Once Upon a Mattress
Last weekend on the 24 and 25 May students and staff presented the 2019 Senior School production, Once Upon a Mattress. The cast, crew, past students, volunteers and staff have worked tirelessly for many months to make the show a success. Four performances in total were held which were all highly entertaining, shown by not only our biased opinion, but all of the positive feedback from the audience members.
Aside from the usual hiccups and the stress and frantic scrambling to finish getting costumes on when there is two minutes until showtime, and a downpour of rain before the last show, the official production week ran smoothly. Congratulations to the cast, dancers and orchestra for performing a fantastic show!
There is always a long list of people to thank, however without the support and dedication of individuals who work together as a team the productions are not possible. Thank you to Mr Andrew Neal and the school community for supporting staff and students to produce a wonderful show.
Thank you to:
- The Hair and Make-up team, Backstage Crew lead by Miss Hogarth, technical crew and props crew for helping the show run as smoothly as possible.
- Mrs Loton, Miss Kamcev and Jack Hurley for the coordination of costumes, making the cast look stunning on stage.
- Mrs Stanley for organising hair and makeup despite the downpour of rain.
- Mrs Hewson for helping with teaching the vocal parts.
- Mrs Davey for choreographing the stunning dance routines and helping with the acting across the whole cast.
- The external musicians for filling the extra parts in the orchestra; the BMG staff in the orchestra for helping the students with their parts and filling the overall sound and all the other BMG teachers involved in the running of the production.
- To Mr Clare who conducted the live orchestra and singers, making sure everyone stayed on track throughout the whole musical.
- To the Maintenance Team, Administration Team and Mrs Perconte for their behind the scenes support.
- The final very special thank you goes to Ms Stratakos who worked hard to put the show together including blocking, facial expressions, stage placement, set organisation and being the support for the whole cast and crew, she has been the backbone of this entire production from start to finish, being there at every rehearsal with constant positivity, encouragement and helpful tips on how to make our performances the very best they could be.
Being up on stage was exhilarating, I had this rush of emotion and adrenaline that just can’t be described which was such an unexplainable and irreplaceable experience that has honestly been the highlight of my year so far. Throughout rehearsal I wasn’t sure that a lot of the jokes and funny moments would land because we’d made them so many times that it just was not funny to us anymore but on the day when everything went smoothly and people laughed, it was all worth it.
Personally being part of the show this year has developed my self-confidence, musicianship skills and has allowed me to work alongside some amazingly talented musicians who have a huge interest in the running of such a wonderful production; a wonderful opportunity for all students to be a part of. I would highly recommend students who have an interest in music to become a part of such a wonderful production.
We hope everyone is inspired to become involved in Bacchus Marsh Grammar’s next production or productions in the future. Details regarding the 2020 production will be announced later in the year.
Students: Rebecca Farnell, Declan Xerri and Alejandra Camacho
