Looking to entertain, excite, and enchant your younger siblings, cousins, nieces or nephews, or the children you babysit for an afternoon or evening? Cardinal Stritch University presented the play, The Sleeping Beauty, from February 16th to February 25.

This university has their students perform a children’s play every year, and welcomed all alumni for Alumni Family Day during the performance on February 17th in the Nancy Kendall Theater, which had crafts before the show such as coloring a paper crown with glitter glue, markers, crayons, and stickers, as well as a photo booth and snacks like cookies, goldfish, jello, and apple juice.

Dianne Sposito, an alumna from Stritch, and Mark Boergers wrote the script for this production along with Boergers also directing the play. Back in February 2016, Sposito co-wrote Cinderella for the premiere at Stritch as well.

The Sleeping Beauty revolves around the retold fairytale of the christening of a royal baby princess who is cast a fatal spell from a forgotten faerie that could put the entire kingdom to sleep. Due to this slumbersome spell, the princess’s parents must keep her secretly unseen and concealed inside the castle in order to keep her safe. Luckily, the princess has an apprentice as well as four faeries protecting and watching over her, but that doesn’t stop the forgotten, evil faerie from convincing the princess to prick her finger on the woven spindle on her sixteenth birthday. One day, though, the princess’s apprentice announces this incident to the young prince, the only one who can awake the princess and the entire kingdom from her slumber.

The plot of The Sleeping Beauty production is also different from the original Disney movie, too. In the play, there is an apprentice and four flower faeries, Dahlia, Daffodil, Blue Bell, and Violet who watch over and guide the princess, while in the movie, there is no apprentice and only three fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. Medler, the forgotten faerie in the play prompts the princess to prick her finger on the spindle, while in the movie it is the jealous witch, Maleficent. Finally, in the play, the prince does not get kidnapped, imprisoned, or forced to fight the forgotten faerie, while in the movie, the prince does. Both versions of the story are innovative and imaginative, but the plot would have been more appealing and engaging in the play if the prince was jailed and did have to battle the forgotten faerie.

The Nancy Kendall Theater is a small auditorium with a narrow stage located on the Stritch campus. There was no music played or sung during the performance, but there were sound effects used throughout the production. The sound effects added to the performance and depiction of the show and made the scenes feel more realistic. If there was music played or sung throughout the play though, the mood of this fairytale would have felt more imaginative and whimsical. In addition, the actors and actresses acted well, but they could have spoken a little louder.

All in all, The Sleeping Beauty at Stritch was a cute and attention-grabbing production for children to be involved in. Stritch hosted an excellent performance, their plays are undoubtedly worth seeing, and the tickets aren’t very expensive to purchase. Taking children to view a production like The Sleeping Beauty teaches them to be patient, sit still, and to learn to be quiet when others are talking too.