William Brookes School Blog

Just as the Wenlock Festival draws to a close, William Brookes launches its own month of ‘Wonderful Wednesdays’, celebrating dance, music and drama in a series of evening performances by WBS students.

1.       WEDNESDAY 30 JUNE

We kick off on Wednesday 30^th June with our Music Concert; talented soloists, instrumentalists, the choir and rock bands take to the stage from 7.30 p.m. £2

2.       WEDNESDAY 7 JULY

Next, we have the first night of our two night SummerDance 2010 event, which brings together WBS students and local dance academies performing in a range of styles. From ballet to contemporary dance, this great celebration of youth dance sells out every year. Please book early to avoid disappointment.

SummerDance 2010 - Wednesday 7^th and Thursday 8^th July, 7.30 p.m. £5 / £4

3.       WEDNESDAY 14 JULY

Early Booking is advisable for one of the hottest events of the season at William Brookes School. The ever popular W Factor final will showcase some of the most exciting singers the school has to offer. Auditions for the 10 act final begin this week, Wed. 9^th June, and contestants will perform in front of a panel of judges, who will decide upon the line-up for the evening of 14^th July.

Last year’s event was a complete sell out, so we would advise early booking for this year’s show.

Tickets are available now and cost £5 / £4

Our photo shows last year’s winner and a pair of runners up. Ffion, Amy and Kate. 

4.       WEDNESDAY 21 JULY

Taking the limelight this Wednesday are our Year 11 Drama students, performing the macabre 2,000 year old play – The Bacchae by Euripides. This story of revenge, decapitation and women transforming into snakes was considered too gruesome to perform for 1900 years. Now, we bring it back to life under the stars, at an open air location in Much Wenlock.

Wednesday 21^st and Thursday 22^nd July 8.30 p.m. £5 / £4

All tickets and any further info. from The Edge Arts Centre - 01952 728509

manager@edgeartscentre.co.uk

www.edgeartscentre.co.uk

Here are a few shots from our recent production of ‘Kiss Me Kate. The musical attracted a lot of interest and ran for four nights.

Well done to all the cast, musicians, production team and outside agencies who helped make this show as spectacular as it was.

“What a legacy”, says Antigone to her sister, Ismene, at the beginning of this play, reflecting on the tragedy of their family’s history.

With both parents dead, after discovering that their children had been the result of an incestuous union, and both brothers dead, fighting each other for control of Thebes, all the surviving sisters have left is each other. Now, even that relationship is threatened as each weighs up whether it is better to obey the laws of the land or the laws of the gods.

Sophocles’ ‘Antigone’ is the third play in the Theban trilogy about Oedipus and his family. Although written nearly two and a half thousand years ago in a very different time and culture from our own, the play has a very real relevance for us here and now, asking us the question: how far would you go for your beliefs?

Antigone will run for two nights - Wednesday, 20th and Thursday 21st January at 7.30 pm. Admission is £5 and £4 concessions.

A famous political figure once played a character from Antigone whilst imprisoned in the 60s. Anyone know who that was and which character they played?

Watch this space for a Year 8 student’s review of the play.

Well here it is and today it’s read one read another free:

I thought that the actors and actresses were very talented because there was a lot of speech but they hardly ever forgot their lines and they kept in time with each other when they did a few sentences together. Also, the ones who had to swear were very brave because they didn’t laugh, get embarassed or look away.

I thought the play itself was very sad, due to everyone dying a terrible death, but I only thought this because all of the performers expressed their emotions very well.

I could really feel the love Antigone had for her dead brother and how Antigone’s fiancé feels when he finds out that his future wife has been sent to her death by his own father, and how that messenger person must have felt when he was told that if he didn’t find the betrayer then he would be killed.

I would like to tell all of the performers and directors that it was a brilliant show. Well done – I give it a 10/10

Tara M.

The play was fantastic! It had dance routines, clever acting and much more! The start was dramatic - with loud booming music and flickering lights, it made a very big impact.

The storyline was amazing but very sad. It was all about the law against the burial of one of Antigone’s two brothers. The noble one was allowed to be buried but the traitor had to be left to rot outside. Antigone went against this law, so she was sentenced to death. She was locked up in an old shack on the top of a moor. She couldn’t take it any longer, so she hung herself. This was done on a clever screen with a light behind it, so the actors appeared as shadows. This meant that the scene could be more detailed and the hanging could be even more detailed.

