Creativity

The school production was finally finished, it was an out of the world experience that could not have gone better. After 7 months of commitment and planning, I am excited to say it was completely worth it. Although this experience is something I can never forget in my time as a UWC student, I am also happy that it is over, in the sense I do not have a heavy load of work to do every time in regards to the time dedicated each week, furthermore, I am happy I grew along with these unique individuals who I call cast members these past 7 months, and I am sad I will not be able to work with them anymore.

With more than 5 hours of rehearsals and time at home spent on the production every week, I was dedicated but exhausted. In regards to exhaustion, at times I did feel as though there was too much on my plate to handle for the production, and this could have caused some lack in focus at times. Instances, where this happened, included 8 hours of practice on weekends when I had other work for my subjects. But, I still did not let that put me down because I wanted to be able to give my best and I did exactly that.

In the final weeks,  we were hit with difficult news, due to the COVID-19 situation, policies in regards to restricting large crowds did not allows us to have an audience of more than half the auditorium, which means no more than 100 people. We had to add two more shows as well as implement temperature checks as a way of keeping the school community safe. Personally, for me, I did find it slightly putting off when I entered the stage and there was only half the auditorium full, but I saw this as an opportunity to give the best to the people who did pull through and come in. With the help of the theatre department, we were able to successfully distribute the audience members and give everyone the show they deserved. No matter how stressful it was, I took on the challenge with the cast and all the people who had been working so hard on the production to make it happen for the UWC community. These challenges made me stay organized, hardworking, and optimistic and these qualities will stick throughout for me.

With all the ups and downs over the past 7 months, my understanding of what theatre is has grown to a great extent, I am one of the lucky members who got a role, that too a role with lines, and I plan to do any musical or production coming out next year cause it was downright amazing to do such an event.  This feeling of accomplishment is something that cannot be expressed which is why I would recommend everyone to take part in this play because it is truly something unique.

The Heart of Robin Hood is an adaptation of the robin hood play which is taking part in our school. This year, I decided to sign up for the play and I got a featured role which means I have about six lines, and otherwise I am an ensemble role. This first week of rehearsals have been very exciting, the whole cast has gone over the play. We went over many exercises to get us thinking and starting to devise parts of the play. The experience alone is something I look forward to because both the script & the cast are amazing. I decided to do this play because I did IGCSE Drama but unfortunately I was not able to continue it at IB. So, in order to not lose my touch of drama, I decided to do the play as well as to gain a profound and new experience. In the play, I have a double role, my ensemble role is a soldier for the antagonist, Prince John. But when I am in my featured role, I am a priest. I have come to realize that the process of the school play is a long and tough one that requires lots of commitment & effort. However, this is an experience I am looking forward for.