By STEPHEN HAMMILL

Carrollwood Day School’s performing arts department, along with 175 of its students, recently staged a musical for hundreds of family and friends.
The school’s production of “Disney’s Aladdin, Junior” took place at the Carrollwood Day School auditorium, 1515 W. Bearss Ave., on the evenings of March 13 and 14.

“Disney’s Aladdin, Junior” is a Broadway-style musical that closely follows the action of the successful animated film. The play is part of the Broadway Junior services, which adapts classic and contemporary musicals into shorter editions aimed at middle school-aged performers.

The main cast comprised students from the upper levels of the middle school. About 100 students from the elementary wing of the school also took part as townspeople and extras.

The students began rehearsals in January under the direction of Susan Borden, the school’s music and performing arts teacher.

“This is a wonderful place to work,” said Borden. “Everyone pitches in and I have tons of volunteers.” This is Borden’s fourth year directing the school’s musical.

“The cast takes the responsibilities seriously,” she added. “They work hard on their own. They’re enthusiastic, and a joy to teach.”

Borden also cited her assistants and a dedicated crop of volunteers including parents, staff, students and alumni in making the play a success.

Volunteers designed the sets, transforming the school’s auditorium into the enchanted city of Agrabah. They also fabricated costumes for a cast of 170. Carmen Conrad served as the play’s costume designer. She said clothing hundreds of extras wasn’t easy.

“The hard part is getting the costumes for the entire cast so they all look comfortable,” she said. “I want the kids to feel good about their costumes.”
Conrad, whose daughter, Dakota, played Genie, said the school re-uses materials from previous productions to cut down on costs.

“And Terry Sayyah did a fantastic job designing the backgrounds,” she added.

In addition to the sets, the crew built a life-size elephant, on which Aladdin could ride down the aisles and onto the stage.

The story of Aladdin hearkens back over a thousand years as one of the collected tales from “The Arabian Nights,” which was first translated into English by Sir Richard Francis Burton in 1855. It was adapted from this version in 1988 by Howard Ashman into a Disney animated musical. He wrote a script treatment and wrote six songs with Alan Menken. Following Ashman’s death, Tim Rice joined Menken to finish the film’s songs.

The crew put on its finishing touches at dress rehearsal March 12, where they worked out the various kinks and took cast pictures. This is the school’s lone major production this year. They perform a musical twice in the spring, according to Ruffkess, who said the school used to hold one performance a year at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

Carrollwood Day School was founded in 1981 as a secular private school. It has grown to include elementary, middle and high schools. The school is a nonprofit corporation governed by a board of trustees.

“This is a big event for our alumni,” said Erma Ruffkess, director of marketing for Carrollwood Day School. “For the middle school this is one of the highlights of their experience here.”

“Plus the costumes and sets – they outdo themselves every year,” she said.

Carrollwood Day School can be found on the Web at http://www.carrollwooddayschool.org.