Our senior’s dazzled in Sancton Wood’s production of Our Town. Here, Elizabeth, Y10 Playing Mrs Soames and a leading part of the choir gives us her account.
The play tells the story of the residents living in a small American town, Grover’s Corner. Playwright Thornton Wilder suggests to the audience that during our time on earth we don’t truly appreciate what life has to offer. In these past months I have witnessed ingenuity, commitment and collaboration come together to create a performance that will be remembered long after the curtain has fallen.
As the summer term commenced auditions began. This demonstrated that Sancton Wood is a school of many talents. People came together to begin the process of creating a performance. Singers sung their first note. The actors delivered their first line. The band learnt their first melody. All awaiting the curtain’s rise. Casting the right people can make or break a show. Our cast has been wonderful from the outset. Learning their lines, perfecting delivery and embodying their characters. I believe the roles are very well suited to their actors. Let us not forget this play is set in pre-war America only adding to the challenge with accents to cultivate. However, as expected the cast has stepped up, not only meeting this challenge but surpassing it. It has been a real delight to be a part of our school’s acting community.
During the enrichment sessions this term the creative department have put on both choir and set design to help create our play. I have been a part of the choir. Over these months we have been working on numbers such as “Blest Be the Tide That Binds”- Hans G. Nageli, singing alongside a piano accompaniment weekly. The choir has really come together and developed as not only an ensemble but also as individual voices. Shown in the multiple solos and trios performed. Such as Frank Sinatra’s “Love and Marriage” and “Chapel of Love” by the Dixie Cups. Students in GCSE music classes have been selected to form a band, this time has made me realise how much music beats at the heart of Sancton Wood.
In set design students have been using their artistic ability to build us our own stunning Grover’s Corner. A rather impressive level of creativity and thought has brought alive the scenes of Wilder’s play, proving that not only the performers make the show. Sancton Wood is known for its warm sense of community, its ability to bring out the best in everyone, and its joyful atmosphere. Nothing more could demonstrate such qualities than our first school production after many years of enforced lockdown. These last few months there have been tremendous amounts of dedication from students, our Director Mrs Robinson and Musical Director Mrs McKillop have made a show we hope you enjoyed watching, as much as we have enjoyed making it.
