Players actor Gabriel Vega, to perform the Sabbath prayer duet on a driveway with the teenager neither had met — all while practicing social distancing.

"I got to perform as Golde," Hymas said. "My parents got to see it, and so I got to perform it for someone."

And though it was not the performance Hymas imagined, the gift from two kind-hearted strangers is one she will never forget.

Hymas will graduate with a 4.3 GPA and is headed to Brigham Young University in the fall where she plans to major in entrepreneurial management and minor in music.

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