By Valendy Pierre
James and the Giant Peach is a children’s book by Roald Dahl. The story is about a young boy from London named James whose parents were killed in a tragic way and was sent to live with two of his horrible aunts. One night, an old man shows up with unknown magic. From excitement, James falls and drops the magic, accidentally giving it to the roots of an old peach tree that hadn’t bloom in years. The next morning, the tree begins to grow a peach that would continuously grow. Though locked in his room, his aunts send him down to clean up the trash before the ticket show for the peach. He finds a little wormhole in the peach and decides to climbs up through it, finding his soon-to-be a newfound family who happens to be giant insects. The big peach soon rolls into the ocean setting up adventures for James and. his friends. Eventually, they landed up in New York City living somewhere in Central Park.
Apopka does one children’s play each school year, usually falling sometime in the fall (though this year they did the show in the spring). For these type of shows, Ms. Miner the director chooses to do an improv audition. With improv, there is not much to prepare for, but expect to do activities outside of your comfort zone. Casting is probably one of the hardest parts of a show for the director. “I was looking for people who were not afraid, who were willing to try new and different things, so from there we begin the casting process,” explained Ms. Miner when asked how she chose her cast. Junior, Jacob Rutledge was given the lead role of this show, this being his first lead role. Junior, Catalina Sandoval, who was given the role of one of the aunts, stated that she came to the audition not knowing what James and the Giant Peach was, but here we are…
Rehearsal consists of character development, having to figure out who your character is and how you want your character to be. “It’s a very energetic role—it takes a lot of energy and it’s a lot of fun honestly to play this character…,” exclaimed Jacob when asked about his character James. I was also able to talk to the Aunts in the show, nasty roles being played by such great people. “I’m really excited to play someone who’s so nasty—it’s always fun to play THE b***,” explained junior Arden Lee, one of the aunts. “See, I grew up with this lady called my mom so I take from my experiences—she’s a really nice person, but I use the not-so-nice experiences and I just fluster it all in,” adds Catalina when describing her character development.
What is James and the Giant Peach without the peach? The set for this show will be giant so it would not be easy to build. “We had professional people come from Sunbelt and they put the set together. It’s two stories high and it is the most massive peach you will ever see,” explained Ms. Miner when describing the set for the show. She says putting it together was not the hardest part. The peach is made up of scaffolding, so dressing it to make it look like a peach will be a difficult task, but not impossible.
Another important aspect of the show is costumes and makeup. Costumes and makeup can help construct the character. Without them, it would be just a bunch of high school students on stage saying lines. Senior, Lane and sophomore, Alyssa VanTine will be helping Ms. Gayle design the costumes for this show. “It usually consists of everyone getting measured, once the cast list goes out,” said Nick. “Once we get the measurements done, they get sent to the costume headmaster [Ms. Gayle],” Alyssa added when asked the asked to explain the costume process. The costumes for this show are mostly altered. When altering, you’re basically taking clothing and adding to it to further fit the character you can say. “We have for centipede-like his over part is a jacket that we had, but we added to it to make it more like a centipede,” explained Nick. I was not able to talk to the makeup designer, but I know this show will have lots of makeup!
Show dates are from February 15th through the 17th. Come and support the drama department in their spring show: James and the Giant Peach!