Year 4 wowed the audience on Valentine’s day with a hilarious performance of the musical comedy ‘Shakespeare Rocks’. They spent under 30 hours rehearsing over a three-week period, whilst also learning about Shakespeare’s life. We were lucky to have a great team of staff and pupils working behind the scenes. Two year 6 performing arts prefects spent hours creating choreography for all 7 songs. The play looked fantastic due to the wonderful scenery created by our Art teacher, and all this was captured by our photographer. Year 4 were also lucky to have a fabulous costume team who took the time to tell us some fun facts:
There were over 90 costumes – some of which had 7 different components.
All in all there were about 300 different bits of costume! Not all were new -many of the doublets had been made for a previous Shakespearean production but most of those had to be altered to fit. We added lace to dozens of white shirts, made endless ruffs and rooted out baggy trousers that were made for a tercentenary pageant in about 1990!
To begin with, getting dressed was a big challenge for the girls, but by the end they were calm and quick and managed to put everything on in the right order!
Most challenging costume? Making a year 4 girl look like a woman, pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman – or something like that!
Staff made props for the production, which ranged from pom poms to gigantic books. Staff backstage helped the pupils become organised during the process in terms of knowing when to get props and be ready to enter the stage. Our lighting and sound technician also added some sparkle to the performance.
There were tears and laughter coming from the audience throughout the play, as well as tears from the proud teachers at the end. We can safely say that the play rocked and the Shakespeare quote ‘All the world ‘s a stage, and all the men and women merely players’ will certainly stay with year 4.
Here’s what some of the performers thought of their experience
“I was nervous 🥺 at first but I didn’t let my nerves take over. Once I danced 💃 to one song I got really into it. I enjoyed it a lot! 😉”
“Thank you soooooooooooo much Mrs Whiteley for helping I can’t thank you enough thank you Mrs Pick and Mrs Nicholas and Mrs Ryan for helping to learn my lines and everyone’s lines. Thank you Ella and Charlotte/Lottie for helping us to learn the dances that you made – you did a great job and also well done EVERYBODY!!! that took part in the show you did a very good job and finally thank you Mrs Deamer and Mrs Galvin for the background and the costumes they both looked AMAZING!!!!!! I felt that the play was perfect and the props were well made and I’m surprised that I made it through the play because I have stage fright.”
“I learnt a lot and loved the experience from going home in the Christmas holidays and learning our lines to performing our show to the adults on stage! I was extremely nervous when I first walked on stage but as the show continued I began to feel less nervous and more excited. I loved learning all the choreography and songs but I especially enjoyed learning my lines! I am glad that I tried my hardest and made the most of my wonderful experience. The highlight of what I did was singing and dancing to all of the songs!!!!”
“I felt really scared at the beginning that I couldn’t learn all the songs, my lines and the choreography for the songs. I tried really hard and learnt the things bit by bit so I learnt my lines then the songs and last of all the choreography. Once I knew what I had to do it was much easier and enjoyable. I loved the whole experience and seeing what was happening behind the scenes so now when I watch other plays with scenery, costumes and props I know how much hard work and effort they put in to produce a play.”
“I have loved the whole experience of Shakespeare Rocks. I really liked it when we all worked together as a year 4 team to make this play a success. Every step of the way, Mrs Whiteley, Mrs Nicholas, Miss Ryan and Mrs Pick have been there to support us and polish off our small mistakes. I have always loved acting and drama so this made me feel like myself and express my feelings in acting. I would also like to say that every member of year 4 has complimented me and supported me so much I am so pleased with myself.”
