Rebecca Kleefisch's daughter got engaged in a surprise proposal during a play in Sun Prairie

The romantic story of Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Cinderella" stepped off of the storybook pages and into real life at the Sun Prairie Civic Theatre's closing night of the show Sunday.

As the cast took their final bows, Gabe Hanna, the actor playing the prince, got down on one knee and proposed to Ella Rose Kleefisch, the actress playing Cinderella. Kleefisch is the daughter of Rebecca Kleefisch, who served as lieutenant governor of Wisconsin under Gov. Scott Walker from 2011 to 2019, and Joel Kleefisch, who served for 14 years in the Wisconsin State Assembly.

"I've known Ella for the last two years, and throughout the last two years, I have been the most happy that I've ever been in my entire life," Hanna said before he knelt. "Two years ago, I was awake at night hoping, praying to God, that someone would come into my life and love all the things that I love and do all the things that I do and be my everything. And yes, I found her. She is my angel."

The crowd, full of family and friends of the couple, erupted into applause. The couple shared a kiss, and then the cast, including Hanna and Kleefisch, finished the final song.

The heartwarming moment began as Hanna, 24, and Kleefisch, 20, were reading a message thanking the audience and encouraging them to support the theatre company and its future shows. Then Hanna's speech took an unexpected turn.

"I think you can see exactly the moment in the video when I realized he wasn’t reading off the paper script," Kleefisch said. "Then I immediately started bawling, and our entire cast was in tears. ... It was very impactful that they were all there for the greatest moment of my life."

Planning a surprise proposal

Planning the elaborate proposal "took as much preparation as you would think," said Hanna, who's from Janesville.

He began setting the pieces in motion eight months prior when he started designing a custom engagement ring. When Kleefisch returned from her sophomore year at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, the couple, who'd been dating long-distance for two years, decided to audition for "Cinderella."

"We went through the normal audition process," Hanna said. "Obviously, I was rooting for the prince. She was rooting for Cinderella. But we had no guarantee that we were going to get them, but ... we were granted those roles, and we were ever so grateful."

About three weeks into rehearsals, Hanna approached the production team with his idea of proposing to Kleefisch at the end of the show. After getting approval from the SPCT board, the show's director Tyler Stone began working with Hanna and the production team to devise a plan that Kleefisch, a self-described "surprise uncoverer," wouldn't be able to sniff out.

The team decided to give Hanna and Kleefisch scripts at the end of the performance, making it look as if the leads were reading a message to the audience while giving Hanna a platform to seamlessly pivot to the surprise proposal.

"We told Gabe, 'We're going to have a script; you're going to start out with just saying 'thank you for coming to the production,' and then you're free to take it from there,'" Stone recalled.

Stone said his team had multiple cameras "ready to go" to capture the special moment. The couple's families, who filled the front rows of the theatre, also had their cameras ready. Hanna had informed them of his plan via email and arranged for the first two rows to be reserved for family.

Stone said the cast had to do the second half of their usual on-stage warm-ups in the nearby chorale room so Kleefisch wouldn't see the reserved seats and become suspicious.

"It was a very, very, very big surprise," Kleefisch said. "I have obviously been so certain about him being my forever for a very long time, but I live in Texas when I'm doing school, and he lives here, so I was not expecting that."

She said in trying to make the proposal "an extreme surprise," Hanna led her to believe he wouldn't be proposing anytime in the near future.

"So, I like lowered my hopes ... " Kleefisch said. "He kept it a secret. He did a good job."

The couple met on Bumble and maintain a long-distance relationship

Kleefisch will be a junior at Baylor this fall, where she studies communications with a minor in museum studies. She is considering pursuing a master's degree.

Hanna was born in Madison, raised in Janesville and graduated from UW-Madison in 2020 with a degree in theatre and drama.

The couple met on the dating app Bumble in 2021 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hanna said. They communicated online for about a week before going on their first date.

"We just hit it off right off the bat because we started sharing all these very similar stories and qualities that we were looking for in a significant other ... ," Hanna said. "The moment that my eyes met Ella's, I knew she was something special. About six months later, I had decided I'd fallen in love with her, and I wanted to be with her for the rest of my life."

The majority of the couple's relationship has been long distance, but they make time to see each other over school breaks, and Hanna has visited Baylor. Kleefisch hopes their relationship serves as an encouragement to other young people.

"Love does exist in our generation. You can find it; it is real," she said. "And distance shouldn't scare you, because real fairy tales do exist."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Rebecca Kleefisch's daughter engaged in surprise proposal during play