J.A.G.
The Jefferson Actors Guild (aka J.A.G.)
The Jefferson Actors Guild, aka J.A.G., was founded in 2000 to help bring drama to Jefferson School. Over the past 22 years, J.A.G. has produced:
2001: The Wizard of Oz
2002: The Fairy Tale Courtroom
2003: Kids to the Rescue
2004: Schoolhouse Rock
2005: Lion and Mouse Stories
2006: The Princess’s Gift
2007: Twinderella
2008: The Princess King
2009: Hydrangea Albright, Comedy or Tragedy?
2010: If I Had a Million Dollars
2011: A Trip To The Fairy Tale Courtroom
2012: Lion and Mouse Stories
2013: Haphazardly Ever After
2014: Something Special Happened
2015: Fairy Tale Misfits
2016: It's All About Baseball
2017: The Princess King
2018: Hydrangea Albright, Comedy or Tragedy?
2019: Haphazardly Ever After
2020: Fairy Tale Misfits (canceled)
2021: Virtual Play: Fairy Tale Courtroom
2022: Fairy Tale Misfits
2023: Saving Serendipity
2024: The Princess King
During this time, over 900 fourth and fifth graders have participated in J.A.G. Many of our J.A.G. alumni have gone on to participate in Summit Middle School and Summit High School plays. From the beginning, J.A.G. has emphasized the process, over the product. It is our goal to bring a positive drama experience to each year’s cast and crew. Teamwork, personal responsibility, and dedication are all emphasized throughout the 4 months process.
2024: The Princess King
2023: Saving Serendipity
SYNOPSIS: The Serendipity Theater is in great danger. After a string of disastrous shows King Dankworth is threatening to demolish it and have the directors, Mr. and Mrs. Filby, fed to the royal dragon. They have one last chance to produce a hit show or the Serendipity Theater is doomed. Unfortunately, the King is demanding that his obnoxious daughter, Princess Hazel, be a star in her favorite play, Cinderella. Princess Hazel’s acting is atrocious and she is more interested in being the kingdom’s top influencer than in rehearsing. To make matters worse, as a result of the King’s threats, the Filby’s are forced to audition some rather unusual actors. Eventual, the directors are stuck with an oddball cast that includes Literella who takes directions way too literally, Blade who believes all scenes are better with a sword, Theodore Heapers the world’s greatest background actor, Rose and her twin brother Ren who just happens to be made of felt, Inquisita who is intensely serious about getting into character, and more! Out of desperation the Filbys make a risky deal to hire the kingdom's hottest celebrity couple to play the leads in their show. With action superstar Thorne the Invisible and his beautiful girlfriend, pop sensation Lady Melody Grace in the cast they just might have a chance. Their star power could possibly save the show if they didn’t arrive at the theater broken-up and despising each other. The Filby’s must get Thorne and Melody back together and somehow create a King-pleasing show out of a cast of eccentric actors. Will the Filby’s be able to save the Serendipity Theater or will they end up as dragon food?
2022: Fairy Tale Misfits
SYNOPSIS: When a mysterious talking groundhog steals young Ellie’s homework, she takes off down a hole after it and finds herself in a place where nothing is as it seems — the Land of Rejected Fairy Tale Characters. Here, Ellie meets a crazy assortment of misfits who were cut from the fairy tales we all know and love. There’s her shadow-fearing sidekick, Groundhog; Mac, the eighth and world’s largest dwarf; Jacqueline, the great Giant Slayer armed with a magic polka-playing accordion; and more — Indecisive Goldilocks, Sleepless Beauty, Little Red Robin Hood, Fairy Godfather, and even Big Bad Platypus. Groundhog and the rest of the misfits make a deal to help Ellie find her way back home if, in return, she writes them into stories that can be shared with others. But Queen White-Out and her eraser minions, Pink Pearl and Big Mistake, have other plans. Will the misfits be erased forever, or will they find their own happily ever after?
2019: Haphazardly Ever After
SYNOPSIS: Tons of magical fun awaits in this original, one-of-a-kind fractured fairy tale farce! A kind king and queen have trouble in their royal family — four obnoxious, bratty, adult children who do not live up to their royal titles. There’s the mean Princess Cinnamon, the not-so-bright Princess Peppermint, the vain Prince Hairgel and Prince Slacker, who thinks being a prince is just way, way too hard. The king and queen try everything to bring happiness and harmony to their family. They hire a royal therapist, bring in royal teachers and even attempt to marry off their children, all to no avail. The king and queen are ready for a happily-ever-after that doesn’t include adult children still living at home, so they call upon the fairy godmother to help. However, after learning the outrageous cost of hiring the fairy godmother (let alone the permits required), the king and queen decide to create a do-it-yourself fairy tale with the help of supplies purchased at The Enchanted Depot. Royal chaos! Of course, nothing goes as planned, but everyone is changed by their experiences. And through a series of haphazard events, the royal family just might live happily ever after, after all.
2018: Hydrangea Albright, Comedy or Tragedy?
SYNOPSIS: A theatre accidentally hires two different playwrights to write a play about Hydrangea Albright, a young girl whose family is cursed with bad luck. One playwright sees her story as a tragedy filled with disappointment and sadness, while the other playwright sees Hydrangea’s story as a whimsical comedy in which failure leads to new opportunity. While the playwrights argue, duel with their pens and even rewrite each other’s scenes, we meet an array of eccentric characters in this play-within-a-play. The episodic tale starts with a curse created by her great-great-grandfather and works its way through several generations of Albrights. From lightning striking a tuba to a case of uncontrollable hiccups to a tree house destroyed by a piece of the International Space Station, we learn that there’s more than one way to react to an unfortunate series of events. With the opportunity for minimalist staging (thanks to the play-within-a-play plot), a structure that allows the characters with the most lines — the narrating playwrights — to keep their lines in front, of them and a remarkable female heroine who teaches us a wonderful moral about staying positive and not acting like a victim.
2017: The Princess King
SYNOPSIS: Everyone loves a good story, especially when it comes to life! Lucille’s mother tells her the story of “The Princess King” as it unfolds before our eyes on the main stage. Princess Genevieve wants to marry Henry, but he’s just a common cook. Of course, the king thinks this is ridiculous and takes it upon himself to choose who will be the next king and a suitable husband for his daughter. Though the princess begs her father to let her lead the kingdom herself, the king instead decides to hold a contest to find the next king. Princess Genevieve is outraged that she has been reduced to a trophy for her father’s contest, so she and Henry cook up a plot to have Genevieve enter the contest herself. Disguised as a prince, Genevieve is intent on proving to her father that she is worthy to wear the kingdom’s crown. Meanwhile, to cover for her absence, Henry clumsily masquerades as the princess, and Genevieve’s maid tries to cover for the cook! Filled with mistaken identities, tongue-in-cheek humor, and over-the-top characters, your audiences will cheer for the princess as she tries to outsmart Prince Air-Guitar and evil “Prince Fluffy” and battle the great chicken-dragon, with some help from Henry’s delicious lasagna!