‘Disney’sAladdin’intwolanguages
Performances next week at Lindhurst High School
The Lindhurst High School Music Club is stepping out of its comfort zone, preparing to premiere “Disney’s Aladdin: Dual Language Edition” next Wednesday.
According to Christina Sleigh, the school’s director of music and play producer, this is the first time Lindhurst will put on a Spanish-and-English language play. In her personal career, Sleigh has not been involved in any dual-language productions and does not speak Spanish.
“If I had to listen to Disney songs for months, I wanted a challenge,” Sleigh said jokingly. “But I do think this is a great opportunity to expose more kids to theater and to involve a large Spanish-speaking community at the school.”
The version of “Aladdin” Lind- hurst will perform is an adaptation of the Disney film with the script provided by the production company Musical Theatre International.
In the adapted version, the villain Jafar is granted a wish from Genie. His wish separates members of the royal court as Spanish speakers and the population as English speakers. Jafar presumes he is the only bilingual person in the kingdom and uses the ability to gain power. The audience learns that many of the animal characters are bilingual as well.
Daija Montez, who will play the role of Princess Jasmine, is fluent in Spanish and will speak only a few lines in English.
“It’s been real fun to see that mixture of English and Spanish,” Montez said. “It’s shocking to know how many of my peers have taken Spanish classes and how it has helped them.”
Though many of the students have taken Spanish-language classes, many are not fluent. Only a few kids in the production can speak Spanish fluently, Sleigh said.
The production has received assistance from the foreign-language department since rehearsals began in late January.
Alana Seweo, who will play the Magic Carpet, only speaks English. Seweo has two semesters worth of Spanish, which she says was a mandatory requirement.
“It’s definitely different than last year,” said Seweo, who participated in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” production last year. “Having the two languages has been difficult, but it has been fun. I have learned a lot from this process.”