HILLCREST SECONDARY SCHOOL Final HILLCREST MAG 2017 | Page 50

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Year 9
DRAMA
Freshly into high school, the year
9s wasted no time in getting
onto the stage! They have been
exposed to the field of performing
arts through acting, singing and
dancing. Their focus this year
on Shakespeare mainly Hamlet,
Macbeth and Othello has taken
them into the depths of tragedy,
which has definitely aroused in them
intense feelings about drama. They
all demonstrated such passion and
enthusiasm for theatre that most
of them ended up in the school
production, ‘We will Rock You’. I
would therefore like to take this
opportunity to welcome this young
group into the world of theatre;
continue expressing yourselves!
Year 10
The intense pressure of exams
approaching has become more of
a reality for the year 10 students
who have now been introduced to
the IGCSE syllabus. During their
sessions in the hall, they have
focused on rehearsals, techniques
such as hot seating and character
box. They have now jumped into the
next chapter of devising their own
plays, as directors, actors/actresses
or designers. This has allowed the
students to understand the back
scene of a good play. However, it is
not all fun and games as the hard
reality of theory can been daunting.
That being said, they have spent
time focusing on their asset play
‘Macbeth’. They practised analysing
a script from the perspective of a
director, actor or designer.
I know what you’re thinking, and
yes...There’s theory in drama!
Year 11
For this group, it was serious work
right from the beginning; they had
to perform their devised drama,
work on theory as well as perfect
their duologues and group pieces.
Most of them used monologues
from Anton Chekhov such as
‘The Cherry Orchard’ and ‘The
Three Sisters’. It is in year 11 when
dramatists get to see the reality
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of the intensity of work required
to achieve success on stage; the
sweat and tears behind the glitz and
glamour that we all associate with
the stage are part of the package! modern equipment thrilled
us especially as drama students
who then learnt new techniques
about how to grasp the audience’s
attention.
Year 12 A Man Like You
We have indulged ourselves in a
workload of challenges coming at
us from all corners. We focused
mostly on a set book ‘Fences’ by
August Wilson, which sprouted a
number of discussions around it on
the different ways of viewing the
life lived before this new era. Our
attention was drawn to duologues
such as ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’,
‘Waiting for Godot’ and ‘4.48
Psychosis’, which gave us ample
opportunities to review dramatic
techniques. Our group piece known
as ‘Lysistrata’ allowed us to move
out of our comfort zones and loosen
up. It has been heavy drama for us!
Beauty and The Beast at
Brookhouse
Though this year has been a
rollercoaster of emotions for
most drama students, I must say
that the best thing about being
a drama student has been the
many opportunities that have been
ours for the taking. Brookhouse
invited us to watch their production
“Beauty and the beast”. The
entertainment value of such a
performance cannot be overstated,
even when as drama students,
your ears and eyes are propped
to take in the technical aspects
of production to help in making a
critique of the rendition. It was a
fascinating performance to watch
with the different contributions
made by the Orchestra who hyped
the movements on stage and in
effect added onto the never-ending
suspense. The great connection
of love and warmth between the
Beast and Belle simply left some
of the crowd members blushing,
addressing the moral meaning
of never judging a book by its
cover as we like to do. The play
originated in 1991 but the use of
As part of our drama critique, we
watched ‘A Man Like You’ at the
Braeburn Theatre. Despite the long
wait for an appropriate play around
Nairobi, this production was worth
our patience. It opened our eyes to
the meaning of aesthetics in a stable
grown up play about the ethics of
terrorism, trust and even love. We
won’t lie- the set up looked small
and not as extravagant especially
after watching ‘Beauty and the
Beast’ but as the performance went
on, the actors allowed the audience
to go through extraordinarily high
levels of emotions; you could be
extremely elated at one moment
and suddenly be plunged into
depths of sorrow and be relieved
in a short span of time. Meeting
and chatting with the actors was an
additional blessing, if only to relieve
the feelings of anxiety that had built
up over the course of the play. They
too were dying to beat the Nairobi
night traffic to get home!
An Inspector Calls
I would like to congratulate Teigist
Taye and Anya Gera for their
outstanding efforts in putting
together Priestley’s ‘An Inspector
Calls’, which was directed and
performed by our very own
students. There’s no doubt that this
play was successful. The audience,
drawn from different schools
from around Kenya, sat on
the edge of their seats,
completely mesmerised
and captivated by the
unfolding drama
with heightened
levels of
suspense
on stage.
2017 | Hillcrest Magazine