West Monmouth School’s three-night sell-out of Grease at the Congress Theatre will be remembered by every single member of the talented 90+ pupils who took part for a long time.
I was lucky enough to bag a ticket for the middle performance last Thursday and feel incredibly lucky to have been there.
First off, thanks to Ian from Emotion Picture Photography for giving me this brilliant set of photos!
The opening scene was a cracker and it happened without the curtains even going up. Yes, as the lights went down and we all stared at the stage, the side door opened and in poured pupil after pupil. I lost count, but later found out it was 97. They lined up in both aisles, and stood centimetres away from those with front seats. As this stunning spectacle happened, other cast members arrived on stage.
We had the full cast of principles, dancers and chorus jigging and singing ‘Grease is the Word’. I’ve sat in the Congress Theatre so many times and never seen so many of the cast and audience all in the room at the same time. There were happy faces everywhere I looked.
After the first couple of songs, I checked my watch. It was 7.19pm as the cast members filed out of the auditorium to prepare for their next scene.
Visual spectacle
The visual spectacle of the full cast in the theatre for the first 20-odd minutes said to me that tonight is a team effort. A quick peek at the programme revealed that the cast was made up of pupils from every year.
The staging was centred in, on and around a giant Wurlitzer Jukebox- the perfect backdrop for 1950s America. Cast members sang, stood high up on top of it, around it, up the stairs, and even wheeled Greased Lightnin’, the show’s famous car, in and out of it. Top marks to the team who built the set.
My fellow audience members were so supportive of every song, dance, joke and emotion on stage. I genuinely felt bad when we clapped as Rizzo finished singing ‘Look at me, I’m Sandra Dee’ with Sandy entering the scene, disappointed in her new friend. Believe me, I hurt my hands clapping and cheering for Sandy as she then smashed out ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’. I’ve always been #TeamSandy.
Make-up, music and lights
The make-up, music and lights gave the pupils a full-on professional theatre experience. The principles all wore small mics to ensure faultless sound when delivering their lines.
And the costumes. There were 97 young people dressed in 1950s outfits. That must have taken some coordination between the school, parents and pupils.
I did some ironing just before I left for the show, and among the items I pressed were two white t-shirts. You won’t believe how glad I was for just putting on a dash of after-shave and legging it for the theatre without getting changed. If I had put on one of my crisp, freshly washed and ironed white t-shirts with my jeans and dark boots, I’d have looked like some weird 49-year-old greying ‘Burger Palace Boy’ wannabee sat in row F.
My feet tapped the floor many times during the show- it’s one of those brilliant live theatre experiences- I could feel the people around me enjoying the show with the little bumps and taps through the floor.
Born To Hand Jive was another (of many) banger with the auditorium rammed with the full cast giving it their all both on and around the stage.
The show built up to the final scene, ‘One That I Want’ and ‘We Go Together’. Many of the 300-odd people around me were looking forward to the finale, as they had an excuse to get to their feet and not just tap the floor.
The curtain call
As every one of the cast enjoyed their special moment in the curtain call, and the chorus continued, the audience took to their feet, some of them brave enough to dance as well as clap.
A cast member’s mum told me that pupils had a dress rehearsal in the school last Sunday, followed by their first run through on the Congress Theatre stage on Tuesday from 4pm to 9pm. Twelve hours later, they were back in the Cwmbran theatre, where they stayed all day and left after their opening night.
I spoke to Sinead Jones, the director, as she stood proudly by the door to the dressing room.
She said: “Since we come back to school after Christmas…We’ve been working on it every single day after school, Sundays, lots of hours put into it, lots of work behind the scenes.
“Laura Chamberlain, she’s the assistant director and teacher of music, and then Andrew Jones, who’s head of expressive arts and musical director, the three of us just literally hit the ground running.
“It’s absolutely crazy, 103 pupils involved in the show. We’ve got 97 on stage, and then we’ve got a tech team crew behind stage as well, so yeah, it’s pretty intense.
‘A safe space’
“For me, I think it’s [studying drama] about gaining the confidence to be able to do things that maybe they wouldn’t normally do. Lots of them think of it as a safe space for them to be. It’s family, it’s friendship, it’s building relationships, and you know, allowing themselves to become perhaps more social than they would be otherwise and for most of them, they just like coming in and sometimes [Sinead laughed] having a bit of time off school.”
When I got home, I finally had the chance to read the brilliant programme. What a keepsake. The principles each wrote a paragraph about what drama means to them. All were so touching, but I’ve pulled out a few sentences here:
- “Theatre in West Monmouth School has given me a place where I’ve always felt like I belong, somewhere I’ve been able to grow in confidence in myself and find lifelong friendships.”
- “The expressive arts department has made me feel a huge sense of belonging and performing with some of my best friends has made the experience so much more enjoyable.”
- “After West Mon, I will continue to sing, dance, and act, and continue to build my confidence and work on my training to one day step foot into the performing arts industry where I can share my passion and perform as my job.”
- “…the cast is so supportive of each other. I feel that working on this show has been one of the best experiences I’ve had, as even in the rehearsals, there isn’t ten minutes where I’m not laughing.”
Andrew Protherough-Jones, musical director, said in the programme: “Our pupils gain so much from the teamwork, creativity and sheer joy of performing- experiences that will stay with them long after the final curtain. I hope many of them will keep stepping into the spotlight for years to come.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Full set of photographs
Thanks again to Ian at Emotion Picture Photography for the photos. For a full set of pics, please check the post on Cwmbran Life’s Facebook page.