British School in Colombo (BSC) has its Inter House Drama Competition recently in the school auditorium. A lively audience responded to some very evocative and experimental theatre as each House group tried to awaken the minds with their stories.
The Inter-House Drama Competition is an opportunity for students to work as an ensemble and devise a theatrical performance based on a given theme and stimulus. This year’s theme was ‘awaken’ and the stimulus the hypnotic melody of the classical music piece, In the Hall of the Mountain King by the Composer Edvard Grieg (1875).
This proved a challenge for many teams, but regardless they embraced the concept with passion and rehearsed diligently. It was also a wonderful experience for them to have experienced theatre practitioners comment on their work.
It was an honour and a pleasure to have the skilled theatre professionals, Gaya Nagahawatta, Director of the University of the Visual and Performing Arts, Chalana Wijesuriya (ATCL) a drama coach from Trinity College, Kandy and Kevin Cruze, Assistant Vice President of HSBC and Artistic Director of Cold Theatre 7.
Though it was tense and quite long wait as the judges deliberated, the audience was thrilled with the result. Nobel House was victorious this year with a somewhat scrooge reworking of a modern family dilemma, and in second place Scott House with a performance about a National Geographic reporter finding a lost Asian society; then in third place Shakespeare House with a zombie infested queendom run by a wicked tyrant and finally Newton in fourth place with a macabre toy shop in which the evil dolls reanimated. Special commendation went to Tehra Perumal for Best Actor and Nikita Advani as runner up for the same category.