We started doing this play around early November 2008. It was going to be a pantomime for our school’s Christmas Concert. IreneWarren was our drama instructor. She was the one who decided that Aladdin would be a good play for us to do. We got to work straight away and there was an audition for each part.
Ross was picked to play Aladdin and Niamh was chosen to play the part of his cranky old mother, The Widow Twankey. Vika had to play the evil black witch Abanazer and Robert played her evil little son. Rebecca was the genie, Katie was the princess and Ryan was the sultan.
Hamza was Niamh’s cow, Betsy, and Aaron was Niamh’s washer boy, Wishy Washy. Sean and Chloe were Dumb and Dumber. Clara and Luke played two naughty village children.
Everyone got their lines and Irene showed us what we had to do. Soon enough our play was in full swing!
We had lots of rehearsals and finally the day of the concert arrived. All the parents had come to see us. We were a bit nervous but as soon as we began everyone was enjoying themselves and it was a great success!!!
A few weeks later our principal, Micheál Ó Cochláin, came into our classroom and told us about a Dramafest that was going to be held in a nearby school called Deerpark. Since he thought we were so good in the Christmas Concert he asked us would we like to enter Aladdin in it and of course we said yes.
So there was even more rehearsals and we added in some songs as well. We took out some of the old lines and added in some new ones. We changed our costumes and got new props. Our show was going to be great!
When it was time for the show, we were a bit nervous again, like the last time, but we did our best and we were proud of ourselves. It turned out that we came 4th out of 27 plays! We got The Best Primary School award and Vika Fleming (who was the evil black witch, Abanazer in the play) got a special acting award!!!
But that wasn’t the end of Aladdin. We had two more shows coming up. The first was for everyone in the school to watch, and the second was for Ringaskiddy Youth Festival! We were nervous when we got up on the stage. We could hear the excited chatter of our audience from behind the curtain. As we got into our places for the opening scene, we all knew that we would do our bests and have fun, even if we did make one or two mistakes, and that was all that mattered.
The next day Mr. Ó Cochláin came into our classroom and told us that we came 1st! All our practice had paid off! We were very happy. Vika also got another acting award! The award ceremony was to be held in Ringaskiddy the Friday after the show. Our teacher, Mr.Moynihan had to pick two names out of a hat. Those two people were chosen to go and accept the trophy. He picked Grace Allen and Louise Coughlan. Vika went as well to receive her own prize.
We got a big trophy, and now it’s in the school’s trophy case, alongside the other ones from Deerpark. All our wishes came true, just like Aladdin, who has his golden lamp, and we now have our lovely golden trophy. And we all lived happily ever after.
THE END
