Over the summer, Theatre Director and Fine Arts Chair Janine Papin directed, through a two-week summer intensive course, Monty Python’s Spamalot and unquestionably took the school’s theatregoers on a theatrical adventure.
The course was offered to any high school students, including those from other schools.
During the course, the students followed a very demanding schedule. In her Note-from-the-Director, Papin wrote, “The student’s [followed] a schedule similar to what would be expected if they were professional performers.”
Professionalism is exactly what this young group of actors showed with their powerful performance of Monty Python’s Spamalot by Eric Idle and Juan Du Prez.
Papin’s decision for Spamalot came from the simple fact that, “Spamalot rights were just released, and no one else had done it.”
The class was extremely intense, and the reward of finishing the show in two weeks was definitely rewarding.
“We pretty much blocked out all of the show by the end of the first week so we learned a lot each day. We were expected to remember everything from the day before, but it was so much fun,” said sophomore Nicholas Reifler. “Also being with the cast from 8:30 to 5:30, 5 days a week for 3 weeks made us all [very] close”
Beyond the direction by Papin, the school’s favorite pianist Patrick L. Nugent assisted as the Musical Director. Nugent and his band of four musicians certainly contributed to the spectacular performance.
Another returning face was choreographer Ellie Potts Barrett who previously assisted Papin with the school’s production of Hairspray over the summer of 2011.
The production had a cast and crew of well over 30 students, none of which were seniors. The majority of the cast members were freshmen and sophomores, which says a lot about the future of the theatre department.
“The future of this department is very bright with a lot of up-and-coming talent and passion for the stage,” said Papin.
Spamalot is a musical parody of the Arthurian Legend and is inspired by the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Although somewhat similar, the film and musical definitely have different attributes: starting with the singing/dancing that is the very essence of musicals.
Spamalot tells the tale of King Arthur’s quest to find the Holy Grail. Arthur, played by Junior Matthew Christopher, and his servant Patsy, played by Sophomore Nicholas Reifler, recruit several knights to accompany him on his quest.
This list of characters is quite long, yes, but doesn’t even sum up all of the ensemble members whose support to the company was undoubtedly significant.
Christopher received the Gypsy Robe (Award of Excellence) for his performance as King Arthur. “He got the robe for not only jumping into something he had never done before but for being such an awesome Arthur,” said Papin.
Junior Charlotte Craig not only played The Black Knight but was also the dance captain. “The dance captain helps the choreographer by writing down everything and remembering small details and cleaning [up] choreography with anyone who needs the extra help,” said Craig. “Being dance captain was so much fun I really felt a lot of responsibility but it was exciting to get to help out. Especially since there were so many rising high school students in the show.”
Freshman Jimmy Hurley (Sir Lancelot) and Tony Moreno (Sir Galahad) had the audiences laughing hysterically with their clever wit and almost-endless facial expressions.
One instance in particular was Hurley’s “His Name is Lancelot” musical number. The character of Sir Lancelot questions his identity throughout the play, which without a doubt creates many moments of humor, and Hurley certainly played that to his advantage and took the demanding role to another level.
“Playing [Sir] Lancelot was challenging. It required a British accent (which took me longer than necessary to get down), lots of movement, and an overwhelming amount of self-confidence,” said Hurley, “During Act 2, it was such a challenge to hide my crop top! It took time to get everything down, but I enjoyed my finishing product and was very happy with myself and the whole cast!”
“His Name is Lancelot” was easily one of the most entertaining scenes of the show. “Jacob Hallady-Glynn did an amazing job as Herbert and he would always put a smile on my face during the scene,” said Hurley, “When it comes to the Lancelot number, who doesn’t like a disco party? The dancing and energy in the number makes me so pumped!”
Beyond Lancelot’s number, other notable scenes include: “The Song That Goes Like This,” “Always Look On the Brightside of Life,” and “You Won’t Succeed on Broadway.”
The show was full of such interesting characters and each cast member took that to their advantage. Each character had depth and seemed to really care about their performance.
The acting, singing and dancing, the costumes were superb and so were the costumes. Theatre Director and Psychology Teacher Donna Walker successfully recreated costumes of such a time period and of such complexity.
Patsy, The Knight of Ni, and the Lady of the Lake’s costumes definitely stood out. Their costumes all had so much going on and constantly caught the audience’s eyes.
Some characters even had up to five different costume changes.
The show was fantastic; and it certainly looked like the students had an amazing experience.
“As cheesy as it sounds, every part of being onstage and even offstage was so much fun because the cast was just as lovely in front of the audience as they were while getting dressed and running around frantically backstage to make it to our next entrance,” said Reifler. “But my favorite part of the show if I really have to choose is any time the audience laughs – oh the many kinds of laughs you hear.”
Monty Python’s Spamalot was lively, energetic, hilarious, and a fantastic way to open the 2013-2014 school’s theatre season.
