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A Rehoboth Christmas Carol: Drama in Years 9-10

Five weeks was just long enough for the Year 9-10 Drama class to produce their adaption of A Christmas Carol

Back in Week 10 of Term 3 the Year 9-10 Drama students decided to put on a production of A Christmas Carol, our adaption of the Charles Dickens novel of the same name, for the Christmas assembly. We began brainstorming frantically on the whiteboard to get our ideas out. We got into pairs to plan scenes.

When we returned from the holidays, we immediately began to write out our scenes. We compiled all our scenes on an incredibly fun shared document, and on the following Friday the first group began to direct.

We had to use at least eight cast members in each scene, whether as characters, extras, or even scenery, which meant a lot of direct instructions and, in the case of one group, a period and a half of choreography. This was a good opportunity to use teamwork – a crucial element of Drama.

As the day drew closer (we only had five weeks to plan, write, and rehearse after all) we got more stressed and frantic. We had an after-school rehearsal two days before, but we still didn’t feel too ready.

The actual performance went well. If you put it into perspective, it was our first time actually running through the entire play with the shorter breaks, and we did have limited time to get it as polished as we wanted it.

Ultimately, we worked with what we had. It wasn’t perfect, and we made mistakes, but everyone seemed to enjoy our performance – almost as much as we enjoyed putting it on!

Student Reflections

Here’s some thoughts from each of our Drama students about their experience with this play and with studying at Rehoboth:

‘Being in Drama these past two years has been an amazing experience; I’ve certainly learnt many skills and had lots of fun. One of my favourite things from our Christmas Carol performance this year was being able to take a traditional story and turn it into something relevant for the culture of today’ – Hannah Beaney

‘The process of creating this performance taught me to work hard and step outside the box, even if I may not be used to it. Just being open to ideas and willing to work hard really made a difference in how the performance was portrayed and how I personally was able to be a part of it’ – Avery Wrener

‘Since this is my first year doing something like this, I personally learned a lot. I learned to manage my time with either working on the scenes or learning my lines. I learned that putting on something this big takes a lot of effort from the performers and the people behind the play to work together’ – Brjill Rompas

‘Even though you think you have the best ideas, you should never be hasty to ignore the ideas of other people. Quite often they’ll be useful. I have also learned that to be a good director, you need to know people’s different strengths and weaknesses’ – Zac Blennerhassett

‘I learned how to write a script in a group and how to act a script better. I enjoyed working in a group with the Year 10s. I also enjoyed acting’ – Nathanael Bryant

‘I have learned how to work well in a team. I have learned to be patient, to listen and follow instructions, how to direct our own scenes, and to have fun. I have learned to give things a go’ – Ebeni Thygesen

‘Through the rehearsals, script memorisation, directing and more, Drama class consistently remained engaging. I’ll always enjoy being part of an environment that requires me to step outside my comfort zone at times because every class is an opportunity for all kinds of growth’ – Victor Komaiya

‘This task taught me a lot about writing and directing a play. It showed me to keep things subtle and not to bombard the audience with information. I’ve learnt a lot over the past year about improvising and staging and I’m happy to say that I put those skills to use in this play’ – Jack van der Kooy

‘I’ve also learned that it doesn’t matter what part you play or how big your role is, you’re part of the team, and you end up laughing so hard you cry. That’s what sets drama apart: you’re always having fun, no matter what you’re doing ‘ – Anna Murphy

‘Drama is like no other subject. You are given an offer, and you have to accept it. It’s easy to be reluctant to accept offers and sit back and say: “Oh, I’m too cool for this,” but it continues to push me out of my comfort zone, to just put myself out there and improvise’ – Tori Moss

‘The main reason that I love Drama at Rehoboth is that it’s like having another family. You get together each week and have fun and be silly, while still working on productions. And in the end, you get to present all those hours of work and laughter’ – Amelia Mutton

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