School Production - Blood Brothers the Musical (by Willy Russell)

The school scene

A well-known West End theatre production, 'Blood Brothers' was recreated by the cast of The Regent's School, Pattaya. Over a month of preparation, pure effort was put into the performance. We as a cast brought the house down twice on the 1st and 2nd of December 2009 in The Globe Theatre. This once in a life time performance emotionally stunned the audience.

I have contributed in school productions before, although only minor acting roles were given to me. This year was something new, something unique, something exciting that I've never experienced before in my life. I personally was interested in the vocals when I first heard about the production 'Blood Brothers'. However, only one character in the production is involved with the major singing role, Mrs. Johnstone. I did not know this fact until after I was casted as Linda. I was very dissapointed mainly because Linda does not have a solo singing part. The impact it had on me did not stop me from striving. I started to explore my character Linda and began to feel her emotions. Her status and personal values in the production. In the first Act, Linda as a character did not shine mainly due to her child and teenage self. On the other hand, Act Two was challenging because the pressure is on her. As a young adult Linda becomes pregnant and also have problems in her life mainly due to her husbund Mickey. Tough as it is I had to show the audience Linda's emotional side. Acting is difficult because you have to believe in yourself and the character. If you don't feel your character, the audience won't feel the energy. Therefore boring them. Making them laugh or cry, audiences love it when we play with their emotions. Amazingly it felt, being on stage and living my character Linda.While I was acting on stage, what made me proud was that an audience in the front row looked as if he needed a box of tissue. He was emotionally struck by how Linda and Mickey interacted. To be honest, this production was the highlight of my first term in Year 12 because after all the pain and determination of going to rehersals on saturdays for more than a month, it's all worth it in the end when you perform and express yourself in front of the audience. I still remember the applause given to the cast. It just made me smile.

The whole cast together at the end of the production

Was it a miracle? It makes me wonder sometime how the production ever survived. The day before the performance when we did a whole day run through, from my perspective then everything was going rapidly down hill. Actors forgetting their lines and chorus coming on stage at the wrong time. The tension buried within me. The Globe Theatre could have exploded any moment then because there was so much pressure. However, everything fell into their slots magically the next day. The show could have been cancelled, the effort could have been lost if it wasn't for the over night boost. Paticipanting in this production have taught me that eventhough a situation may fail or lose grip there is still hope. Never give up and put in the effort in searching for that light until the very last moment.