Sacramento Country Day’s high school Drama and Choir electives performed Monty Python’s “Spamalot” from Jan. 10-11.

“Spamalot” is a comedic retelling of the legend of King Arthur, focusing on King Arthur’s quest to recruit knights for the Round Table and find the Grail with the help of the Lady of the Lake.

 The female lead, the Lady of the Lake, was played by junior choir student Jordyn LaPlaca. Senior choir student Liam Kaschner played King Arthur, the male lead.

On the opening day, “Spamalot” was performed twice. Once during school hours and once after school. Family members of the cast were invited to the showings the evening of Jan. 10 and the afternoon of Jan. 11.

The play during school received applause and laughter, and freshman Ana Bains, who was in the audience, said she enjoyed the play a lot.

“I thought it was really funny. The actors did really well, and it was a really great environment. The audience was  laughing and clapping,” Bains said.

Kamilyn Davis, the middle school and high school choir director,  said that despite the two electives preparing for other performances, rehearsals went smoothly. 

“We didn’t start rehearsing together until halfway through the semester because Drama did a play and Choir did Choral Festival. We just went straight into rehearsals, and it was actually pretty seamless,” Davis said. 

Drama student freshman Noor Alameri also thought it went smoothly and added that she liked the collaboration between the Choir and Drama electives.  

Choir students had to juggle learning lines with practicing songs, but junior Jordyn LaPlaca said this was less of a problem than the lack of time.

“I’d say the harder part was balancing the loss of time with catching up on schoolwork and finals coming up and Mock Trial,” LaPlaca said. 

Davis, like LaPlaca, also thought that the students did not have enough time. She said that if she were to do things differently, she would give students more time to practice and prepare.

“I think I pushed them a bit hard. If we would have spent a little more time, I think they might not have had to work so hard at the end,” Davis said.

Davis expects the Choir elective to continue working with the Drama elective for musicals in the future, although she herself is leaving Country Day before next year. She said that she hopes that whoever comes after her will help improve the program after she moves to Los Angeles.  

“This is becoming a tradition to collaborate, so I really think that this is going to be something that happens every year,” Davis said.

— By Kate Barnes