Close Contact with Beauty and the Beast

By Zhong Wanting

 Tale as old as time

  Time as it can be

  Barely even friends

  Than somebody bonds

  These are the first several lines of the theme song of a classic romantic animated film, Beauty and the Beast, produced by Disney. Would you like the idea of listening to excellent music, eating delicious popcorn and enjoying the moving story while marveling at the superb acting and skating skills of the performers?

  This month, Disney On Ice^sm would provide you with this kind of enjoyment with its grand opera show, Beauty and the Beast. Something different from usual operas is that this Beauty and the Beast show would take place on real ice!

  On Feb. 23rd, as a student reporter of Lingnan Juveniles’ Newspaper, I had the great honor and pleasure to interview the cast and crew of the show. The event took place on a sunny Monday morning in a small garden on the 4th floor of China Hotel, a splendid place.

  It was unlike any other interview I’ve ever taken part in before. The members of the troupe were standing around in groups and chatting freely while tasting the fine food. The atmosphere was very casual, and I soon got rid of the nervousness I felt in my heart.

  Two young ladies were talking near the garden entrance. We walked up to them and decided to interview them.

  One of the two ladies was Meredith who played the role of one of the three blondes in Belle’s village. She was tall with curly hair and she wore a pair of glasses. The other girl, Jackie Soames, was the main performer in the act of the forest wolves, skating with her partner, John Jenkins. She was shorter than Meredith, but she looked healthy and sunny and just as friendly.

  Meredith said that they all wore new sparkly costumes for the performances and the clothes took months to produce. There would also be glorious splendid fireworks during the show. She also said that before the circuit performances, the performers had a two-week rehearsal in Florida and up till now, they’ve performed in six nations for about seven months.

  As the 41 members of cast and crew of the show came from 21 different countries all over the globe, how did they get along with one another? Jackie replied ‘We not only work together, but we live together as well, so I’m very glad that we get along rather well with one other. We usually communicate in English, so there’s no trouble with expressing our ideas. If somebody doesn’t know English, he or she can learn quickly because most of us use English and there’s a good environment.’

 ‘Do you like acting?’

 ‘Yes, I think it’s very cool to act and it’s very fun.’

  After thanking Meredith and Jackie, we interviewed another girl, Pamela, who came from Vancouver, Canada. In the opera, she played several different roles. Apart from skating, she also liked traveling and reading. She was a graceful and gentle girl and she looked quite amiable.

  Pamela was grateful for her parents, who had always supported her. She thought skating was wonderful, and it was great to have an audience. She felt very excited to visit Guangzhou and she hoped she could bring us the best performance.

  For Pamela, her training wasn’t hard or tough, but sometimes the sections might be a bit long. Some performers could get homesick, yet the whole troupe was just like a big family and they treat one another like brothers and sisters, so they could still feel the warmth of friendship within the group. Also, some skaters had to use difficult and technical skills and could be injured, but they would be tended to carefully.

  Pamela told us she thought the most splendid scene was an act in the end of the show, the big ball, with beautiful lights and gorgeous music. Pamela told us some tidbits of her training too. She said the greatest difficulty she had met in her training wasn’t any problem with skating. In an act called ‘Kill the Beast’, they were supposed to be very serious, but unfortunately, she couldn’t help laughing!

  Two men standing nearby attracted our attention. One of them was dressed in a suit and looked older and taller, while the other one wore casual clothes and appeared to be oriental.

  The man in the suit, David Brown, was the director of the show and he came from the US. He told us many facts and news about the opera.

  Beauty and the Beast’s next stop would be Singapore, so they had a rather full schedule. Mr. Brown said that Disney On Ice was trying to open the market in our country. They normally performed in Hong Kong, but now they were attempting to do more cities here in the Chinese mainland and Guangzhou was the first effort since it was easy to come here. They’d slowly add more Chinese cities to the list.

  The other person, Tomo, came from Tokyo, Japan. He was in charge of the props. He said that something rather special about the props was the immensity of them. Some of them were electronic, so they could move around on ice freely. That was interesting!

       Zhong Wanting, Class 1, Junior 1

Guangdong Experimental Middle School

  广东实验中学  初一（1）班  钟琬婷