Helllooo humans!
So, in my very busy life this week was one of my most busiest. From working on a production in the weekdays to going to parties and events in the weekend...but today, I want to focus on the production and my hectic schedule in school.
On Monday, we had the whole school day off. So I had no lessons and instead had to rehearse.
Last year's production had a cast of over 100 people but this time we had a cast of 20, meaning each of us have more lines and characters.
The biggest problem we had even until the day before the performances on Tuesday was lines for the chorus!
People kept forgetting their lines which disrupted the whole flow and narration of the production.
To add onto all of this stress on Monday (2 days before the day of the performance), we had a full blown work out with the execution of this play. Several places to be in with a job throughout the play. For the whole 1hr and 30 minutes, we were on stage, acting, there was no break in between scenes, no interval and no slacking.
To be honest, our two teachers/directors of the play are the most sweetest and don't put pressure on us however this play's style, which was Brechtian (if you do drama you probably know this playwright) so a lot of movement and exaggeration was required leading to exhaustion.
This was especially tiring since we were always on stage, so we'd have to give our best in this style throughout the play.
By Tuesday, I had very little enthusiasm to work on the play since the rehearsal on the day before was terrible: people were forgetting their lines, execution was all over the place, music seemed to be at different times and the dancers were not in sync.
The most stressful part of it all was that there was a performance the next day (on Wednesday), in fact two performances.
Towards the end of Tuesday, I was feeling a bit better because the first half of the play seemed to be more put together and ran quite smoothly, but the second half was still rough.
The first time we performed on Wednesday was to the Year 8's during last period, we didn't get to finish the play but it was decent. Yes, people did forget their lines, but me and my friend 4H's had anyone's forgotten lines covered, so we managed, and people improvised, so it was pretty good.
For the full show in the evening we were all nervous, especially for the second half, however the teachers encouraged us and were practically praising us as if we had just won an olympics gold medal!
So, the show started at 7pm, which meant that me and my friends 4H's and D had around 3 and a half hours on our hands. So the first thing we did, was go to town and get some food, and that journey there and back to our school was like we lived a fever dream. We were laughing and making up random scenarios till our stomach's bursted and jaws ached. Although, we were probably also laughing in hysteria after exhausting ourselves from the show to the Year 8's.
The first proper show was TERRIBLE. We messed up quite a bit, people were not spontaneous and very little amount of people improvised. The whole play became slow and many actors failed to project their voices, not to mention the un-reactive audience, they seemed like they were competing in a game of musical statues without the music!
After the production, I went home, to do some work. I think I slept around 12am or 1am.
And the next day, I was sleep deprived, completely exhausted and just out of it.
I didn't care about the play anymore and just wanted to get it over and done with. With that same mentality, I approached the evening, back to 3:30 am where I went to town, this time only with D, to buy some food and a bouquet from Sainsbury's to give as a gift to my teachers.
When I got back into school, me and 4H's started assembling the bouquet after picking it apart, trying to combine D's bouquet and my bouquet to make an extravagant one. I think at some point, we all totally lost it because 4H's started talking to the flowers and D fell into a trance of day-dreaming whilst eating chicken nuggets!
Anyway, we did manage to create a little surprise for our teachers by giving them a handmade bouquet and some chocolate before the performance to cheer the team on!
It was then finally time to do our last and final performance. To be honest, at that very moment, I had a sudden realisation that, this would be my last production in the school, last production before GCSE and so I had to give it my all and bask in the moment, in the present. So I went into that hall with an open mind and gave it my all.
Everyone was amazing! It turned out so well and the audience were brilliant, responding to anything happening on stage.
Me and 4H's even got up with other year 10's including D to give a little thank you speech and perhaps to embarrass our teachers as well; they worked very hard with the same amount or even more sleepless nights than I had.
But the thinking, the planning and the organising that goes into any theatre piece or production is insane and unimaginable! It is incredible to have been a witness of the precious moments of when a play is sculpted and brought together and for that I thank my teachers for such an opportunity.
It was great all in all, but it was also time to catch up on the sleep I had missed on the weekend, even though it was not easy because my weekend also remained chaotic. (If you would like to hear about that, please let me know).
- Ravitreni Signing Off
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