City church celebrated 75th anniversary of the Novenas with a musical play

The youth of St. Michael church commemorated the Platinum Jubilee of the Novenas to Our Mother of Perpetual Succour with a musical play 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'. This is an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s book 'Notre Dame de Paris'. Staged over the weekend days, the three shows had over a thousand enthusiastic audience.

The music was from the off-Broadway musical of the same name composed by Alan Menken with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. It also had an original song with lyrics by Odil Medieria and a composition by Karen Vaswani. The musical included numerous and power-packed dance performances choreographed by Baptist Fernandes, Shivraj Diwakar, and Crystal Dsouza.

Ashwin Castellino, assistant Parish Priest and event coordinator spoke about the celebration and said, "The musical is one event all the youth were looking forward to. This musical would be a great milestone for our church as we commemorate the Platinum Jubilee of the Novenas to Our Mother of Perpetual Succour. It was indeed a success and worth the effort all the youth and adults involved put in both on stage and backstage. This musical has also helped our youth discover their talent and potential to launch into varied possibilities."

All the three shows had a seating of more than 600 spectators sitting in the church quadrangle with authorities installing a led screen in the auditorium to accommodate the rest of the spectators.

Devina Desa, the 20 year old, director of the event, said, “The best way to learn art is to create art. It was a huge learning experience, working together with the people I had grown up with.”

Director Odil Medieria added, "It was wonderful to work with the youth. Though it could be tiring at times with the cast and their packed schedules, all in all a creative experience."