CULTURE TheatreFest One Act Play Competition 2021
Teechers by John Godber Directed by Nikki Bleyendaal Assistant Student Directors: William Jones and Saskia Simmers Performed by Christ’s College and Rangi Ruru Girls’ School “We’re going to take you to Whitewall High School. It’s a comprehensive school somewhere in England… And they’re expecting a new teacher to arrive...” – Gail Teechers is a play full of characters and situations you might easily recognise – a bunch of burnt-out teachers, a flurry of unmotivated students, and the prospect of a play that might just be the spark of hope this school needs. Actors play students playing other students and teachers in a hilarious array of scenes throughout the early career of a new drama teacher, Mr Nixon. From the cheeky duo of Hobby and Gail who immediately crush on the new teacher, to the ratbag Salty whose graffiti antics are only topped by the juvenile delinquent, Oggy Moxon, smoking behind the bike sheds and headbutting his competition… “You don’t come to school to fool about, Ian, to waste your time...” – Mrs Parry And these keen beans certainly wasted no time in getting the gang back together. After the exceptional co-production success of As You Like It this year, a dedicated team of students decided to put together a second production for the 2021 TheatreFest Competition. Originally performed with only three actors taking on the 20 or so roles in Teechers , we decided to spread the joy among a throng of enthusiastic actors across both Christ’s College and Rangi Ruru Girls’ School to truly bring this piece to life as a chorus performance. The cast and crew took time out of their busy school schedules to rehearse as much as possible and get this show on the road. Assistant Directors Saskia Simmers and Will Jones were instrumental in ensuring this little hope of a show actually came to fruition – hosting auditions, assigning roles, helping put together rehearsal schedules and realising our overall vision for the show; not to mention stressing about getting the show to fit inside the 50-minute limit for the TheatreFest competition. “Don’t let the bastards grind you down!” – Mr Basford We performed the highly anticipated, comedic preview
of the show to our invited friends and family in the OBT, taking a bow to their rapturous applause. And while adapting to the MLT stage at Rangi Ruru Girls’ School for the competition was no mean feat, we managed to deliver the show under time, after a frantic technical rehearsal, and received a cascade of positive feedback from the judge. “No more school, no more stick, no more teachers thinking that you’re thick!” – Salty The team walked away with acting awards for the pompous Mr Basford (Adam Raitt) and the eccentric Mrs Parry (Meg Crump), as well as the best use of chorus. My heartfelt thanks to the adult team who also assisted along the way – we couldn’t do these awesome things without you backing us. “Thank you, thank you all!” – Mrs Parry Nikki Bleyendaal Director
THE CAST Mr NIXON
William Morris/Harry Sharr/Bruno Vaughan Poppy Sam/Evie Short/ Lucy Aitken Saamya Gulati/Lauren Small
GAIL
HOBBY
SALTY
Ed Davidson/Ollie Jones
Mr BASFORD OGGY MOXON
Adam Raitt
Jacob Clements
Mrs PARRY Meg Crump Miss PRIME/Ms COATES Hannah Mansfield DOUG Joey Young PETE SAXON William Olsson Ms JONES Sadie Lee DENNIS/BARRY Otto Elworthy PIGGY/DEANIE Reuben Oh Ms WHITHAM/Ms CLIFTON Ella Hartel
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Register 2021 Culture
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