Today’s question is ....
Have you ever appeared in a school play?
Well, the quick answer is no, but that would make for a very dull and short blog post!! So, let me bore you instead with tales of my (very brief) stage adventures!
As I said, I haven’t appeared in a school play, but I did appear in a play at school. I may be interpreting the question incorrectly, but to me a “school play” is one where the participants are drawn from the whole school and the play is performed for the public. I ain’t never done that! But I do have a tiny bit of theatrical experience from my schooldays.
Our secondary school, like many here, was split into “houses” and every year, just before Christmas, each house year-group would put on a play, performed in front of the rest of your year. The plays were then judged by the headmaster and the head of year, and the winners would be rewarded with something. No doubt the prize was fabulous and stunning, but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was. Maybe that is because we never won - I couldn’t possibly say :-)
Anyhoo, it was in these yearly plays that I made both my stage debut and my final performance. Most of the plays were stolen ...uhh, I mean borrowed from somewhere else. I recall that one group did their version of a Fawlty Towers episode one year, which went down a storm. In the first year (when we were all 11 or 12) our house-group did a small play about a wax museum where for some reason or other the wax figures suddenly came to life, and the people froze. My role in this masterpiece was as one of the visitors to the museum, and I had one line to say. Yep, one whole line. About half a dozen words if memory serves me correctly.
I learnt the line in five seconds flat – well, how long does it take to memorize six words? And, of course, when it came to the crunch on the big day itself, those same six words somehow flew away from my brain and stubbornly refused to return. To be honest, I think that if you had asked me at the time what my own name was, I may have struggled to remember that too. As a visitor to the museum, my character was supposed to freeze, but as an “actor” in the play it wasn’t called for so much!! So, yes I appeared in the play but I completely bombed out! LOL
My memory is a little hazy, but I believe that I also took part in the 2nd Year production, although I can’t recall what the play was or what my part in it might have been. I know for sure that it wasn’t a speaking part!! “Member of crowd” was clearly my theatrical forte! After that I moved to backstage roles in subsequent years, which I have to say I enjoyed immeasurably more. Not all of us are cut out for the limelight I guess.
Do any of you have a more auspicious experience of school theatrics? I am guessing that no one has a worse tale, although I suppose that at least I didn’t fall flat on my face!! Let me know your own stories of woe or wonder.
Keeping it random!
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