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Stunning performance of Aladdin by St.A’s

The St.Augustine School’s performance of Disney’s Aladdin Jr. was well staged, very well performed and overall an excellent musical. The St.A’s Theatre Studies Program put on the production from June 5 to 8 at the high school gymnasium. The students rehearsed the play for approximately an hour every other day and their practice paid off.
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St.Augustine Theatre Studies Program presented Disney’s Aladdin Jr. on June 5 to 8 at St.A’s. Ricky Boyce played a very animated Jafar

By Tiffany Williams

Editor

The St.Augustine School’s performance of Disney’s Aladdin Jr. was well staged, very well performed and overall an excellent musical.

The St.A’s Theatre Studies Program put on the production from June 5 to 8 at the high school gymnasium. The students rehearsed the play for approximately an hour every other day and their practice paid off.

The play promised to add touches of current pop culture and that was true as soon as you saw in the program Colton Cleaver’s character ‘The Prince Formally Known as the Artist, who was one of Princess Jasmine’s suitors.

Jasmine was portrayed by Czarina Mendoza, who had a beautiful voice and was not afraid to hit the high notes, which she did perfectly. For Mendoza it was her first play and she was a little bit nervous when they started.

“I figured that I am in Grade 11 and I wanted to take a chance. It was something that I always wanted to do and it was a pretty good experience,” she said. “Plus Aladdin is one of my favourite Disney movies, so it was great.”

Two of the cutest actors were the magic carpet and the thief played by two very young actresses and actors, Sydney and MaxFlaherty. As the magic carpet, Sydney, was able to portray her facial expressions to the back of the room, which is very hard for even experienced actors. Plus, she was ready to fly anywhere when the carpet was needed with a slight nod of the head.

Ricky Boyce as Jafar and Collette Vogel as Iago were the funniest pair on stage. Vogel kept her tone strong for the entire performance and was a hoot as the sidekick parrot. She had the crowd laughing more than once. Boyce was the loudest on stage yet he did not overpower the other members of the cast. He had a stage presence that could not be denied and walked the stage with power and authority as he tried to steal the thrown from the Sultan.

The genie was absolutely a riot. Katherine Bergum, painted her face and arms blue, which took approximately 30 minutes to put on and 20 minutes to take off. She spoke clearly and you were able to hear every word and joke that she said perfectly. As she intensely tried to get Aladdin out of the cave her mannerisms were unique and added a whole knew dynamic to the character.

The costumes of the towns people were bright and very colourful and the ensemble dance numbers were very well done.

The play was directed by Pamela Radchenko and Lori Kirchner both enjoyed working with the students and watching how well they all worked as a team.

“I was really proud of them. They really encompassed the sprit of the play,” said Kirchner. “They did unreal. It was a lot of fun and they are a really good bunch of kids.”

As the play wrapped up for one more performance on June 9 in front of their school only time will tell what is in store next from St.A’s Theatre Studies.