On Tuesday, 15th of March, the two Transition year classes spent the day and most part of the night at the convent in Glasnevin, Co. Dublin. We went to the convent to take part in the "Margaret Aylword Drama Presentation". Margaret Aylword was the founder of the Holy Faith Sisters in the 1850's.
We used the four English dramas that we had already performed earlier on in the year for this drama presentation. We were lucky that they didn't have to altered too much to suit the event and the audience.
We had had a dress rehearsal the week beforehand with our former chaplain, Sr. S. Sr. S is also a Holy Faith Sister and is now based in the convent in Glasnevin, which is why our school has such a strong connection with the Holy Faith Sisters in Glasnevin.
We left the school at break time on Tuesday morning, with bags, props and actors in toe! We boarded the bus and took off, knowing that we'd be returning late that night. Everyone was excited.
When we got to the convent, we were greeted by Sr S. It was great to see her smiling face once again. We went into the convent grounds and were guided to the school hall. There was already one of the other schools there practising on stage. We had to wait our turn for our first rehearsal on stage. While we waited we chatted quietly amongst ourselves and watched the other rehearsal on stage. Soon, it was our turn to practice. The first rehearsal didn't go soo well, with props being slow to be brought on etc. Fortunately, we had plenty of time to get it right as the show wasn't starting until 8 o'clock in the evening.
After the first rehearsal, we were allowed to leave the convent grounds to go and get food in the shop or coffee shop. When we came back, we sat in the school yard, eating, talking and having fun. We were called back in after a while to get ready as our next rehearsal was a full dress rehearsal. This rehearsal went quite well. Everyone was more prompt and more confident. There was still one slight problem though, we weren't talking loud enough on stage and considering there was going to be an older audience to before, this wasn't good! Voice projection improvement was needed!
We headed outside with the man from our drama workshops. We walked away from the surrounding buildings, onto one of the pitches. Here, we practised projecting our voices! It went well. The fresh air made opened up everyone's mind and all of us were feeling a lot better and less stressed and less nervous.
We were then informed that we would be getting pizza for a bite to eat. Everyone was so happy about this. When the pizza came, there was even more excitement because it was from the one and only, Dominos! My favourite! We sat around the whole and munched away contently. After the pizza we went out for a walk one last time.
This time, we met a Holy Faith Sister on the grounds. She asked us would we take her dog, Chinky, on a walk for her. We were more than happy to do so. So, off around the grounds we went with Chinky amongst us all. We had great fun and laughs before we went back in to get organised.
Everything was set to go, we just had to wait for our audience! We got dressed up and done up in plenty of time so we wouldn't be rushing at the last minute.. as usual! At about half seven the hall was filling up quickly. The nerves began to kick in. Our present chaplain, Mr K and our school principal, Ms B both came along to watch and support us. There were four schools performing. Our school was third to go on stage. While we waited, we planned what we'd do for the annual La Glas theme day which was taking place the following day, Wednesday. We got that sorted out pretty handily.
Our time came to go on stage. Everything went extremely well on stage. Our projection was great according to a few of the nuns that were talking to us afterwards. At the very end of the drama presentation, when all four schools had completed their performances, one of the Holy Faith Sisters got up on stage to thank and congratulate us all. As a token of their appreciation for our great performances, we received a fabulous piece of genesis for the school and we each received a book about the life of Margaret Aylward.
We cleaned the hall and gathered our belongings. At about a quarter to ten we headed for the bus. The bus journey home was good fun. We talked about the day and how well everything had gone for us. It was a really worthwhile day out and ,yet again, another great bonding day.
Thank you for all your hard work and effort Ms B, Ms G, Ms C, Sr S and Ian.
Niamh! :D
No comments:
Post a Comment