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The 6th form musical this year was ‘Annie’, a heart-warming tale of a young orphan searching for her parents in 1930’s New York. Performed, directed, and produced by a dedicated L6 team, fresh from their AS levels, ‘Annie’ presented a challenge which we took up with great enthusiasm! In the mere three weeks we had to put it together and perform, the entire year group took over the art department, music block, and speech hall to produce an amazing New York skyline, learn a host of songs and choreograph challenging dance routines.
The lead role of Annie was taken by Lucie Crawford, a newcomer in 6th form, and she was supported by a talented cast of over 25. Holly Dempster blew us away with her terrorizing Miss Hannigan, who enjoyed bullying and tormenting the six all singing, all dancing orphans (Tasha Charlesworth, Poppy Drayton, Sarah David, Veronica So, Katy Allison, Shu Fei Wong). Jenny Frostick and Rosie Townshend formed the lovely couple of Oliver Warbucks and Grace Farrell, and their very English butler was played by Emma Austin. Miss Hannigan’s evil brother Rooster and his sleazy wife Lily were played by Hannah Fisher and Isabella Weyman. Other prominent characters were Kris Erwin’s cheerful President Roosevelt, Bert Healy and his Boylan Sisters (Catherine Thompson, Phil Vega, Evelyn Tinker and Amy Howell), and Sandy the dog, who was wheeled on and off the stage for all his scenes, having been fitted to an ingenious skateboard-type contraption!
Ems Plews and Mimi Whitehouse were the musical directors, and they had the challenging task of organising a whole orchestra to play the interesting and sometimes challenging songs of ‘Annie’. Evelyn Tinker assisted the musical directors when it came to teaching actors the songs, and although Mr Lamb was the official pianist for the show, a big thank you to Mr Greenfield who assisted at several rehearsals. Julia Fischel (Stage manager) was ably assisted by an efficient team of backstage helpers, who sorted out props, furniture and scenery, and the art team, involving Jess Richards, Pippa Atkins, Olivia Payne, and Cathy Corrie, produced the stunning New York sky line, the ‘Bert Healy’ sign and ‘Hooverille’, plus more. The costume and make up department also outdid themselves with stunning costumes and beautiful make up for all characters. Izzi Powell’s hairstyling efforts are not to be overlooked; she managed to transform Lucie’s long, dark hair to the short, curly, red hairdo which Annie so famously wears, with little more than hair curlers, red hair spray and innumerable amounts of hair pins!
Another person who deserves enormous recognition is our producer, Miss Ritchie. Not only did she sort out all the arrangements regarding our rehearsal space, missing lessons for rehearsals, and all the admin of ticket sales etc., but she constantly supplied us with food to keep us going, and generally supported any decision we made. We could not have done it without her!
As directors, we found the three weeks great fun, if just a little stressful! However the job was made much easier as everyone was so enthusiastic, always turning up to rehearsals and willing to give up lots of free time to be involved. After a summer term full of revision and hard work, often in isolation, it was great to do something which brought everyone in the year together again, and which gave us the chance to produce a fantastic show! So congratulations to everyone who took part, and thank you to everyone who came to watch our musical.
Alex Courage, Carly Brown, Shu Fei Wong
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