Images from production
Music from production

2005 saw a significant change in Bridgewater's Drama Club as a very enthusiastic and talented Year Seven joined the school. Straight away they were thrown into the deep end by joining in and being a key role in the Lower School production of 'Animal Farm', before the October half term of 2004. The success of this difficult and powerful text set the group up for this year's whole school play. The new generation of performers had a overwhelming task of matching last year's very successful performance of 'Grease'. Pupils and teachers knew from an early stage that they would have to work long and hard as one team to emulate last year's show.

It was decided early on that the school would try to create this show from scratch using the talent of our pupils and teachers. As a past teacher at Bridgewater and a writer who knows how to equally involve large numbers of pupils, Helen Newall's version of Arabian Nights, 'A Thousand and One Nights' seemed like the perfect script. After a controversial casting the pupils and eight directors set about creating the micro-stories which make up the content of this ancient tale. Time was short and extra rehearsals were required from an early stage, but the pupils were committed to the task.

After Christmas the Drama Club needed to step the pace up a gear as the visions put forward by the directors now needed realising. The talk of an elaborate set, costume and opening had gripped the pupils' enthusiasm which drove them towards the end of January and the week before performance. During a frantic few days the pupils were visited by Helen Newall, the writer, so that they could see where the inspiration of this text came from. Also, Gail Humphries gave up a lot of her free time to produce the fabulous costumes for our cast, without her the whole show would not have gone ahead.

The weekend rehearsal was on top of us before we knew it and I announced to the pupils that I would try and get through this process without shouting, that was not to last! A whole team of teachers came together at this point to create a fantastic set, staging, poster and costumes in particular Mr Brown, Mr J enkins and Mr Lambrinadies. It was a long Friday night and Saturday day but by the end of it we were able to get in a full run and hear for the first time all the songs written by Mr Perris, Mr Maney, Mr Harrison, Miss Wolfenden, Georgia Frost and Chelsey Reed. The quality of this original material blew the socks off both the pupils and me. This was the first point where I felt like we could have a good show on our hands but we were not yet ready.

The Monday afternoon matinee performance became the first full dress and technical rehearsal. The whole of Year 5 from Broomfield's Primary School attended the performance and left with some raving reviews even though the performance ran over time. The directors were not happy and the tension backstage after the show was high. Both pupils and staff knew that the piece required more focus and vigour.

Tuesday 1st February 2005. As soon as the performers saw the fire eater arrive they got a burst of energy that was to last through to the Friday night final performance. Each night the performance improved and pupils began to shine in the limelight. Joe Frost gave a commanding performance as the leading male, King Shariyar and Leanne Humphries and Jess Roberts made the perfect sisters as Shahrazad and Dunyazad. After the performances audience members used the words of "professionalism", "talent" and "enthusiasm" for Bridgewater pupils.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of creating the school play and was proud to work with such gifted pupils. I believe we received as much success as 'Grease' but in our own original style. One thing I can say is that the future looks very good for Bridgewater High School Drama Club with the next generation of performers.

Mr. Rob Oakes Co-Head of Drama