Liam England playing role of Prince in 'Cinderella'

Posted Feb 2, 2012 By John Curry

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EMC News - Stittsville can now lay claim to a Prince Charming.

Liam England, a grade 11 student at Sacred Heart Catholic High School, will be playing the role of the Prince in the upcoming musical production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella being presented by the Catholic Education Foundation of Ottawa. It will be running from Thursday, Feb. 16 through Saturday, Feb. 25 at St. Paul Catholic High School in Ottawa.

This is the male lead for this musical which was initially written for a television production in 1957 featuring Julie Andrews as Cinderella. For Liam, it is his first foray into performing in a stage production.

"It is definitely new for me," he says, noting that while he has always been interested in such an experience, he never really pursued auditioning for such a role.

That was until last fall when his drama teacher Brian Boggs told him that boys were being sought to audition for the upcoming Cinderella production. In addition, one of Liam's friends, fellow student Morgan O'Grady, who has also landed a role in the production, encouraged him to audition.

Initial auditions were held in November, with call-back auditions following them. This led to Liam being offered the Prince's role and ever since he has been involved in rehearsals three to four times a week as the show takes shape.

With this being his first time in a musical production, Liam is finding it challenging at times but also notes that it is a lot of fun as well. He gives a lot of credit to those who are working with the actors in the musical.

"They have helped me be a better actor," he says.

In addition, he gives a lot of credit to the vocal coach, noting that he has never had any voice lessons and so this coaching has really helped with his singing. And he does quite a bit of singing in the musical.

Liam does not know if he will continue with drama right away but he definitely sees it as something that he would like to do again sometime in the future.

While he enjoys his drama classes at Sacred Heart, he really enjoys his English classes and right now he is leaning towards a career teaching English.

Liam also plays the guitar and sings, although this has been restricted to a few talent shows up until now. He taught himself to play the guitar before entering grade nine, having come across an old guitar. With the help of the internet, he learned how to play it.

Liam is also an avid rugby player. Indeed, his involvement with rugby started in much the same way as his involvement with the musical Cinderella in that a friend urged him to try out for the team which was looking for more players.

He took up his friend's suggestion and ended up falling in love with the sport and he now really looks forward to playing it.

"It's the most fun I've had doing exercise," Liam says. He loves its fast-paced action and the fact that players do not stop during the game but just keep going.

Liam has been playing with the Sacred Heart team but this summer he also expects to join a club team in the community.

But right now Liam is looking forward to the upcoming Cinderella production.

"It's going to look really good," he says, praising the costumes.

One added benefit to being involved in this production, which draws students from Catholic schools across the city, is that Liam has met other students with similar interests that he would not otherwise have come to know. He is now good friends with many others in the cast.

This production of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Cinderella is being presented from Wednesday, Feb. 16 to Sunday, Feb. 19 and again from Thursday, Feb. 23 to Saturday, Feb. 25 at St. Paul Catholic High School on Draper Avenue near Baseline Road and Pinecrest Road in Ottawa. All performances are at 7:30 p.m. except for those on Sunday, Feb. 19 and Saturday, Feb. 25 which are 2 p.m. matinee performances.

Ticket orders can now be placed at all Ottawa Catholic School Board schools (this includes Sacred Heart Catholic High School, St. Stephen Catholic School, Holy Spirit Catholic School and Guardian Angels Catholic School, all in Stittsville, and St. Philip Catholic School in Richmond) as well as at the Catholic Education Centre at 570 West Hunt Club Road in Nepean. Tickets will also be available at the door.

Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for students 18 and under, $12 for children 12 and under and $12 for seniors 65 and over.

For more information about tickets, please contact Karen Delaney at 613-831-4567.

This musical production is being presented by the Catholic Education Foundation of Ottawa as a major fundraising effort and also as a way of promoting and developing musical theatre talent.

The Catholic Education Foundation of Ottawa is a registered charity whose objective is to raise funds to counter the effects of poverty on students within the English Catholic schools in the city of Ottawa. All funds raised by the Foundation are directed to educational programs or to emergency response funds for impoverished children and their families. Funds raised by this musical production will go to the Foundation's "Helping To Alleviate Poverty In Our Schools" program.

One highlight of these Foundation musicals is that a number of elementary school choirs also perform along with the regular cast. There is a different school choir or choirs taking part in each performance.

Rogers & Hammerstein's Cinderella is a musical that was explicitly written for television. It is based upon the fairy tale Cinderella, telling the story of a young woman forced into a life of servitude by her cruel stepmother and self-centered stepsisters. But Cinderella dreams of a better life and with the help of her fairy godmother, she is transformed into a Princess and finds her Prince Charming.

Cinderella, the only Rodgers & Hammerstein musical written for television, was originally broadcast in 1957 to the largest TV audience in history up to that time, 107 million viewers in the United States. This was 60 percent of the country's population at that time. This original production featured Julie Andrews as Cinderella and Jon Cypher as the Prince, the role being played by Liam England in the upcoming production.

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein were a well known American songwriting duo who created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s including Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music. Cinderella is the only musical that the pair wrote for television presentation.




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