Wings Fall 09 - St. Scholastica Academy

S S A V O L U N T E E R S Honored at Spring Choral Concert
Casey Fekete, Molly Dutel, Cindy Fekete,
Milissa Block, and Seth Block
SSA volunteers were honored at the annual Volunteer
Appreciation Dinner held at the Abbey in Covington on May 1,
2008. The buffet was served to the volunteers before they
attended the SSA Spring Choral Concert. “WSSA 190.3 -
Radio Show”, under the direction of Sharon Scharmer. The
school’s volunteers are a vital part of the continued success of
St. Scholastica Academy and they are valued greatly at the
school.
The group contributed over 4,100 volunteer hours during the
2007-2008 school year. Marguerite Celestin, President, Mary
Kathryn Villere, Principal, and Elaine Simmons, Advancement
Director, welcomed volunteers and thanked them for their
continued support and hard work.
“ T H E K I N G A N D I ”
By: Katie Schimmeck
With a cast and crew of 179, the St. Scholastica Academy
Benedictine Players 2008 spring production of The King and I was
truly a community effort.
Director Patricia Schaff cast everyone who tried out for a part
in the Broadway theatre and film favorite, and friends and family
of SSA worked tirelessly to ensure the success of the production,
which ran April 9-13 in Benet Hall at St. Joseph Abbey in
Covington.
Schaff, whose direction of The King and I marked her 54th
musical, said the musical “was a fabulous addition to my list of
productions. The entire concept of the play was formulated
around community. Children joined us from over twenty schools
in the entire St. Tammany Parish area, ranging from ages eighteen
months to 18 years. We truly worked as a well-oiled machine,
committed to the project and organized to perfection.
The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical takes place in the early
1860’s and follows fiercely independent Anna Leonowans as she
teaches modern Western education to the 39 wives and
concubines and 82 children of King Mongkut of Siam. A struggled
relationship ensues between Anna and the King, due to the King’s
restrictive and overbearing nature, but eventually, the pair
becomes close. Notable songs from the musical included “I
Whistle A Happy Tune,” “Getting to Know You,” “The Small
House of Uncle Thomas,” and “Shall We Dance?”
The set was furnished with fabulous backdrops featuring an
elaborately painted Buddha and a gorgeous copy of the city of
Bangkok in 1862. The dais was trimmed with four 20-foot
columns for the king’s throne room scenes. For nostalgic reasons,
periaktoi, which are revolving triangles featuring painted scenes,
from the 1998 SSA production of The Sound of Music were
repainted and used as set tabs.
Props used in the production were authentic, and the costumes
were exact replicas of the ones used in the 1956 film featuring
Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr. The costumes were custom
made and ornate; in fact, one of Anna’s dresses featured a skirt
composed of twenty yards of fabric.
24 D O V E W I N G S