SPANISH DRAMA CLUB
With the school’ s outstanding Modern Languages department and thriving theatrical tradition, it’ s no surprise to find the two disciplines combined in one very engaging student society.
Being part of the Spanish Drama Club has been one of the most eccentric and enjoyable things I have done at Sevenoaks. Every Wednesday lunchtime, we rehearse a Spanish skit picked out by the language assistants and we turn it into a masterpiece, though not in the traditional sense.
In October, we did a skit called‘ Fitipaldi’ s driving school’, winning us a momentous participation award that did not correlate to the fun we had in the process. The skit was about a poor man, Señor Fitipaldi, who tries to teach an unruly bunch of students, including a grandmother, the rules of the road – which only results in a huge pileup and Fitipaldi changing genders.
A few of my fondest memories of this play were Miss Lista carefully painting a majestic monobrow across my forehead( I was playing a woman), Maxime’ s beer belly accompanied by a bow-tie and Ale’ s violent slicked-back side parting which I could use to admire my monobrow in due to its reflection.
Although it was humbling to turn up in full costume when everyone else was in school uniform, I don’ t think I have ever laughed so hard in my life. Our experience was made so enjoyable by the patience and encouraging attitudes of teachers like Miss Lista, Miss Díaz, Mrs García and Mrs Duran-Oreiro who painstakingly taught us Spanish cultural nuances so we could vaguely understand what we were saying.
Our last performance is about a man and woman getting married until the priest realises the bride is his ex-girlfriend, who left him at the altar years before. We have been practising since the beginning of the year and I think this might be our best performance yet. There is no need for the audience to fully understand the Spanish; we ourselves barely do, but it’ s a highly enjoyable way to immerse ourselves in Spanish humour and appreciate the elaborate costumes the language assistants picked out for us, if only for their own enjoyment.
Francesca Bevan, Lower Sixth
102 TRIPS, CLUBS AND ACTIVITIES