The 27th annual performance of St. George and The Dragon drove both the dark and the snow away. Snow canceled Thursday’s dress rehearsal, but the students performed St. George as scheduled on Friday to an enthusiastic audience. This year’s extravaganza began with a reading of poems, the first by Early Primary and Charlotte. Then Charlotte read “The Shortest Day,” by Susan Cooper. The play started off with an all-cast sing-a-long of “Deck the Halls.”
This year, in addition to Slasher (the dragon who fights St. George) there were four additional dragons summoned by The Fool: Dragons of Air, Fire, Water and Earth.
One of the new songs this year was “Ilkla Moor Ba’ Tat,” a traditional Yorkshire song about a man who goes out on Ilkla Moor without his hat. The song has to do with the cycle of life: the man dies, is eaten by worms, the ducks eat the worms and hunters “go and eat up the ducks.”
In the video below, students from Seniors and Middle School perform The Sword Dance while Senior and Middle School musicians provide the music.
Below, St. George fights Slasher the Dragon while “Breton Tune” is played by two of the Seniors.
After St. George kills the Giant, the body can only be disposed of by Beelzebub. This year’s scenario was very funny: B.L. Zebub was the CEO of “Emporium of Evil,” which employed many of the North Branch teachers, who had names on their smocks like “Sally Sloth,” “Gary Greed,” “Angie Anger” and “Viola Vanity.”
More pictures and video to follow….