The Sound of Music was the school’s first production since 2018, due to Covid. And what an incredible return to performing it was!
We played to full houses from 6th to the 9th of February. This page summarises the show in images and text. It is hard to imagine just how incredible the music, acting and singing was in real life. We look forward to doing it all again with a new production in 2025.
Mrs Parkinson, Director: Planning started in October and included 2 to 4 rehearsals each week, plus weekends and days off school timetable, for the cast, crew, designers and musicians. What a huge commitment everyone involved put in and it certainly paid off as audiences were enthralled by the level of talent.
There is a magic about live theatre and though it takes a huge amount of bravery to perform live to 200 people, it is also a fantastic atmosphere of fun, friendship, humour and achievement. During rehearsals and backstage there have been moments and memories that students will always remember added with their success on stage.
During the show nights there were 30 ensembles cast in Studio 2. Twenty principals packed into the two dressing rooms backstage and 10 backstage crew dotted around the wings and front of house! You can imagine the madness! I just wanted to thank again everyone involved. It is without doubt a memory I will cherish.
Miss Large, Assistant Director: When creating a stage production, the acting that takes place on the stage is not the only important aspect that needs to be carefully planned out. Alongside what is happening on the stage comes the responsibility of running the back-stage elements.
This includes putting props and furniture on stage at the right time, removing props and furniture at the end of scenes, controlling projections, working as a runner to tell actors when they need to get ready for their scenes and organising all of this so it can be done seamlessly and quickly during fast transitions.
When working back-stage on the Sound of Music, as a teacher I could not have done all of the above successfully if not for the back stage crew that were working alongside me: Lily P, Sam F, Callum P, Scarlett H, George C, Patrick S, Scarlet G, Lily B, Jess S, Faye B, Isabel S and Robyn D.
It truly was a team effort that couldn’t have been done without the hard work and dedication of all those involved.
The THS orchestra
Mr Wright, Subject Leader, Performing Arts: It is a real pleasure to once again be able to support our hugely talented group of students and dedicated staff and guest musicians at Tiverton High School in staging another large-scale musical.
Many of the songs from the musical have become so well-known we can refer to them as ‘standards’, including ‘Do-Re-Me’, ‘My Favourite Things’, ‘Edelweiss’, ‘Climb Every Mountain’ and the title song ‘The Sound of Music’.
Taking on the original Broadway orchestration by Richard Rodgers has definitely been a challenge for our school orchestra, but one we all embraced and I’m sure you will agree, managed to succeed in producing a wonderful sonorous supportive platform for our singers on stage to perform with confidence.
I am so proud and grateful for the huge amount of work, students, colleagues and guests have put into learning the music by Richard Rodgers, helping to bring the magic of musical theatre once again to Tiverton High School.
Rehearsals
Live show
