A Mid Summer Night's Dream NCBIS Drama Department has just presented its most ambitious project yet; a 1980s musical version of Shakespeare's 16th Century play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Using the original verse but adding modern costume and subtle adaptations of 1980s iconic songs, the audience was delighted by a humorous blend of quick lines, outrageous puns, musical interludes, innuendo and creative choreography. After our popular and well-acclaimed productions of "Honk" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", there was such a demand for audition spots that Head of Drama, Amanda Laragione, and Director of Performance, Joseph
Szalay, decided on an equally ambitious double cast, and effectively two distinct productions of the same theatre! Performed in December, it literally became a Mid Winter Night's Dream, with all expectations exceeded, students emerging with smiles that would make a Cheshire cat envious, and the staff so proud of our creative and wonderful students, from backstage, frontstage, prop designers, stage band for their live accompanying music, as well as the casts themselves. Wonderful, energetic, creative, cultured, and above all, FUN! A synopsis of the NCBIS production: Theseus, Duke of Athens (Joshua Aubrey and Finley Mathe), is preparing for his forthcoming marriage with Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, (Nicole Stark). Hippolyta is seen as rather a materialistic young lady, and Nicole enthralled us with a convincing and powerful version of Madonna's "Material Girl", backed by the NCBIS Stage Band, directed by Head of Music, Rebekah Thompson. Joshua Nicole Finley The plot then thickens as Toula (Aniek Blok and Nour Tewfik) and her daughter Hermia (Charlotte-Marie Bien Betourné and Nour Soufrakis) march into court with Demetrius and Lysander. Toula expects Hermia to marry Demetrius, but in fact the former is in love with Lysander and they plan to escape Athens together. Aniek Nour T. Charlotte-Marie Nour S.
Confused? Perhaps complicated to modern viewers, but the story goes further! They make the mistake of telling Helena (Georgina Taeger and Hoda El Sayed) about the enlopement, but as Helena is in love with Demetrius, she thinks she can win him over by informing him of the planned escape. Georgina and Hoda played Helena, and enchanted us with their magnificent voices and bubbly personalities! Why wouldn't Demetrius be head over heels? Demetrius chases after them into the woods, with Helena close behind! The woods are of course enchanted by Fairy Queens, Oberon and Titania, as well as Oberon's servant Puck. With the help of a magical flower, love potion is spread on the eyes of our heroes, who awaken to fall in love with the first person/figure they see - including in Titania's case, a donkey -headed High-schooler called Bottom! Niels Geyskens and Adil Latif, enthralled us with their rendition of "Bottom", bewitched by Puck with a Donkey's Head. Pierre and Wout (Lysander) and Toon and Louis ( Demetrius)
"All's well that ends well" of course, both in Shakespearian and modern times, and all the spells are undone, the pucks ask the audience for forgiveness and urge them to remember the play as if it had all been a dream! Hannah and Zaina (Titania) Rashal and Agathe (Oberon) Aoife and Jamielia (Pucks) Malaka and Rachel (Fairy Queen) A memorable dream at that, with a crescendo of music and all on stage singing Queen's "Crazy little thing called love", followed by the encore of Bon Jovi's apt "you give love a bad name". It was over far too quickly as we were all mesmerised by the power, quality and creativity of the performance - both days quite distinct of course, but equally impressive. We would like to thank our performers for the months of preparation, their enthusiasm, the additional learning beyond their important external exam syllabi (many in their second or third language of course), their readiness to learn and translate their Shakespearian lines, and of course for their team work, poise, stage manner, resilience and willingness to accept a real challenge. More than anything, we would like to thank them for the unforgettable performances they produced for us, their smiles, creativity and special NCBIS desire to "bring out the best in everyone." In no particular order, we would like to thank: Role December 5th December 6th Helena Georgina Taeger Hoda El Sayed Hermia Charlotte-Marie Bien Betourné Nour Soufrakis
Lysander Wout Van Dyck Pierre Thienpont Demetrius Toon de Melker Louis Thienpont Theseus Joshua Aubrey Finley Mathe Toula Aniek Blok Nour Tewfik Hypolita Nicole Stark Nicole Stark Tatania Hannah Jaffrey Zaina Morad Oberon Agathe Jreijiri Rahsal Buijze The Pucks Aoife O'Neill and Jamielia Stark Aoife O'Neill and Jamielia Stark Fairy Malaka Badr Rachel Williams Bottom Niels Geyskens Adil Latif "High School Players": Rym Abbas, Selin Erkutlu, Marguerite Julia, Farida Khedr, Sien de Melker, Nine Nieman, Chloe Rockingham, Lara Salem. Fairy Ensemble: Zeina El Deeb, Clara Hoehlmueller, Ali Likhwide, Mariam Salama. Stage Band: Rebekah Thompson, Kate Banks, Lana Ben Halim, Karim Salama, Nader Sohby, Matthieu Thienpont. Props, Costumes and lighting: Suha Ahmed, Rahaf Al Mady, Astrid Bjorlin Hansen, Emma Capelani, Clarissa Carrizo, Caterina Karidis, Jijun Kim, Anna Mukai, Maciel Nathalia, Sofia Piza, Lara Salem, Farida Shady, Shivonne Stevens, Nicole Van Breugel, Felix Vikoler, Selma Younis, Tamara Youssef; staff Alex Sherlock, Kevin Rossall and Ihab Iskander Finally, special thanks to Hoda, Malaka, Aniek, Georgina, Wout, Pierre, Louis, and Matthieu for the many very special performances they have given us, as they leave NCBIS this year. May their musical and theatrical dream continue, and not just in Mid Summer! Copies of the Performance photographs are available at the Secondary Office. Graham Hurrell, Head of Secondary School.