Lights, camera, action! McAuliffe Middle School students recently performed their musical, “Once on This Island Jr.” Sixth, seventh and eighth-grade students in choir, drama or selected from auditions took part in the musical. The performances took place last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening in the MPR. 

“Once on This Island Jr.”  featured many songs, such as, “We Dance,” “Discovering,” “Pray,” and “Why We Tell the Story.” With the help of four gods, Erzulie, Agwe, Asaka and Papa Ge, Ti Moune learns the meaning of love as she ventures to the other side of the island and meets the “love of her life,” Daniel. She ultimately sacrifices her life to get Daniel’s life back, and the gods bless her by turning her into a tree.

The play overall was thrilling with a dramatic climax. Stars of the show Sophie Lu and Brooke Singleton blew away audience members with their incredible vocals.

While the McAuliffe cast may have looked like professionals on the stage,  many performers were nervous. David Jung, a sixth-grader who was a part of the musical, shares, “The most nervous thing about the show was dancing in front of people because if we mess up it looks bad, and there are a lot of people watching.”

Another performer named Ethan Lim adds, “Singing is the most important and nervous part of the show because we put a lot of time into it, so if we mess up, then it looks like we didn’t put our effort into it and we embarrass ourselves.”

Overall, this show was entertaining and creative. In the last song, “Why We Tell the Story,” every performer who took part in the show came out to dance in the final number and bowed to a cheering crowd.