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End of Year Drama Production 'Teechers'
'On Thursday 15th and Friday 17th, a selection of Year 7 and Year 8 students performed ‘Teechers’ by John Godber. The students have been rehearsing every Wednesday and Thursday in their Widening Horizons sessions and have worked very hard on learning their lines, designing their costumes and making sure their characterisation was clear. Both nights were a sell out with the drama studio packed with parents, teachers and friends who had come to support the play. The students performed excellently on both nights and really brought out the comedy of the play. It was stunning to see such commitment, focus and professionalism in a cast so young. It has been a pleasure working with the cast and I can’t wait to do it all again next year.'
Mrs Rockall Head of Drama In the Words of a Cast Member.... 'We started auditions at the beginning of term. The audition process was a little bumpy at places but we made it through because everyone was dedicated to making the play the best it could be. During rehearsals we worked on the things that needed polishing up or better choreography to make the comedy better. For some people learning the lines, learning when to come in and understanding the character they were playing was easy. However for some others it was challenging but it was all a good learning process. The character I played was Mr Nixon. He was a teacher that was a little shy at first when he joined Whitehall, the school where the play is set. After the first few weeks he became more confident and also had his eye on Jakie Prime, the PE mistress. When Christmas came along, a student called Gail Saunders fell in love with Mr Nixon at the Christmas dance. But at the end of the play Mr Nixon gets a job at a "snob" school called Saint Gorges. His final lines are that he is free.
I had to work on his facial expressions and hand gestures to make sure that the character was clear. I also had to work on my voice - not voice as in using an accent but voice as in the grammar he uses so I could really play the character professionally. Leading up to the first performance everyone was excited but I don't think that many of us were scared or nervous. We were proud to show off our play and even though we knew our family and friends were watching, we put on a show for them.
We all literally had a sigh of relief and as we all ran back to backstage, we laughed and said what we thought was really good or what we might have messed up. I feel that we would all do it again if we could and I feel proud to have taken part in this amazing play. I hope we have great opportunities like this as much as possible as this is great practice for people wanting to do GCSE Drama. I think more students would love to join next time because they were so impressed with our final performance.'
Amber Wood (9M) |