By Mathilde Thorens, Year 11
Preparing and performing a play are two complementary and tedious processes that come to play for any theatrical production. On Wednesday April 27th and Thursday April 28th, the year 11 drama class performed an adaptation of the well known Swiss play “The Visit”, by Friedrich Dürenmatt.
The play takes place in Güllen, a small ruined town in Switzerland. Many years have passed since it prospered and the whole town is impatiently waiting for the arrival of the richest woman on earth: Claire Zachanassian. After all these years, Claire makes a deal with the town: she will give them 1 billion Marks in return for a deadly price.
To perform this story, a lot of preparation was necessary, starting with the audition process. Mr. White held auditions during a morning drama lesson and each student auditioned by reciting a scene from the play. Every student then voted for who they thought each other student should play allowing Mr. White to finalise his decision. During the next lesson, the roles were handed out and each student started their individual research about their characters in order to get more comfortable with their roles. Mr. White then directed how he wanted the play to look and the actors made his vision a reality.
The opening scene was the one that was worked on the longest; the scene included the whole town at the Güllen train station waiting for Claire Zaccanassian. This scene was practiced more than any other as it was the scene that needed the most enthusiasm, energy and projection of desperation coming from the characters. This was done by breaking the “4th wall” as the characters were telling the audience how poor and desperate they were, which the characters did by giving off “a feeling of genuine sincerity”.
A great deal of work took place backstage. It’s unknown to the majority of the audience, but many things happen behind the scenes. The students were divided into different groups: marketing, costumes, props and management. From February to April the students started collecting props and costumes from the props and costume rooms in the Art Center and got in contact with the very talented seamstress Sonia Castejon. Together, the students planned out what they believed best fit each character. Every character had a list of costumes and props and these costumes were either brought from home, found at the Art Center or made by Sonia. Each character also needed a yellow item of clothing for later in the play that would represent the money Mrs. Zachanassian uses to “buy” the town. For this, the students went to the PTA’s Bazar to buy shoes to paint in yellow. The students also went to the school’s forest to get some branches to paint white to represent the dying tree in the first forest scene of the play. Making props helped students undertand the uses of them better in the story and helped bring the show together.
There was a full house at each performance thanks to the marketing team who helped sell the show. An instagram was created for the play, a bulletin poster board was created at the entrance of the Art Center and many posters were hung up to get as many people as possible to come. The marketing team helped design the main poster which was designed by the talented Jamison Mouratova who created it by drawing it digitally. Flyers were created by adding pictures of the drama students on top of the poster, which held all the information such as the dates of the play. These flyers were handed out by some members of the marketing team which attracted an audience.
The process of creating the show “The Visit” by Friedrich Dürenmatt was a long and difficult experience for everyone involved but was definitely worth the hardship at the end. Many thanks to the hardworking cast and amazing director, Mr White, who brought the show to life and created many fond memories for the cast and crew as well as a fantastic show. The year 11 drama class is very proud of this achievement and hope that everyone who came to watch the production enjoyed watching it as much as the cast enjoyed performing it!
