Showcase: Art • Drama • Music
Drama 22
Backstage CCA, by Chris Silburn, Assistant Head of Drama When watching any theatrical production, what you see on stage is only ever half the story. As well as the actors and director, a production’s success depends upon the hard work and commitment of an often unseen team of technicians, designers, and stage managers. For the past year, all the technical elements of Senior School productions have been fully supported by students undertaking the Backstage CCA. As an essential part of the CCA students take responsibility and ownership for the technical elements of a production. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream the show was called, run and stage managed by the students (this was no mean feat given that there were over 120 lighting cues alone). Last year’s production of Discontented Winter placed even greater technical demands on our crew as we took them out of the gallery and on to the stage to mix a live soundtrack, provide real time filming and control other aspects of the performance all in the audience’s view. This required a great deal of professionalism and the team rose to the challenge admirably. Increasingly students are also contributing to the creative process of designing a production. For A Year and a Day, the Art department and a class of Year 7’s designed and built the visually stunning set. This project was supported by CCA students who also put their creative input in to costume, props, sound and lighting design, often sourcing the materials and samples themselves. At Tanglin students have access to a wide range of professional equipment and are given the opportunity to work alongside our team of experienced theatre technicians who offer insights into industry standard practices. Through their involvement with the CCA and running productions they are given a real taste of working within a highly skilled and exciting industry.
The Ramayana by Tanvi Nibhanupudi, Alumni 2006-2011 and Luc Goh, Alumni 2010-2011 Year 5 put on a spectacular, heart stopping production of The Ramayana last term. The storyline was adapted by Ms Madge and was then put into action by Ms Jenner, an outstanding drama teacher. It was highly organised and well thought out. It had a dash of romance, a pinch of tragedy, a cup of magic and a streak of adventure. It was about a young prince, banished from his domain with his loyal brother and adoring wife. His wife is captured by the malicious demon King of Lanka (now known as Sri Lanka), Ravana as Rama rejected the sister of Ravana’s proposal of marriage. What will happen next...? We all enjoyed the experience of putting on a production which was performed on a professional stage. The props were outstanding and it was simple yet effective, which is the key to success. As the Junior School’s first taste of theatre, we think that it went very well and we hope the Junior School will do a drama production again.
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10/21/11 9:37 AM