St. John’s Catholic School has a reputation for high quality drama performances over
the past few decades. Like many other school activities, performing came to a halt in
March of 2019 due to the pandemic. The students were only one week out from
performing the full version of “Fiddler on the Roof”. This abruptness was devastating to
the cast and crew, and the musical was never performed. It has been a long recovery
period to resurrect the Drama Club at St. John’s; we needed to build the interest and the
funding to bring back this once popular after school activity.
Last year, St. John’s had a “taste” of drama again with Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory, performed by Mrs. Sullivan’s fourth grade class. The response was well
received and gave our Director Mrs. Pamela Sullivan a glimmer of hope that she could
rebuild the Drama Club. Mrs. Sullivan expressed that involvement in theater allows the
students to shine in public expression and characterization, which aligns with our
classical curriculum.
Over the past few months, twenty-nine students, a handful of faculty, and parent
volunteers dedicated many hours in preparation to proudly host “Matilda, Jr.” the
musical! The show opened Friday, March 22 at 6pm, and drew nearly 250 people! It
was a fantastic opening night, and the students were excited to perform three more
times over the weekend. Then the unexpected and destructive spring ice storm
canceled the Saturday shows! A quick decision was made to add another Sunday
show, and the roller coaster of excitement and devastation continued! With the loss of
power at the school, and throughout our region, the Sunday shows were postponed.
The upcoming Holy Week presented many scheduling conflicts but given the
circumstance and the commitment of the cast and crew, an executive decision was
made to host two performances this past Tuesday and Wednesday. Nearly all ticket
holders attended a show and the Drama Club shined once again! Through
sponsorships, ticket and raffle sales, and donations, we exceeded our $10,000 goal to
cover this year’s expenses and allow a jump-start to funding the Club for next school
year!
Thank you to the St. John’s Catholic School and All Saints Parish community for your
support of our Drama Club. A tremendous effort by everyone involved will have a
lasting impact on our students and for the future of the St. John’s Drama Club.
We are fortunate to have the support of our following business sponsors: Restorations
Home Remodeling, LLC (Stage), Downeast Audio Video (Sound), Domino’s Pizza
Brunswick (Refreshments), Owen Haskell, Inc and Five County Credit Union (T-Shirt),
and Maine State Music Theater (Raffle).