ARTICLES

St. John Troubadours to stage Disney musical

By Steve Neill
Of The Catholic Virginian

When the St. John Troubadours presents its spring 2008 production of “Beauty and the Beast” this month, it will mark the first time the acting group has used the recently restored Henrico Theatre on East Nine Mile Road in Highland Springs.

The 400-seat theater, which first opened as a movie theater in 1938, closed in the early 1990s after the multi-cinema screen theaters dominated the area. The Henrico County government purchased the building in 1999 and did a $5.8 million renovation and restoration of the theater which included an expansion allowing a stage, an orchestra pit and backstage dressing rooms.

In preparation for the production, the Troubadours have been rehearsing the past several weeks in the social hall of St. John parish, about a mile west of the theater. Rehearsals are on Monday and Wednesday nights from 5 to 7.

“This is the Disney production which was on Broadway,” said Tish Mondoux, a longtime St. John parishioner who is the producer and director.

Mrs. Mondoux, who is a second grade teacher at Salem Church Elementary School in Chesterfield County, is the daughter of the late Jack Gordon, who was organist and choir director at St. John’s and who founded the Troubadours in 1994.

“I’ve been in the Troubadours since the very beginning,” Mrs. Mondoux said. Her husband, Chris Mondoux, plays the Beast in the production.

There are 42 cast members and another 20 people involved in the production end.

“We have our own lighting, our own sound and we built our own sets and sew our own costumes,” said Pat Arkestyne, community outreach coordinator of the Troubadours. “We do the whole shebang.”

The theater group is made up of about 60 percent parishioners of St. John’s and 40 percent who are non-parish members of the local community in eastern Henrico County.

The cast includes Chris Sneddon, a member of the Troubadours since he was nine years old, who plays the role of Gaston. Now a Marine stationed at Quantico, he learned about the production and brought along two of his Marine buddies who have roles in the play.

Chris and Levi Hemphill, who plays the Prince, and Rick Eccleston, who plays le Fou, drive down from Quantico each Monday and Wednesday night for rehearsals, a distance of an hour and a half each way.

The theater group also stages a dinner theater production each November. The traditional turkey dinner is not served buffet style at St. John’s social hall, but by waiters who serve the meal at each table dressed in costume appropriate to the production. Last fall it was “Who Shot the Sheriff?”

“We turn in on the average a clear profit of $3,000 and up and most of that is given to the parish,” Mrs. Arkestyne said.

But first royalties and copyright fees must be paid and other expenses related to operating costs.

Ticket sales have been good. Three weeks before showtime all but 180 of the 800 tickets had been sold.

“Beauty and the Beast” will be presented on Friday and Saturday, April 18 and 19, at 7:30 p.m. at the Henrico Theatre on East Nine Mile Road in Highland Springs. For ticket information, call 804–932–8547 or 804–222–5261.

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