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T H E P E R F O R M I N G A R T S
National Theatre’s New Views
My Big Fat Greek
Tragedy
Five L6th pupils and one from the 5th Form
have now sent off their fully finished plays to
the National Theatre NewViews competition.
Last year, Emilia Hitching’s play
For Charlie
made it to the shortlist and it was performed
in a rehearsed reading at the Clore Studio at
the National.
Ms Middleton, Director of Drama said of
the entries,“I’m incredibly proud of all the
students who submitted plays this year.
They worked incredibly hard in difficult
circumstances, and have produced brilliant
plays which cover a wide range of issues
including racism, nepotism, cultural differences
and the complexities of life as a teenager.
Some have moved me, others have made me
laugh, and some have made me question the
way I understand the
world.Weawait the
results in May with excitement, but no matter
whether any of them make it to the longlist,
all students have created pieces of work they
can and should be proud of.’
Emily Christaki’s play
The Hounds
was given a
rehearsed reading via Zoom onWednesday
1 July. It was a fantastically powerful play,
highlighting the dangers of power and wealth
and dealing with difficult themes of racism
and misogyny.Thanks toTheo, Marisol, Emily,
Ben, Lucas, Alex and Kyrill for taking part and
well done to Emily on her writing debut.
The Drama Department
produced a first for
Bancroft’s – a juke
box musical.
My Big
Fat Greek Tragedy
was
devised and performed
by Emilia, Emily, Martha
and Marisol and brought
together songs from
artists as diverse as
Ariana Grande and Ella
Fitzgerald.
Described as
Hercules
meets
Six,
the musical shows what
happens when the Greek goddess Persephone,Titan Themis
and monster Medusa attempt to convince Hera, the goddess
of women and queen of the Olympian gods, that her brothers’
days of reckless abandon should be consigned to ancient history.
The girls are to be congratulated on a very witty (and pertinent)
concept which both acknowledged and made use of the
limitations of communicating via Zoom calls and Teams meetings.
Even immortals, it would seem, are confounded by technology.
Middle School
Play
Don’t Feed
the Animals
The Middle School Play
Don’t Feed the Animals
had been
cast and rehearsals started before school closed. We
were determined to make sure “the show went on” and
arranged rehearsals via Teams for the cast from L4 and
U4. This culminated in a rehearsed reading via Zoom,
along with some improvised costumes and props.
It went really well. We successfully used the function
where cast members switched on their cameras and
microphones when “on stage”. We used some items
of costume and some simple props as well as changing
the backgrounds occasionally. We had a clip of one
character falling off his skateboard and a film of all the cast
performing circus acts such as juggling, diabolos, a card trick,
skate boarding, cartwheels, trampolining. We finished with
a credit roll of cast pictures. Josh James made the film for
us and provided the sound on the night. Miss Middleton
ordered lots of bits of costume. We all had a lot of fun
and there has certainly never been a production of Jemma
Kennedy’s
Don’t Feed the Animals
like this one!
Ms Gillian Entwistle, Drama Teacher