BUCKFIELD – Selling elementary and high school students on staging “Fiddler on the Roof” was tough, music director Ethan Wright said, but once they understood the story and learned about Jewish traditions, they got into it.

“It is my favorite musical of all time,” Wright said. “There is a lot of dancing and we had a choreographer work with the 15 boys in the play.”

Curtains for the production by the Buckfield Junior-Senior High School music and drama departments will go up April 9-11 at the high school.

The play is based on the book “Tevye’s Daughters” by Sholom Aleichem, who came to the United States from Russia in 1905.

The setting is the small Jewish village of Anatevka, Russia, in 1905, and the story is about the efforts of Tevye, a milkman, his wife, Golde, and their five daughters to cope with their harsh existence under czarist rule while trying to maintain family and religious traditions.

To make sure the actors understood the background of the Jewish faith, Wright took the cast to Temple Shalom in Auburn to visit with Rabbi Hillel Katzer.

“He was awesome,” Wright said. “He had to speak to students from grade one through high school, and told them, ‘You need to believe in these traditions to let the message get across on the stage.'”

The rabbi also explained traditions such as the lighting of the candles, the prayer books and how they were read from back to front, all aspects of Jewish life that made the play script come alive for the students, he said.

“It made a difference in how the students responded to the script,” the director said.

Wright praised Jed Allen, who plays Tevye.

“He really gets into the role in a big way. Cheyanne Goroshin in the role of the youngest daughter is a knockout,” Wright continued.

There are 53 students in the production, 25 of them elementary age. The 15-member orchestra is made up of students and music teachers in the area.

“The community has been great with costumes and building the set,” Wright said as he showed off how the stage could be transformed from one set to another in seconds.

The performances are set for 7 p.m. on April 9, 10 and 11, and 4 p.m. on April 12. Admission is $5 for students and senior citizens; $8 for adults.