Amazing Performances at The Annual Orchard Theatre Festival
Once again thespians from across the school took to the outdoor boards in our annual Orchard Theatre Festival. Hosted by our Drama Captains Izzy and Will, the festival was kicked off by the Prep School on Thursday evening. They shared a wide variety of performances from a ‘Drum and Tap’ duet (which did exactly what it says on the tin!) to a powerful monologue from Hamlet and a comedic insight into the world of bananas!
The Senior Pupils then kept up the momentum with extracts from The Secret Garden, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Little Women and even some Monty Python sketches! The first night concluded with a scene from Adam Barnard’s ‘Buckets’ performed by George M and Max K, the latter of whom trod the Caterham boards for the last time in his final year at school. We want to take this opportunity to wish all our Upper Sixth leavers the best of luck in their next adventures and thank them for being such wonderful ambassadors for Drama during their time here.
Friday evening continued in the glorious sunshine with another huge range of performances. Our Theatre in Education company transported us back to our childhoods with their brilliantly cheesy ‘Wheel of Emotion,’ a piece they had toured to primary schools earlier in the term. We also had extracts from ‘The 39 Steps,’ ‘The Women of Troy’, a Rowan Atkinson sketch and a memorable duet from ‘Into the Woods’ by our captain Will, and our soon-to-be Quasimodo Charlie, detailing how agonizing love can be. Also of note was Lily W’s incredible makeup catwalk where she showcased four gruesomely realistic and amazingly impressive stage makeup looks. Watch this space- Lily will be creating looks for the stage, film and TV before you know it! But first, she’ll be heading up the make-up team on our very own production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in December.
To end the evening, Caterham Staff once again took to the stage in their version of High School Musical. Everyone would agree it was their most well prepared, wholly organised and brilliantly rehearsed piece to date. There was not a mistake in sight, certainly no scripts on stage, and all wigs were worn with accurate precision… Definitely.
Thank you again to everyone who took part and once again brought our theatrical year to a close in brilliant fashion. We can’t wait to do it all again next year!
