Drama Festival Success!
On 30th April and 7th May, our A Level drama class went to compete at the Maidenhead and Henley Drama Festival as the first round for the National Drama Festivals Association.
We had first begun exploring ideas for what we would want to perform all the way back in January. This meant we went through several plays for a while before settling on ‘The House of Bernarda Alba’.
If, like me, you aren’t immediately familiar with the title, here is a brief summary: Bernarda is a dominating, powerful matriarch who loses her husband and forces her four daughters to follow the 1930s Spanish custom of mourning for eight years, locked entirely in their house. The play explores the themes of love, betrayal, family, power and marital duty. It is set in Southern Spain, just before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. It was originally written by Federico Garcia Lorca but our one-act adaptation was translated by Nelly Cuellar-Garcia.
After finding a play with five equal parts, we got to work on making our rehearsal room transform into 1930s Spain.
It was directed by Ms Stevens, Maia and myself and we would take turns, working together or individually to build the piece.
My favourite part was the opening choral scenes where the choral speaking created the sense of isolation against Adela, the youngest, played by Georgie, which is exactly what we needed to achieve.
For our set, we settled on five white arches to pay homage to the architectural style of Spain and made them slightly dilapidated and weathered to match the line of the play: “The House of Bernarda Alba is decomposing and decaying and she is blind to the approaching storm.”
We also used four white blocks in between the arches to hold props, act as a step or a seat and had a bench at the front of the stage to create a dynamic seating arrangement.
The best part of our actual performance was the fact that it was entirely student led.
Maia, as mentioned earlier, was in charge of the live sound on stage and played the guitar beautifully to weave the scenes together. Emily and Anabelle were in charge of hair and makeup and aiding with the rapid costume changes to ensure our piece stayed true to the style of the time.
I was in the tech box controlling both sound and lighting for both shows which was an exciting opportunity for me to do both, which I hadn’t done at the same time before.
At Maidenhead, on Friday 2nd May, I represented Headington Rye for the awards ceremony. We won the Moyra Hutchinson prize, the adjudicator’s prize, for best ensemble work.
Although we didn’t get through to the next round at Maidenhead, we find out if we go through on Saturday for Henley.
So after two very long tech days, two very late shows and several last minute lost props (which were found at the last moment), it has been a great experience and I couldn’t have been happier to do it with my best friends and classmates and our excellent Director of Drama, Ms Stevens, guiding us through the whole process.
I’m so proud of everyone who was involved and it has been quite the journey from January till now.
Written by Lexi, Year 12
Read this report on the Henley Drama Festival from Aurora (Year 12) below:
On Wednesday 7th of May, I embarked on a journey to the Kenton Theatre in Henley to watch the lower sixth A Level drama group’s performance of “The House of Bernarda Alba”. It was a one act version of the Spanish play written by Lorca in 1936 and adapted by Nelly E. Cuellar-Garcia. that took place as a part of the Henley-Maidenhead Drama festival. Paired with Maia on the guitar and Lexi captain-ing the tech box, the ensemble was electric from the second the curtains rose. The ensemble featured Georgie as Adela, Eva as Magdalena, Leona as Martirio, Lydia as Angustias and Evie as the titular and domineering matriarch, Bernarda Alba.
The troupe genially took advantage of a small cast by performing the ensemble parts themselves by donning mystifying black lace veils to match their black dresses, both symbolising the 8 year mourning period the family has become trapped in as a result of the death of the patriarch at the start of the play. The tragic end scene encapsulated the skills of each individual performer as they portrayed the cautionary tale of rifts in sisterhood brought on by patriarchal gender roles. The troupe came away with a myriad of awards, such as follows:
Overall runner-up – The Weatherhead Award
Best Youth Performance – The Eileen Copus Rose Bowl
Best All Female/Male cast – The Charlotte Thomas Award
Best Youth Performance- Lydia Meller – The Daphne Marshall Award
Adjudicator’s Choice – The Jean Sutherland Memorial Award
Magic Moment – The Diamond Shield Award
Best Stage Presentation – The Dorothy and Arthur Sharp Award
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the performance and it really represented the high calibre of the A Level drama group and I’m excited to see where they go next!
