ALADDIN AND THE WONDERFUL LAMP
(1988)
“Aladdin” was a musical dramatization of the story from “The Thousand and One Nights”. We presented this as a representation of a traditional English pantomime. Our March performance schedule was altered to suit the show in that we opened on a Friday night, performed a Sunday matinee and hosted a Dinner Theatre on the following Tuesday night. The schedule worked as the show drew extremely well and had enthusiastic audiences - especially the Tuesday matinee with a full house of Elementary children. In true pantomime style, we had a male play the “dame character”, a dastardly villain who was booed and hissed all performance, ‘pop’ style music, a two-person camel, audience participation and so on. It was great fun!
One of the most legendary stories associated with the SSHS Drama Club began during this production. A hoax, originated by two members of the production’s staff was intended as a joke but grew out of all proportions, despite repeated attempts to deny the story. This was the “Bob Seger” saga. The original story had the well-known singer, Bob Seger, knowing someone on the SSHS Drama Production staff.... ”Bob” was going to be in town during the performances and would be attending the show. As the rumour grew, members of the production team became more and more excited.....then came the night that “Bob” was in the audience and the cast and crew became truly caught up in the excitement. One cast member even wanted to sing for “Bob”. An audience member clad in a leather jacket, who admittedly had a resemblance to the famous singer, became the unwitting focus of attention as he was identified as “Bob”. Excitement now reached fever pitch and didn’t subside even after the performance was over and the cast had been told that “Bob” had left the theatre! The story took weeks to subside no matter what was done to refute the story of the “visit of Bob Seger” to SSHS and to some of the SSHS Drama Club the story remains an important chapter in the SSHS Drama Club Book of Theatre Memories.
Photos of the production are provided by “The St. Croix Courier” (researched by Joanne Mires)
