ISTA/Scene March 07
ISTA/Scene March 07
ISTA/Scene March 07
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Beijing MS<br />
broken on stage guaranteed gasps of<br />
horror from the audience. Fun too for<br />
the tech guys who experimented with<br />
snapping celery and carrots in front of<br />
a mic to reinforce the effect. The music<br />
is scored for string quartet plus flute,<br />
piano and percussion and not having<br />
any string players we pulled in music<br />
students from the local University who<br />
were fantastic. We have good links<br />
with a local theatre and also a film<br />
studio who were invaluable in helping<br />
us with set, props and costume and<br />
this involvement with the wider<br />
community really helped to energize<br />
the students involved. I wrote the play<br />
some years ago with one of my<br />
students who wrote all the music.<br />
Our most recent purely High School<br />
production was Moliere’s THE MISER.<br />
There was some cutting and a fair<br />
amount of translation to make the play<br />
more accessible and contemporary.<br />
The production was not period specific<br />
and costuming was eclectic with<br />
Harpagon in tail coat and battered top<br />
hat and the sly servant La Fleche in<br />
baggy jeans and entering on a kid’s<br />
scooter. We used Commedia as a way<br />
into much of the physical comedy and<br />
this gave the cast the opportunity to<br />
create their own Lazzi and visual comic<br />
details. For the scene where Harpagon<br />
searches inside La Fleche’s baggy<br />
pants for stolen goods the two boys<br />
created an amazing and hilarious<br />
routine. Initially many of the cast were<br />
doubtful as to whether the play would<br />
be funny for a contemporary audience<br />
and felt such achievement when the<br />
audience responded as they hoped.<br />
We used a soundtrack based entirely<br />
on the Hooked on Classics series of<br />
well known classical pieces with ‘naff’<br />
disco beat.<br />
Nancy Jenkins – Anglican<br />
International School, Jerusalem<br />
(formerly at International School<br />
Yangon, Myanmar)<br />
THE VENETIAN TWINS by Goldoni<br />
in a translation by Ranjit Bolt<br />
This is the second time I have directed<br />
this play, which I saw performed by the<br />
RSC twice! This is a brilliant,<br />
entertaining and irreverent translation,<br />
yet still suitable for schools. I worked<br />
with a cast of 14 for over 12 weeks, all<br />
of whom were aged between 13 and<br />
18. I cast two different students as the<br />
twins on both occasions. In Rangoon,<br />
one was a boy and one a girl. The use<br />
of half masks made this possible. Girls<br />
also played the father, several of the<br />
servants and the villain of the piece.<br />
This play can be performed with<br />
minimal set and lighting and it is<br />
possible to localize a lot of it, so the<br />
inn became the American Colony<br />
Hotel, Jerusalem etc. The audience<br />
loved it and so did the students.<br />
MY FAIR LADY<br />
I worked with about 25 students,<br />
aged 11 to 18, a Musical Director<br />
playing a piano and two<br />
Choreographers. I had to re-cast the<br />
musical in a morning because the<br />
school board banned my first choice,<br />
BLOOD BROTHERS, that I had<br />
chosen partly because I had promised<br />
the students we would do a musical,<br />
only thought I had one student who<br />
could sing and believed I could handle<br />
the choreography myself. Three hours<br />
later I assembled the cast of BB and<br />
announced a change of plan. We had<br />
a minimalist set and lighting, but we<br />
went to town on the costumes and<br />
props. I also had choreographers who<br />
made the dancing really innovative and<br />
exciting and the costumes were<br />
spectacular. It was extremely<br />
ambitious, but the students pulled it<br />
off. If we can mount a production like<br />
this, from within a Middle School/High<br />
School of 70 students with no music<br />
department, no drama department<br />
apart from extra-curricular and no<br />
dance training, anyone can...<br />
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING<br />
EARNEST<br />
The challenge of what to do after MY<br />
FAIR LADY... We decided on<br />
something more intellectual with a<br />
small cast, which would allow the two<br />
students who played Professor Higgins<br />
and Colonel Pickering to play opposite<br />
each other again. I worked with 9<br />
students aged 15-17. We went for a<br />
sumptuous set and less elaborate and<br />
authentic costumes. Students and<br />
audience loved the play, but the cast<br />
did comment that the first night<br />
audience was much better because<br />
they got more of the jokes. This<br />
production also featured an African-<br />
American Lady Bracknell!<br />
And this year... GUYS AND DOLLS.<br />
We now have a music teacher, so she<br />
will start a choir in October and teach<br />
all the musical numbers, I will cast the<br />
musical in January, for performance in<br />
June.<br />
Beijing MS<br />
Fenella Kelly - Cairo American<br />
College, Egypt<br />
SPARKLESHARK by Philip Ridley<br />
from the National Theatre anthology<br />
of plays for young people<br />
CAC had been experiencing some<br />
bullying and discrimination problems<br />
before I arrived at the school, so I<br />
thought this Middle School play would<br />
help highlight and address some of<br />
those issues. I auditioned as soon as I<br />
arrived and had an overwhelming<br />
number of students audition. I<br />
therefore decided to double cast the<br />
show and also avoid stereotyping by<br />
doing so. For example, the bully was<br />
tall and blonde in one show and very<br />
small and dark in the other; the object<br />
of bullying (the character of Finn, an<br />
older sibling with speech and<br />
communication problems) was a<br />
stocky boy in the first show and a tall<br />
girl in the second. The ‘popular’ girls<br />
gang was also different each night,<br />
with one group being predominantly<br />
American and the other group being<br />
more international. We worked on the<br />
play for 8 weeks and simultaneously<br />
the Middle School Stagecraft classes<br />
(one of which I was teaching) designed<br />
and built the set and designed the<br />
lights. Students felt true ownership of<br />
the production and the large student<br />
involvement meant that audiences<br />
were large, and hopefully our message<br />
reached many.<br />
<strong>Scene</strong> | 2006-7 <strong>March</strong> Issue 3 | 11