The Wykehamist
Farewell to QEII
During my time at Winchester College, there has been one main part which forever changed me: my time in QEII. My first foray into the theatre was in my second year during auditions for A Midsummer’ s Night Dream, with Jun Play for my year being reduced to short radio plays due to the pandemic. The audition was successful, and I got a part as an attendant to Hippolyta, a role which would foreshadow much of what I went on to do. This was also around the time that I began to be involved in Make-Up Soc, and I enjoyed the opportunity of applying flowery tattoos and glitter to the faces of the faeries.
The following year began with the Phils’ house play, where I was on stage; however, between slightly manic rehearsals, I began to help with set design and backstage work. At this point I had decided that QEII would be where I would spend my time, and, determined to be involved with more shows, attended what at the time was the dwindling remnants of Backstage Soc. At this time Seb Gotthard( K, 2022-2024) joined the school in 6th form. His interest in theatre had carried over from his old school but was solely restricted to the technical side – he will feature more heavily later. In the second half of that term was the 6th form play DNA, where I worked on the make up but still not that much. The following term, I worked backstage on the school play Macbeth, and I also dedicated my voice to the cries of the citizens of Dunsinane in Act V scene V. The final production of the year was the French play, which I began work on during the afternoon of my last French GCSE. For this production I spent much of my time in mill learning how to bend metal rod to create my first illustrious chandelier for the theatre. I have distinct memories of finishing the chandelier on the day of the first performance, and rushing it back to the theatre for JJC to hastily put it in place.
My fourth year saw more house plays and NGK’ s Tales of Dread. At this point I learnt how to use the lighting board and sound, and also the projectors, to enhance NGK’ s vision. Common Time of that year saw the school musical My Fair Lady, which was the most stressful – yet enjoyable – production that I have worked on at Winchester College. This show was where Seb Gotthard’ s experience and technical expertise were put to good use; before the show began, me and Seb had to get through many ridiculous tasks – like paint the flats of the London skylinein a week. Fortunately, we had help from Jamie MacKinnon( I, 2019-2024) backstage and Charlie Perks( G, 2022-) in the lighting box. The production was a success, but I wasn’ t done for the term. The following week was AF’ s Sing A Song Of Science, something I’ ve been involved in every year during my time at Winchester. The final term was a bit more relaxing with there only being the Middle- Part Play, which I was less involved in than I had with other productions. I also dipped my toes into directing in that term’ s Jun Play – an experience I do not want to repeat. Concurrently, I also assisted Rishi Bhardwaj( E, 2020-2025) in the recording room of Music School for the late Creative Writing Soc’ s murder mystery.
I spent my final year at Winchester College without Seb, leaving me in charge of backstage in QEII from the student side. Fortunately, the year opened with the College house play which, meant I didn’ t have to do too much work. Following this was the 6th form play CLUE, in which I managed to make a cameo as hand holding both the candle stick and the wrench when they killed off the poliece officer and the cab driver respectively. Following this show was the Trant’ s house play, and then the second Staff Revue. Whilst I had helped with the first Staff Revue the previous year, I was far more involved with this year’ s production, where I received many strange requests – for example, creating a dancing brussels sprout( unrelatedly, we also finally managed to put to good use the theatre’ s many plastic pigeons). The following term saw NGK’ s Life of Saki, where I once again returned to the lighting box to run projections. However, the highlight of the term was Treasure Island, for which I was the stage manager of the whole production. Much like My Fair Lady the previous year, this show was a success, and the best production I could ask for as my last one at Winchester college.
As of writing this, last week, I watched the second French play. I was mostly uninvolved in the production in for both makeup and backstage, but I must admit that I couldn’ t keep away from the theatre, and
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