Orchestral manouvres of Shakespeare

Tonight we have been out.

A few weeks ago Bret was chosen to represent the school by taking part in Viva for a performance of Romeo and Juliet.
Bret and others from his school composed and played variations of parts of the work.

I bought tickets for me, Bill and my sisters as they were only £2 each. We made arrangements to meet up for 1 quick drink beforehand and neither of my sisters were looking forward to it as they thought it was going to be a boring night of orchestral music - How wrong they were.

We got in just before 7pm but the doors weren't open into the auditorium so Ange and Debz went for a quick drink. As we stood there, all the children came out and had a big Montagues Vs Capulets Chant. It was fun and I found that as Bret was wearing a Black shirt he was representing Montagues.

The doors opened and we were shown to our seats. We were a lot closer to the action than it had seemed on the seating plan when I bought the tickets. The orchestra was all on the floor and the audience was seated on the tired seating about 6 foot form the conductor.

We saw Bret just to our right. The main Orchestra were in the middle (Sinfonia) and the younger children were to the left. In the back were pupils from the College and right at the back on stage were the actors. There were just 3 actors dressed in white shrouds with their faces covered. They were only acting out certain key acts through out the performance.

The whole thing was wonderful and I really enjoyed it. I have to say I had no idea that the theme from The Apprentice was part of ROmeo and Juliet. We all looked at each other when they started to play that and you could hear whispers all over the auditorium of "This is the apprentice"

The first half went by very quickly even though Bret only had 1 part in it.

At the interval Ange and Debz had pre-ordered their drinks and as Ange and I stood waiting for Debz to go fetch them, I spotted an old friend of Bill's in fact her bestest friend from her Nursery and primary school days.
I didn't speak to her and Bill didn't want to either but It was quite funny that we then noticed she was actually a part of the performance.

In the second half Bret had 3 parts so we would be able to see much more of him.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the whole performance was watching the conductor. He was so animated and very entertaining. I guess that is how Conductors are as they run the whole show. On this occasion the Conductor was Andre de Ridder.

The second half whizzed by and at the end they got a standing ovation. In fact there was about 10 whole minutes of clapping as all parts of this amazing collaboration stood to take their own bow. By the time we got up to leave my arms and hands ached and were very sore.

We went out into the foyer to wait for Bret to come out and then all walked home together. Bret didn't seem to be dazed in any way about the great thing he had just done. JUst another exciting experience in the life of an exceptional 14 yr old boy...