“An honour and a triumph” it was for a group of Yateley students and Sixth formers who won the chance to perform the opening scenes of the bard’s “The Merchant of Venice” at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon on July 3rd.
A few months before the monumental performance these students volunteered their time and efforts to take part in the World Shakespeare Festival, even though some had little or no experience in theatre and acting. Nevertheless the one thing that bound all the students together was their great love for the work of one William Shakespeare - a chap you may have heard of! The Festival brought together schools from all over the UK, to perform allocated scenes, with children of all ages. These schools performed and competed together in regional performances and a vast amount of talent and hard work was displayed (especially as the task of learning the classic lines of Shakespeare is no simple task!). But only a small proportion of the many schools that performed were lucky enough to be selected to perform their scenes at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-and we were one of them!
So on the day of the performance, the cast, their parents, and quite notably the head teacher, Mr.Jackman, got aboard the coach up to Stratford and prepared themselves for a day of rehearsals, fun, and frolics until it came to performance time. Phillip Oakley, who played the part of Lorenzo, stated that “When we went inside we saw that the stage was massive! We’d all seen pictures of it before…but when you actually stand on it, it’s huge! On top of that there was 1,000 seats surrounding the stage, going up 3 levels…as you can imagine it was no pressure at all!” Despite the haywire nerves, excitement and a slight mishap with an apparent non-removable head-dress on Portia (which was fortunately ignored!) the performance was truly spectacular, and one that the students and teachers involved will surely never forget for many years to come. After all, how many people can say that they performed with the guidance of the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre so early in life?
A huge thank you and congratulations goes to the teachers who directed Yateley’s scene and the play, notably Mrs Hearn of the English department and Mrs Crutchley of the Drama department.
And in the words of the bard himself “All’s well that ends well”
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PHILIP OAKLEY played Lorenzo
‘It was an amazing experience to perform on stage at Stratford, even more so because I have almost no drama background. I’m just an English A-level student who likes Shakespeare’s works and wanted to achieve something worthwhile in my AS year. Over the months we’d practised the scene, over and over again, the group of us had bonded well. By the time of our performance, we knew the lines and what we had to do; it was just a matter of actually going on the stage and doing it!
We did technical rehearsals on the stage first. Despite seating 1,000 people, we didn’t need microphones; the RST is designed in such a fashion that the acoustics can be heard wherever you are sitting. I knew from previous performances that the stage lighting is done in such a way that you can’t see anyone past the first or second row of seats, but even so: it’s still a huge amount of people watching you.
The play is brilliant to perform because it’s so gripping. Although I only had a small part, I fully appreciated this chance – it will remain as a very fond memory for the rest of my life. I doubt I’ll have the chance to be so fortunate and perform on stage to an audience as big as that ever again.
I thank the teachers who directed the scene and the play, notably Mrs Hearn of the English department, and Mrs Crutchley of the Drama department.’
Piece written by Michelle Archer.
