‘Oliver’ at Westbury Christian School

With the help of a selfie stick, the cast and crew of "Oliver" poses for a cast selfie after the final performance. Pictured: Alyssa Sanders, Kain Lopez, Quincy Cormier, Josh Power, Jessica Boyer, Xzavier Mouton, Tré Mcleod, Gavin Russell, Madison Belcher, Lyric Edwards, Caprice Haddad, Caleb Cavenaugh, Mallory Davis, Arye Bhide, Lillian Gattis, Amy Curtis, Annie Brown, Olivia Swasey, Madison White, Joshua Swasey, Addie Symonds, Emily Goldstein, and Drew White. (Photo: Olivia Swasey)

The fall musical “Oliver!” was a huge success. “Oliver!” is a musical written by Lionel Bart and it is based off of the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. “Oliver!” is set in early 19th century England, and tells the story of a young orphan boy who runs away from an oppressive workhouse and joins a gang of thieves but eventually finds a family of his own. The collaboration of the many talented people involved helped to tell an incredible story, making “Oliver!” a huge hit.

Because “Oliver!” is set in London, the actors took on the challenge of speaking in a British accent. There are two types of accents used in “Oliver!”, which are Cockney and Received Pronunciation (RP for short). The two accents help to distinguish between classes, RP being the accent of the upper class, and Cockney being the accent of the lower class. Because poverty is a major theme in “Oliver!” many of the characters spoke with a cockney accent.

Madison White, Addie Symonds and Amy Curtis pose after a great opening night performance. 

Joshua Power, a junior, had to switch between both. In act 1, Josh played Noah Claypole, an apprentice and part of the lower class and in act 2, he played Mr. Brownlow, an upper-class character. While the accents certainly made things more challenging, most of the actors were able to pick them up very quickly. Many of the cast members would continue to speak with their accents in the hallways and in class.

Another unique part of this performance was that it included a junior cast. Typically the cast consists of students from 7th to 12th grade but for this show the WCS honor choir was allowed to audition to be part of the ensemble. From this, four students were chosen ranging from grades 4 to 6. While it might have been intimidating at first to work with kids much older than them the junior cast definitely rose to the occasion. They fit in very well with the rest of the cast and it was fun to have them around. 

(Top row, from left) Drew White and Joshua Swasey; (bottom row, from left) Alyssa Sanders, Addie Symonds and Melissa Bailey.

The titular character Oliver was played by Amy Curtis, a freshman at WCS. Because Amy had long hair she had to wear a wig to play the male lead Oliver, and had to pin her hair, using several packages of bobby pins in the process. Other characters Oliver met in the story were played by Arye Bhide (‘19) as the Artful Dodger, Tré Mcleod (‘16) as Fagin, Olivia Swasey (‘18) as Nancy, and Gavin Russell (‘16) as Bill Sykes. 

It isn’t easy to be a student actor. Remembering lines, choreography and music, spending long hours rehearsing, all while keeping up with academics would be challenging for most people but for the cast of “Oliver!” it was worth it to put on a great show. Even if you missed “Oliver!”, there are always great things going on at WCS in the fine arts department. Visit the website for details.