In the sessions with Russell Dean , we made some puppets at home . I made a dragon , and – as I explained to Ms Goodwin and Miss Grant : ‘ I had a spare bit of plastic and why not ?’ – a dustbin !
Their imaginations fired by the dustbin , Charles and Franz started on the script while Zac , Aryana and I came up with further characters , including Aquila , a small , inquisitive girl ( played by Aryana ); Shakespear , a caveman with a spear ( me ); Irving , a posh Victorian man ( Zac ); the evil timelord ( Franz ); and his servant Walthamstow ( Franz ). Finally , Charles pulled it altogether as the narrator .
With help from Year 11s with the puppets and scenery , and from the Year 7 tech club , we rehearsed . And then there it was : we were sitting behind the curtains , ready to perform , with our Year 7 peers on the other side , ready to watch . This was our first time with an audience , so I started changing the set ready for the next group , as we had done in rehearsals , when I was supposed to be bowing ! We did it again , two days later , for the Year 8 cast . It was great fun and my thanks go to everyone involved in the production .
Jack , Year 7
THE DIARY OF VALENCIA ADAMS
When the decision was taken that we would write our own plays , Anna Taylor and Hettie Brayne were playing around with their puppets and came up with a story of a woman , Valencia Adams , who had an abusive husband . I joined in and added my puppet as the abusive husband . We decided that this could make for an interesting story , so we began with our script and developed our characters . We needed more people so Islay Bowman , Marjolaine Mauduit and Megan Lewis joined us .
Over half term we wrote the final script . Once this was complete , all that was left to do was rehearse it . We did this and moved some scenes around . We started by acting as schoolgirls skiving class who find the diary of Valencia Adams in the library . We start reading and then go into shadow puppets to act the diary out , including two death scenes . Once Miss Grant had made us some extra scenery , we were ready to perform ! It had been a long journey but we had arrived at the finished production and it turned out well .
Jessica Robbens , Year 7
SEVENOAKS SCHOOL 2020-2021 53