Every year it is customary to hold House Drama. Without the input of any adult staff, the elected House and Vice Captains of each house put on a musical (which must be only half an hour), write the script, hold auditions, run rehearsals and put on the performance all within the space of around 6 weeks. A very difficult task, but each year every house puts on a fantastic show for the whole school to enjoy, making it very difficult for the judges to decide on a winner. With the whole process being very stressful, there are highs and lows throughout. Not only do the House and Vice Captains have to put on the performance, they have to come up with costumes, scenery, presents for the judges including handmade programmes, a publicity board and an orchestra to provide the music. 

 

Therefore there are numerous awards to be won for many different categories. These include; Best Costumes, Orchestra, Scenery, Publicity, Choreography, Chorus, Senior Actress, Junior Actress, Supporting Actress as well as Best Production which is the prize all houses are competing for.


The 4 houses, Repton, Newton, Highams and Warner all came away with awards each. Repton house’s Kat Fu in year 7, won ‘Best Junior Actress’ and as well as this they had 3 different scenery changes so of course they deservedly won ‘Best Scenery’!


Newton House’s Lara Janes-Walton in year 12 won Best Supporting Actress and as well as that Newton also came away with the award for Best Chorus.


Highams’ had teachers in tears as they captured the emotion and heartbreak of the play with their tremendous actors. Ellen Madhani and Simran Seehra (Year 12) both won the award for Best Senior Actress.


But Warner’s production was the one that seemed to impress the judges the most. Although the play was mainly songs with very little speech, merits for acting were still given to multiple members of the cast. Warner came away with many awards including Best Orchestra, Best Publicity, Best Costumes, Best Choreography and the big one, Best Production. This has been the second year in a row that Warner has won Best Production but it still came as a shock to all members of the House!


I spoke to the Head of Orchestra, Tanya Li in Year 13 about how difficult it was to be in charge of music in such a musically based play.


‘As the show was predominantly songs and music, leading the orchestra was definitely a challenge. Just a week before the show I was convinced we wouldn’t be ready in time, but all the musicians worked so hard and they were a pleasure to perform with! Winning the award for Best Music was incredible and I am so pleased all our hard work paid off!’


I also spoke to Denise Williams, a Year 13, who was one of the choreographers of the dance routines. She said:

"The dances were not that difficult to choreograph and only took a few hours of hard work. However, teaching the choreography to the other dancers and perfecting it took many hours of long hard work. It was all worth it though and it felt amazing to win the award for best choreography."


Isabelle Mooney, head of Warner house spoke about how she managed to cope with the great responsibility as well as school work. 


‘Through this experience I have learnt how to delegate and trust my peers as well as organising a musical alongside A Level Studies which was particularly challenging as the role of House head is very demanding.  House Drama is such a big part of Woodford life that it’s a lot of pressure to do it to a high standard. The whole school gets very excited and as Warner won last year it was a lot to live up to.’