Every year, Longbenton Community College hosts a drama festival in which the current Year 7s perform in their classes for the Year 6 students coming to the college next year. This event is greatly looked forward to by the people who are lucky enough to watch it or even take part!

On Friday 1^st July each Year  7 Drama class performed their  pieces they had been working hard on over the past few weeks. The afternoon included acts such as ‘Hairspray’, ‘Once Upon A Time in Longbenton’, ‘Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat’ and many more. Overall, the event was a huge success, with the atmosphere buzzing from the start. The excited, colourful feel to the day was shown well by the loud chattering, and the great cooperation of the Year 6 audience.

All seven of the acts were hugely enjoyed by the young and enthusiastic spectators, keeping them totally engaged in the performances. The room was drawn in, and the starting act, ‘The Wizard of OZ’, opened the stage with a bang.

No performance would be complete without crazy costumes, so of course, the costumes worn by all of the performers were very apt! They all were very well thought out and some even having been made by the pupils themselves! Each act stood out as different from the rest, and all pupils seemed to have played a part in the organising and performing of the pieces. Many had narrators, and movement and voice played a huge part in all. The role of the narrators are important and great for people who aren’t as confident with acting, however some of the more outgoing children chose the more humiliating route of dressing up as the opposite sex! They won’t be forgetting that in a hurry and we are sure if they do their friends will remind them...

The groups made good use of props and equipment such as wigs, scooters, microphones and the projector board to enhance their performances. The third act, ‘The Gingerbread Girl’, we personally found stood out against the rest as they co-operated with the audience by using water guns to shoot people! It was very funny to watch the Year 7s shrieking with laughter! ‘Ad Break’, the fifth act, also made good use of costumes and equipment to put together a mix of different adverts, and was a very popular performance. The audience found the piece very entertaining, and the group did a great job of choosing adverts everyone would recognise, such as ‘Go Compare’, ‘118’ and ‘Mazuma’. Music and dance were incorporated well into the act, making it altogether more enjoyable, and the interaction with the audience made watching the act more fun.

There were many interesting scene set ups, and the classes used the large space very well, moving on and off stage very fluently to change scenes and add interest. One group in particular, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, moved on and off stage in the typical pantomime style; in a chase scene. The audience found this very amusing, and it brought a bit of interaction into the performance. This group had also found a way to incorporate lots of different scenes into their piece by picking out the part in the film which included the news. They made a good job of splitting the room into the press and Charlie’s home, and moved on and off set accordingly, which worked very well.

By the end of all the performances, the room was loud with excitement and laughter. The results were decided and read out after a small speech by some of the staff at the college, and the whole room was silent while they waited to find out the rankings. ‘Hairspray’, the last group to perform, came in first and they all were hugely congratulated by everyone who was there! Their mix of lively dance, music and singing tied together to produce an amazing performance, which was full of colour and entertainment. The costumes worn by all of the performers were gorgeous, with the girls wearing bright 60’s style dresses and the boys in smart clothing, all dressed up for the occasion. The hair and makeup was also outstanding, and was all themed very well to fit with the film. The performers had even put on American accents to help with the performance! Overall, it was hugely successful, and they are to be rewarded for their effort. The group told us; “We enjoyed it a lot, it was a team effort and all the hard work really paid off!”

Anya Braviner said “I don’t want to take my outfit off!”

The reaction seemed to be true for all performers who took part in the event, everyone we asked had enjoyed it a lot. Shannon McGuigan said “I liked the rehearsals lots, and the event was great too!” and when asked to describe it in one word, she said “Entertaining!”

Alex Robson described the event as “funny!”, and Philip Cowans said he “enjoyed all of it, it was really good and not too scary.”

Mr Miller, a Drama teacher at the college who helped in the festival, said it was a “Very successful event, enjoyed by all, with some outstanding performances. There are some talented young people in Year 7 and Longbenton!”

 

The Wizard of OZ

Opening the stage, this performance blew peers away! Using Longbenton instead of Kansas we feel added an interesting twist to the performance and made it original. The smaller boys of the class played the roles of the Munchkins and used different voices to add to the effect. Costumes were bright and fitted well with the characters. They did an excellent job of keeping the audience interested and made their scene a success!

 

Joseph and His Technicolor Dreamcoat

“Jacob, Jacob and sons!” The second act opened with very repetitive use of this chant, it gave the act a great first impression and strung the audience in right away. They all knew their lines really, really well and the dialect was loud and clear. ‘Joseph and His Technicolor Dreamcoat’, originally a musical, was successfully portrayed in a short, roughly five minute scene. Instead of singing and instruments the chants made an interesting difference and it definitely paid off as they ranked third. Well done!

 

The Gingerbread Girl

This act immediately stood out with the great costumes, props and even face paints and hair dye! The change of gender for the Gingerbread girl was a great change to the original, and the interaction with the audience using water guns was hilarious! The actors’ voices were loud and easy to hear, and the group made good use of the space on and off stage. Also, we have to mention the great fall made by one of the actors!

 

Once Upon a Time in Longbenton

This act did a great job of putting together an entertaining mix up of different stories to create a great end piece. Their performance was completed with great costumes, props and the use of poetry and even snorting! It all came together to produce their piece, which ranked second overall, so well done!

 

Ad Break

“Mazuma!” this jumble of different TV adverts was performed very well by this group, with dancing, music, video and great costumes! They made good use of resources such as speakers, the projector board, and even drums! All aspects of the piece, including drag acting, were greatly enjoyed by the whole audience, who found the piece very amusing! This was a very original piece, and was a great success.

 

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The BBC news music which started this performance grabbed the attention of the audience straight away, and created a very interesting range of scenes. The use of great costumes and props enhanced the piece, and the chase scene near the middle added to the excitement! The group wrapped up their performance well with a bow at the end, very traditional.

 

Hairspray!

The fusion of colour, accents, costumes and hairstyles definitely made the piece a success, and added to the talent displayed by dance and singing! Coming first in the overall rankings, their well themed, clear performance definitely impressed the audience, and the judges. So congratulations on getting first place!