Rock of Ages rocked

by Stephen Dafoe

Several months of effort paid off for Camilla School’s Drama program over two days and three shows of
Rock of Ages: Youth Edition. The musical brought classic 1980s rock songs to the stage to tell the story of
fame and romance.
Rock of Ages: Youth Edition is set in Los Angelas in 1987 and tells the story of country girl Sherrie (a
small town girl) and Drew (from South Detroit). Both have come to Los Angeles to chase their dreams.
The roughly 90-minute show brought together a large cast of students to fill a large number of roles
with some students performing songs from 20 different classic rock and hair metal bands for the three
shows.
Director and Camilla teacher Chris Layton said he gave the performers the list of songs back in
December and encouraged them to learn the lyrics over the Christmas break.
“We’ve been at it a couple of hours every week. We have two casts, so one would come on Tuesdays,
and one would come on Wednesdays,” Layton said. “As it moved to April, we moved that to two a week,
and we also added Saturdays and then some Sundays. The kids who were the main cast were giving up
recess. The number of hours that went into this thing, I can’t even fathom it.”
But the total hours, whatever they were paid off in applause and appreciation from the audience.
Morinville Online attended the Tuesday afternoon matinee performance for area schools and parents,
and the applause was consistently enthusiastic throughout the show.
“These kids have worked so hard, and they love these songs,” Layton said of the students’ enthusiasm
for the material. “They love these songs. Some musicals, the songs are all new, but these are songs that
their parents listen to. They are songs that they now run around the hall singing these songs I’m just
proud as punch that they’re listening to the music that I grew up with and loving it.”
Layton went on to say that ticket sales for Rock of Ages were triple the tickets sold for the school’s last
production, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.