Come See the Middle School Musical, May 13-14

Don't miss the MS Players' production of "James and the Giant Peach," a rollicking musical version of Roald Dahl's classic book.
The show was created in 2010 by the up and coming musical theater team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who wrote the words and music. Performances are Friday, May 13 at 7:30  p.m. and Saturday, May 14 at 3:00 p.m., in MacDonald Hall. Admission is $3 for students/seniors and $5 for adults.
 
The show is directed by SAES choral instructor Jordan Yonce, with technical direction by  Anthony Harvey. Rachel Turner is the choreographer and Ritchie Porter the assistant director. Costumes are by Jenny Olin and Maki Yordán. The production is the culmination of the third trimester performing arts class for both the actors and the tech crew, featuring 7th and 8th graders. 
 
In the story, set in England, orphaned James Trotter (Ella Douglass) comes to live with two distant relatives, "atrocious aunties" Spiker (Sarah Schwartz) and Spiker (Michelle Cavelier) in the seaside resort of Dover. The aunts put young James to hard work, and his only friends are the insects he encounters. A mysterious figure, Lahdalord (played in tandem by Kennedy Lynch and Fejiro Esievo), who also doubles as the narrator for the show, offers James a way out of his situation. He has the lad choose a spell from a book, and assemble a potion for slithering crocodile tongues. On his way to the well to add seven drops of water needed for the spell, James trips and spills the magical mixture. The crocodile tongues not only give the insects human qualities, but they cause the aunts' old peach tree to produce a giant fruit. James and his insect friends (Ladybug, Sarah Kee/ Grasshopper,Justice Morgan/ Earthworm,Neeve Izadi/ Centipede,Thomas Casasola/ Spider, Caroline Olin) soon embark on an adventure in the giant peach, which rolls away and falls into the sea before Spiker and Sponge can exploit the huge fruit to make money. Before long the peach is making its way to New York City, carried in the air by a flock of seagulls, where the show comes to its fanciful and satisfying conclusion.
 
Back
St. Andrew’s Episcopal School is a private, coeducational college preparatory day school for students in preschool (Age 2) through grade 12, located in Potomac, Maryland.