Spectacular School Show - Hemakshi Soni Dartford Grammar School for Girls
On December 2017, DGGS Drama and Dance teachers came together to organise the annual school production, this year being “Blood Brothers”. Mrs Yarrow, Mrs Westergard and Mrs Longley put together this school show. The years who participated was 7,8,9,10 and sixth formers. The production was performed on Wednesday the 28th of March and was originally supposed to start at around 18:30, however due to heavy traffic issues, the play actually started at 19:15. The performance was well rehearsed, since there was a Saturday rehearsal and students were in rehearsals during school hours on Monday and Wednesday. Around 90 students participated in total with a student also handling the lighting and sound. There was also specific costumes for characters and the chorus. Mrs westergard had the idea for the show to be blood brothers since she had done it in her previous school. The teachers had talked beforehand about the dances which were going to be in between scenes of the acting. They had discussed what the dances should be about and where they should come into it. Over the last week they slotted it all together. In December the students auditioned for the roles and unfortunately due to there being too many people auditioning, some did not make it into the cast. There were three sections of the cast, younger, teenage and adult. The younger cast consisted of year 7 and year 8. The teenage cast consisted of year 9 and few year 10. The adult cast consisted of year 10 and the sixth formers.
Blood Brothers is a musical with book, lyrics, and music created by Willy Russell in 1982. Willy Russell was a Liverpudlian playwright. It was Set in Liverpool in the 1960's. The musical revolves around two twin brothers who are separated at birth and brought up in different environment, they meet when they are seven and become best friends. Both do not know that the other is their twin brother. As they grow older, there is a clear difference of how their lives are.
I interviewed a few of the students who were participating in the show. Louise played Eddie in the teenager cast, she said “it could have needed it (more rehearsal time) . But these two days of rehearsals have brought it all together.” she said that “on Monday it was a bit scary ”, for her, but after more rehearsals she felt more confident. To learn her lines, she said: “sometimes I record myself and play it but I don't do that very often”. Louise feels like this is the best show out of all the school shows that she has done. She states: “I think it’s good because lots of people can get involved because there are three different age categories”. When asked if she thought anything needed to be worked on, she said, “I feel like some of the chorus scenes are a bit messy but otherwise I think it’s quite good”. Overall she believes that the teachers did a good job in directing the piece.
I also interviewed Serena who is one of the sixth formers, she plays Linda in the adult cast. She thinks that the roles were fair because, “It was split into three, i feel like everyone really got fair parts”. She “really enjoy(ed) rehearsing” but she thinks that some parts of the show needed more rehearsal, “I think we need more time to build up the ending because i feel like a lot of it happens quite fast”. On her preparation for the show she said, “I was a bit nervous before but i think because we had enough rehearsal time i felt ready”. Serena stated that she learns lines better during actually rehearsing. She has participated in school shows every year except when she was in year 7 and 11. “i think blood brothers is second to that (Animal Farm)”.
I also had the opportunity to interview my drama teacher, Mrs Yarrow who worked alongside the other directors (Mrs Westergard and Mrs Longley). Mrs Yarrow said that rehearsals were “often fun, hard-work and sometimes stressful but sometimes inspiring”. If she could have had more rehearsal time, “ we would have possibly added more intricate direction in it because in the time that we had, we spent a lot of time in rehearsals working with the chorus because there was so many of them. But not as much time as i would have wanted working with the lead characters, so the direction for their scenes was quite basic”. Regarding the performance of the show on the day she said that the students was “brilliant” and she was “amazed by how well they did”. Mrs Yarrow “definitely” thought that the students portrayed the image she had in her head about what the performance was going to be like. Mrs Yarrow said that she has started thinking about next year’s show, but it is “strictly secret”! I guess we'll just have to wait until next year then!
In conclusion the actors and directors did a marvelous job of performing “blood brothers”. Many came to watch as tickets almost sold out. This year’s show was a success and we are all waiting for the announcement of the next spectacular show. Well done to the cast and directors of the DGGS show: “Blood Brothers”!
By Hemakshi Soni
