Mr S. McQueen, Subject Leader: Drama, writes:

On Wednesday 7^th to Friday 9^th February, five months of hard work came to fruition in three outstanding performances of this year’s school production, “Guys and Dolls”.

The work began way back in September when auditions were held and rehearsals began, with students working hard to learn lines, songs, dances and music; giving up their time after school and some weekends to ensure their performances were outstanding both on and off stage.

Huge thanks must go to the staff who worked hard to make this production a success; Mr Crann, Miss Smith and Miss Barnard who worked tirelessly throughout the year to ensure lights, staging, set, music, choreography, publicity and much more worked seamlessly to support the students. Mrs Jackson must also be thanked, for even while off on maternity leave, she managed to help with costumes, props and creating the programme.

However the real stars and those who deserve the most praise are the students, working hard on stage, back stage and in the orchestra. This year we had a plethora of students involved who had never done the school production before which was lovely to see and had students taking on roles which have traditionally been taken by staff. Particular thanks must go Harry Boulton in Year 13 who once again was our Musical Director teaching the cast the songs and teaching and conducting the orchestra, a huge accomplishment, thank you and well done Harry. Kai Brown and Dan Paget, both in Year 11, our Stage Manager and Technical Producer respectively put in huge amounts of effort as well.  Auburn Bailey in Year 9 designed the winning poster to advertise the show, a detail of which was used on the front of the programme, and looked amazing.

The cast excelled themselves as always, putting in all their emotion and talent to portray the humour, heartbreak and love of New York during the early part of the 20^th Century; drawing their audience in and dazzling them with their acting and singing. It is always hard to pick out individuals with a cast as they worked seamlessly as an ensemble to create the show, but specific mention must go to Justine House and Daniel Rowe in Year 11 and Macy-Leigh Birleson and Alfie Kerr in Years 13 and 12 for taking on the lead roles of Sarah Brown, Nathan Detroit, Miss Adelaide and Sky Masterson and giving such funny, emotional and powerful performances.

Well done to all students involved, your effort and talent has created another wonderful school production. Thank you and well done.