Young actors in action on Thursday night.
The cast after the play.
CUL DE SAC–It was a full-fledged Broadway production Thursday evening as more than 100 St. Maarten Academy students brought home the true meaning of Christmas in song, dance, and acting at the Philipsburg Cultural Centre through O. Henry’s romantic comedy “The Gift of the Magi.”
Set in New York during the early 1900s, the play told the story of a young married couple, Della (played by Krystal Philbert) and Jim (Jahmar Stewart), who found themselves awaiting their first Christmas without money to buy each other fancy gifts. They strategized and, in a strange twist of fate, ended up finding each other the perfect gifts, but at an unexpected cost.
During the performance, the sold-out audience erupted into thunderous applause several times as the young scholars underscored the main message of the play: that Christmas should be about giving the gift of love and not about material things.
The story, narrated in parts by second-formers Fadifa Lovell, Evelyne Ilceus, John Monlouis, Diangeli Arrindell, Jesslyn Langlais, Magalie Philander, Shamida George, Kisshan Zaegers, Amard Edward, Dominick Collins, Juliette Duvillage, Lyan Ali, Skyla Davis, and Gabrielle Blake, was directed by the school’s drama teacher Joanna Trim.
Trim was commended for working assiduously with 92 second-formers and other talented students from the upper levels and the school’s day-care centre for the past two months to pull off the feat. She was ably assisted by Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) Year 2 student, Aimee Monchery, who put to good use her “Grade 1 with distinction” earned at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CSEC) 2017 Music examinations.
Monchery, who plans to follow her musical dreams after earning her Associate’s degree at Academy, masterfully prepared the entire cast to perform a myriad of musical numbers. This saw rising songbirds such as Nakida Eliodore and Giselle Whinfield blending their soprano voices to create beautiful harmony with their peers.
Principal Tallulah Baly-Vanterpool lauded the production, the first of its kind for the school, as a way of promoting and supporting academic excellence in the context of addressing the needs and potential of the whole child.
“Four years ago we expanded the scope of our offerings in the expressive arts curriculum to include music and dance (as part of the Theatre Arts programme), at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) level, and now drama is the latest addition,” she further explained.
St. Maarten Academy was the first school on the island to introduce Music at the regional CXC examinations and has placed in the top 10 at each sitting ever since. Academy took the number one spot in the region in 2017 and continues to embrace the philosophy that students can realise their artistic dreams while pursuing academic careers.
Baly-Vanterpool joined the young scholars on stage at the end of the production and challenged them to pursue Theatre Arts at CXC when they get to Form 5 in the next three years. Their involvement in the play, which served as a term grade for Drama, provided a solid foundation in understanding the inner workings of theatre and what it takes to make a production successful.
Trim said she was elated to work with the group of students, as they have helped her to achieve one of her dreams. She was very appreciative to the board of the Foundation for Academic and Vocational Education (FAVE), under which Academy falls, as well as the management team, for providing “an enabling environment for theatre arts … and for being resolute in their belief that the artist and his/her craft have a coveted place and play an important role in shaping the minds and lives of the global citizens we teach.”
She thanked the school’s counsellors and her other colleagues who assisted her in supervising the students during their rehearsals. She underscored that it had taken many persons and entities to stage the play, as Arlene Halley of National Institute of the Arts (NIA) stepped in to choreograph the closing dance by Jim and Della.
NIA also assisted with some costumes, thereby allowing patrons to be greeted by smartly dressed “elves.” The director and staff of the Cultural Centre also jumped onboard with the production by allowing the school to rehearse at the location to acclimatise the novice actors to the stage setting.
Trim said she believed that the goal of the production had been achieved, as many students had sacrificed their time, learned to work together, adjusted attitudes and put aside their differences to make the play a success. By the end of the production, she said, many students were able to relate to the sacrifices made by others in their own lives, including their parents, to ensure that they, the students, did not go without, which was the main message of “The Gift of the Magi.”
“To my cast and crew – the journey was long and painstaking, marred with bloodshot eyes and sleepless nights, anxious parents and nervous students, but with a determination like Della’s we were resolute in our sacrifices and belief that we will share O. Henry’s story about the importance of the gift of love this Christmas. Congratulations to our students and parents for their unwavering support during our first theatrical performance,” Trim said.
The set, which depicted the home of Della and Jim, as well as a New York shopping centre with a shoe store, jewellery establishment, and hair store, was designed by Trim and built by Randolph “Scotty” Scott.
For the next production, Academy hopes to work collaboratively with Charlotte Brookson Academy of the Performance Arts to stage “Aladdin.”
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/83728-academy-shares-the-meaning-of-christmas-with-school-play
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