By Brett A. Mejia ’13
THE ROUNDUP
Brophy’s spring musical production “Once Upon a Mattress” comes to Xavier’s Virginia Piper Performing Arts Center March 22.
Directed by Brophy English teacher Ms. Dorothy Dunnion and assisted by Brophy English teacher Ms. Susan Maynard, “Once Upon a Mattress” is a satiric retelling of the fable “The Princess and the Pea.”
The story takes place in medieval times in a mythical kingdom, led by King Sextimus (played by Jackson Santy ’13) and Queen Aggravain (played by Xavier student Sarah Stansburry ’12), following her and her devious acts to keep any princess from marrying her son Prince Dauntless (played by Sean Cahill ’12).
It is not until Princess Winnifred (played by Grace Kirkpatrick ’12) comes along that Queen Aggravain has finally met her match.
It takes about two and half months to prepare for the musical.
According to Ms. Dunnion and Ms. Maynard, deciding who to cast is the hardest part of putting the play together.
Cahill said it took him one week to memorize his lines and it will take some time to learn all the dance moves.
The preparation work also includes rehearsing with vocal and instrumental director Mr. Paul Olson and creating the set design in collaboration with the Tech Theater Crew, led Brophy religion and fine arts teacher and Tech Director Mr. Ron Douglas.
With all these pieces, the cast and crew prepare for their first performance by practicing and rehearsing. There are approximately 60 Brophy and Xavier students who will appear in the production.
The 60 include nine leads Santy, Stansburry, Cahill, Kirkpatrick, Joe Milligan ’12, John DiMino ’12, Michael Myers ’13, Maggie Rodriguez ’12 and Abby Wirth ’12.
As the king’s Jester, Myer’s said his favorite part of the play is when he is “failing at juggling” in front of the king.
Behind the stage Mr. Douglas and the Tech Theater Crew are in charge of building the set and running the performance.
The tech crew consists of about 45 Brophy and Xavier students and they will put more than 120 hours into creating the sets and preparing for the live performance in March.
The set will be castle like and very colorful.
“The creativity is huge and every time there is a new challenges and magic,” Mr. Douglas said about building a set. “It’s a blast and we make it work.”
Editors Note: Jackson Santy ’13 is an editor for The Roundup”and a cast member of the musical but took no part in writing this article.
