March 28th 2019
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat
As a small tribute to Mr Clements, who has over the course of his career at Moulsford been integral to the construction of thirty-three stages for our productions, the reins for choosing the Year Seven play were placed in his capable hands. The choice of revisiting Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat came from both his love of the play and desire to reimagine the staging in a way which would prove different to that undertaken ten years ago. Out went traditional Egyptian clothing and in came Hawaiian shirts and sunglasses, flip flops and sliders, and even narrators dressed as Doctor Who (well, they are time-travelling, after all!).
Five months of preparation may seem like plenty of time to rehearse a play. But with twenty-two songs and their respective choreography to learn it’s incredible how quickly this time can disappear! To make matters more complicated still, Mrs Blanchard and I chose to double-cast Joseph: two Josephs, two Pharaohs, four Narrators etc. This offered lots of extra opportunities, but also meant boys needed to learn not one but two roles for the performances as they would also perform in the chorus on two of the nights. For most this therefore meant remembering two sets of entrances and exits during different songs, two different singing parts, even being responsible for sharing two different costumes!
Despite all of these challenges, Year Seven produced an incredibly high-quality play which was notable for not only some standout individual performances, but also the exceptional standard the whole cast reached on each night. I and the other staff were hugely impressed by their attitude and focus - even on Saturday when energy tends to be running high! They were a real credit to the school and it was clear that they were giving their all to each performance.
This production was also memorable thanks to the accompaniment of a live band who played from the balcony with Mr Bissell as their expert conductor. A huge thank you to them all, along with Mr and Mrs Squire who provided the technical support this required. A particular thanks also to Theo M and Arion T - two Year Eight boys who played in the band on all four nights and during our dress run. As ever, a large number of staff were relied upon for assistance with everything from set construction through to supervision of the boys while offstage. On behalf of myself, the rest of the directing team, and those in Year Seven, a huge thank you to all involved.