I’m sure everybody in the audience was on the edge to find out what would happen next, but we soon found out. There was a chain reaction of suicides. First Antigone’s fiancé, then the fiancés mother (the Emperor’s wife), then the Emperor himself. It really was the ultimate tragedy.

It was so amazingly put together and must have took ages to learn all the lines and perform them as well as they did.

Truly a fantastic performance! Well done to all the actors in it and everyone else who was involved!

Zach J.

We always knew last year’s production of ‘The Boyfriend’ was going to be a hard act to follow.  Well we think we might just have the answer, and, if ticket sales are anything to go by, ‘Guys and Dolls’ already looks like another winner.

Everybody involved in the show has really been enjoying the experience: it’s clear the cast and directors have been taking it all very seriously and rehearsals have revealed some sublime performances.

We are expecting a review of the show fairly soon and possibly some more photos. Until then, here’s the cast tuning up for the performance.

If you saw the show, please give us some feedback by leaving a comment at the foot of this article.

Now, thanks to Tom Poole for the following review:

Guys and Dolls
Performed by the WBS Musical Theatre Company
By Tom Poole
Frank Loesser’s ‘Guys and Dolls’ was performed by the WBS Musical Theatre Company from Wednesday 25th to Saturday 28th March.

Based on two of Dam Runyon’s short stories and written by Frank Loesser, Guys and Dolls is a fast paced and exciting musical concerning, as ever, love. Gambling fiend Nathan Detroit is in need of money to stage his crap game and he stages a bet with Sky Masterston that Sky cannot get the next ‘doll’ he sees to fall in the love with him. Unfortunately the next woman to walk through the door is local missionary Sarah Brown. With Sky’s attempts to woo Sarah Brown played out against Nathan’s longstanding engagement to showgirl Miss Adelaide, numerous other characters combine to make this an enchanting musical.

Every aspect of the performance was wonderful, with the students showing their theatrical vitality in a mix of singing, dancing and acting. The four main characters were superbly performed, with Sarah Brown played by Jenny Beddow and Laura Whitehouse, Nathan Detroit by James Newman, Miss Adelaide by Elise Biddulph and Amber Regan and Sky Masterston by Robbie Smith. The musical numbers were well choreographed and sung and the acting was carried out with comedic aplomb. Special mention must of course go to James Newman, who took the last two night’s performances in his stride despite having a broken arm. The orchestra was also great, providing fitting accompaniants to the singing, and kudos must go to all those who worked behind the scenes to help make this production as good as it was.

…Well, for Hedda Gabler at least! It all ends in tears for the star of the show, as portrayed by Laura Whitehouse on Thursday 12th and Friday 13th February.

Joining Laura in the performance were: Chloe Williams, Mrs Newall, Josh Slater, Melissa Sharpe, Tom Poole and Mike Yates.

Check out our next production: Arthur Miller’s classic ‘A View from the Bridge’ - Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th February. 7.30 p.m. at the Edge. £5.00 / £4.00

Hedda Gabler

Performed by the A2 Theatre Group

By Tom Jennings

Written by Herik Ibsen in 1890, Hedda Gabler was received with mainly negative reviews to begin with, but since then it has become widely recognized as a great piece of work for its realism and portrayal of the character of Hedda Gabler as a woman quietly fighting the circumstances she is in.

Hedda Gabler marries Jorgen Tesman an “academic” who is oblivious to any of the social nuances of the time and is more absorbed in his work. This causes Hedda to seek fun in manipulating the people around her. Hedda is by no means a weak woman as she shows the most strength out of all the characters; this is evident even in the way that all the other characters know her as “Hedda Gabler” or “General Gabler’s Daughter” and never “Mrs. Tesman”, an indication that she isn’t tied down by her husband.

The performance of Hedda Gabler I saw was brilliant. Hedda Gabler (played very well by Laura Whitehouse) was simply fantastic and Jorgen Tesman (also played very well by Josh Slater) was brilliant. Mrs. Elvsted (played by Melissa Sharpe), Aunt Julle (played by Chloe Williams), Ejlert Lovborg (played by Mike Yates) and Judge Brack (played by Tom Poole) even the servant to Tesman, Berte, (played by Mrs. Newell) were all well portrayed. Watching this performance was a delight, all the comedy was delivered effectively and the dramatic moments were performed with great skill.

I would gladly watch this performance or any other by this group, again.