Drama students host first annual evening performance

On Thursday, May 3, the long awaited evening of drama performances finally arrived. Ever since the large posters advertising the event began appearing all around the middle high school, students have been looking forward to an evening filled with dramatic performances from some of the school’s best actors and actresses. The anticipation was shared by performers from the drama class and club; Anouck Jayasuryan (10B), who played a role in the play The Comeback Caper, stated that she thinks the show “is a big milestone for the drama class…we worked really hard at this play and we have been preparing all semester.” This statement is proved to be true as the drama class and club have reportedly spent weeks and months rehearsing since choosing the play last fall and casting it in January. 

The schedule for the evening consisted of several dramatic performances from students of all grades, with the most advertised being the play, The Comeback Caper. By the time the show was planned to begin, at 7pm, the first floor auditorium was already packed with students, teachers, and parents. The sheer amount of people that turned up that night surprised Mrs. Sharon Ma, who stated, “I was really conservative in the amount that I was hoping for, and we had three times, maybe four times the amount of people I had first anticipated. The support from the community was overwhelming.”

The evening kicked off with a drama performance from the 5th grade Drama class. The high quality acting from such young actors and actresses pleasantly surprised the audience and set up high expectations for the rest of the performances of the evening. About half way through the evening’s program, the highly anticipated main attraction — The Comeback Caper, directed by Mrs. Ma — hit the stage. 

According to Anouck, the play is “a mystery whodunit about a missing jewel, a court case, and one very haughty actress”. These elements were indeed the focal points of the play, which starred Lara Deckert as Miss Gloria Sheppard. The immense amount of preparation and time that went into this performance was evident through the professionally composed performances of every single actor involved and the flow with which the story was delivered. In fact, the performances flowed better than expected — Mrs. Ma, director of the play and of the evening, voiced her concerns regarding the impact of the scene changes on the fluidity of the performance. “My biggest worry was the scene changes, that they would be awkward, but I personally felt that they were very smooth and quick and really done.”

All in all, the evening enjoyed a well-deserved success which was partly reflected through positive feedback from the audience. In regard to her reaction to the performances, Debbie Chen (12C) states, “I was very impressed…their body language and attitude fully reflect the persona of the characters they’re acting.” As for individual performances, she stated that she was “taken aback by how well Jungwon displayed anger even with just one line.” Also commenting on the performances of the students, Mrs. Ma said, “I was thrilled. I had high expectations…but I felt like the kids even exceeded those high expectations.”

It is safe to say that SMIC-I’s first annual play not only provided an evening of high-quality entertainment for students, teachers, and parents alike, but also established the dramatic performance as essential to the growth of SMIC-I’s art scene. 

Featured Image – Drama class students perform in The Comeback Caper. Courtesy of Rene van Steenbergen