For this week’s Rye News our press club at Rye College looks ahead to a big show that will end the autumn term in style. Thanks to Hannah, Ethan and Audrey for their interviews and write ups. Here’s their report.
Over a hundred students at Rye College will be taking part in the Winter Performance, an evening of creative arts in the Rye Theatre on Wednesday, December 11. The audience of parents and friends of the school will see drama. dance and music and the event follows the success of the school’s performance of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory this summer. More shows are planned because the students asked for them.
As the show approaches, we peeked at the rehearsals that are taking place. Despite the chaos, many drama, dance, and music students have been working extremely hard for what is set to be an amazing night!
We spoke to Daisy, Molly and Anna, some of the performers, to see what their thoughts were. “The rehearsals are mainly productive, but because breaks are so short we run out of time quickly,” said one of our drama students, who also claimed they wanted longer break times.
Most of the feedback was similar, although some said that some rehearsals can be more chaotic than productive, due to the need to eat during breaks and the perilous slippery floor of the drama studio which often sends people flying.
We also found that people enjoyed rehearsing because it means they can develop new skills and work with friends, as well as finding them funny because of the number of accidents caused by various factors, like the floor, doors and general clumsiness from
performers. For drama students, many were positive about their scripts, saying they were “creative” and “funny” as well as liking the fact that they had a say in how it was written.
Ms Greenough, the dance teacher and the head of performing arts is helping to
produce the Winter Performance this year. She has carefully chosen the performances,
costumes and schedule to celebrate the students’ achievements and to help show the
community of Rye the power of the students at Rye College.
When asked, “What motivates you?” she replied, after a short while (read: a few days),
“I have a love for the performing arts and love to see this passion passed on to the
younger generation. I enjoy inspiring and nurturing talent. Watching progression and
growth within my students is the most special part of my job. Teaching performing arts
often requires continuous learning and creative problem solving which enables me to
continue to grow professionally.”
From a very young age, Ms Greenough enjoyed dance because she had so much
energy as a child. The first professional performance she saw was the West End The
Lion King.
Ms Grennan is our drama teacher and told us about her motivation too. “I always loved
helping people. At Camp America I taught drama to young people and then I trained to be a drama teacher.” She gave sneak peak about the show next week. “Years 7 and 8 are performing melodrama, and year 9 students have written their own plays and are performing them.”
The Winter Performance will be large scale in terms of bringing performing arts back into the school. For a long time, the school hadn’t really done any performances, but after the very successful Charlie and the Chocolate Factory show in July and the panto earlier on, it’s clear putting on a show is back at Rye College.
There are only a few tickets left so it looks like it will be a sell out. We’ll have a full review of the show in Rye News soon.
Image Credits: Rye College , Kt bruce .