“And we’ll strive to please you every day” says Feste at the end of TWELFTH NIGHT. Last week 90 children in Year 4 at Montpelier Primary School, Ealing strived to please and, ultimately, they did!
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “strive” means to make great efforts to do something or achieve something, especially when encountering difficulties. This encapsulates the endeavours of Year 4 in the last week before half term.
Eight and Nine Year olds do TWELFTH NIGHT
At the end of the day, rehearsing a production of TWELFTH NIGHT in 3.5 days is a big ask. Asking 90 eight and nine year olds to do it is an even bigger ask. Finding the Will is a regular visitor to Montpelier Primary – this was, I believe, our sixth annual visit – so we know what to expect. Likewise, staff and children know what to expect from us. Guidance through a Shakespeare play yes, but more importantly, an emphasis on life-long skills like listening and focus, teamwork, confidence-boosting and pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone.
Strive to please
By the time we reached the performances on Friday – yes you did read that right (the actors performed twice, once to Years 3&5 and once to their parents and guardians) – they were completely committed to doing their absolute best. The ‘strive to please’ was as much about focusing as it was on performing. And against all the odds, they pulled it off!
Memorable Performances
As always, the most memorable performances are not necessarily from the featured roles. We did have some cracking Malvolios; some lovely Lady Olivias and some wonderfully love-lorn Count Orsinos. But the lesser roles of servants and police officers threw up some really unexpected pleasures. The tiniest of voices, struggling to say three words, grew into a tiny voice that could be heard (just) and what guts that took! The actors with just a few words to say, but who were always reliable, always ‘on it’, and always willing to cover for their friends – invaluable. In fact, there were quite a few children who, as my fellow practitioner Fay put it, ‘saved the day’. They stepped in at the last minute, learning new roles, sometimes then having to step out again when the original actor returned. Some children were reluctant to say anything at all at the beginning of the week, but by the end they were taking on named roles. ‘Strive to please’? They certainly did.
How did Feste ‘strive to please’?
You may recall that Feste the clown appears often in TWELFTH NIGHT striving to please for the odd coin or two. He pops up in both Count Orsino’s and Lady Olivia’s households entertaining and commenting wittily on all that he surveys. At Finding the Will, we delight in an eclectic music soundtrack (we’re talking Dusty Springfield to YMCA), but TWELFTH NIGHT requires some live music from Feste. We were treated to La-La-La Lava Ch-Ch-Ch Chicken (yes, it was a new one on me too) and, surprisingly, a bit of Rick Astley ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’. We also had Feste and the Festettes rocking the room with a brilliantly mimed version of ‘Only The Lonely’.
One of our Festes also made the masks above (with some help from his mum so I understand), which he wore in the show.
Montpelier staff strive to please too
The incredible Year 4 staff at Montpelier Primary deserve just as much praise as the children. Ms Sheahan, Ms Palmer and Ms Young led by the incomparable Ms Connett, worked tirelessly with the actors when they were not with us. Ms Connett and Ms Garofalo (Co HeadTeacher) have been in contact with me for the last few months organising this week. It is a real commitment and one that all the staff and the Parent Teacher and Friends Association truly embrace. Special mentions must go to Ms Palmer who became our in-house DJ on the performance day and Ms Brown, who conjured up an inordinate amount of props including pom poms, seaweed, a see-through blindfold (theatrical trick!) and a particularly spectacular hedge. Huge thanks to all.
“This is very midsummer madness”
As we wave goodbye to Montpelier Primary for another year (we’re back same time next year all being well), we hurtle towards midsummer madness with an action-packed June. We have MACBETH in Coventry, MACBETH, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, ROMEO & JULIET and THE TEMPEST in Wokingham, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM in Cheshire and in Brighton, and finally THE TEMPEST in Lincolnshire.
So to the 500 children we will meet and work with in the next few weeks, “We’ll strive to please you every day”.
PS
Exciting news coming soon on the Finding the Will Patron front……all I can say for now is ‘Winnie and Wilbur’ (if you know, you know!)