Our Last Meeting with the Cast of This Year’s Shakespeare on The Lawn

With summer comes the School’s Year 9 Shakespeare On The Lawn production, and although the sunshine has been somewhat lacking so far this year, the talent, dedication, hard work and commitment of our students taking part certainly hasn’t been!

For the last time ahead of the performances on 2 and 3 July, we met with cast members from The Two Gentlemen of Verona to see how their rehearsals were progressing and how they’re feeling about not one, but two performances next week on our Chapel lawn.

As ever, Miss Mayes was supporting students with not only their lines, but their body language, and co-ordination on ‘stage’, offering advice and guidance so that our young actors can ensure their audiences are engaged and informed about what is happening in every scene – as well as what is being felt by the characters; from accentuating and exaggerating words, to the importance of pauses as well as physical gestures and movement to communicate with the audience on every level.

For our final cast interviews, we met with Proteus played by Will and caught up again with Turio played by James.

Will explained,

“I really love my character Proteus, he’s duplicitous in every way – and that’s both challenging and exciting to play!”

He continued,

“His deliberate deceptiveness means at first you might not like him or his character, but you soon come to realise that he’s a complex and really quite interesting person. It’s been challenging learning how to perform his soliloquies with the audience in the right way – they’ve been really fun to rehearse though and I love that he’ll have that connection with everyone watching.”

He summarised,

“I think I’m most excited about the costumes, they’re really going to bring the play to life and help us feel more like our actual characters!”

We’ve met James who plays Turio before, but it was great to see how he’s getting on further down the line with rehearsals and his character. He shared,

“When I began playing Turio I thought he was just silly and possibly ignorant, but the more I discover about him and develop his character, the more fun I realise he is. He is unintentionally comedic, so he’s fun to play.”

He continued,

“I’m really excited about performing, a little anxious about the dance scenes mostly, but Miss Mayes and Mr Williams have been brilliant and helped us so much.”

Asked if there was a particular scene he was most excited about performing he shared,

“I think when he’s introduced to the audience – I think that’s going to be fun, and that scene has my favourite quote too – I won’t share it as I don’t want to spoil it for everyone coming along.”

With just over a week before their first performance, our Year 9 students have worked incredibly hard throughout the week and at weekends, to make sure they know their lines, understand the stage and their direction for the production. We know they’re excited to share the play with you, we hope you’ve booked your tickets and have your picnic planned for when you join us next Tuesday or Wednesday for Shakespeare On The Lawn. Book tickets at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/woodbridge-school-drama