Hatch End High School performed their own magnificent version of the hit musical ‘Sister Act’ in a school production, on four dates during the end of January and the beginning of February. 32 students acted in the production, but there were many people involved in creating this fantastic piece such as set designers, people in music and teachers who directed songs and helped behind the scenes. Through months of hard work and determination, these students were able to perform one of the best productions of the school.
The journey of this musical began in July of 2018, where auditions for roles started. Students had to recreate a key scene from the ‘Sister Act’ musical between the main characters Eddie and Deloris at a police station. Two weeks after auditions, students found out which roles they had got.
In the next academic year, the team began to prepare for one of Hatch End’s annual school productions. Rehearsals began straight away, with students rehearsing for around two hours a week. However, as the date of their first performance got nearer, the pressure increased and students began to rehearse for more hours a week. They were extremely dedicated and even came in on weekends to ensure this would be the best production yet.
Finally, the day had arrived. After 6 months of preparation and several gruelling hours, the ‘Sister Act,’ team had their opening performance on the 29th of January to hundreds of primary school children across Harrow. The 1 hour and 30 minutes production was filled with energy with the students singing, dancing and acting. It certainly was an amazing sight to see. In the following days, students performed to their friends and families and on one of the nights the Mayor of Harrow came to watch!
Olivia-Jay Connelly-Ramsey, Year 12, was also a part of this incredible production. Although she had taken part in class productions, this was her first time performing in one of the school productions, and she feels she has gained a lot from it. She thought the production was a brilliant extracurricular activity which allowed her to build her confidence. As Olivia is in Sixth Form, she is soon to make decisions regarding her future and the production has opened up potential pathways. She has always enjoyed performing as she was involved in performance clubs outside and within school growing up. She said about ‘Sister Act’, ‘it gave me an insight on what an actual production is like. I’m not sure if I want to go into it in the future as it is a tough area to enter.’ Nevertheless, Olivia exclaimed how she really loved performing. Despite the nerves, the laughter and applauding from the audience made her feel at ease.
This brilliant production is a reminder that school is about gaining several different skills apart from ones in academics. What better way to gain these skills than through pushing yourself out of your comfort zone like these brave students and giving the community a night to remember?
