As many of you will know, this year’s school show is Oliver. In fact, you will see Frankie O’Donnell (S2), who has been given the role of Oliver, writing here too. My role here is to let everyone know what’s happening in the rehearsals each month.

The first two rehearsals were held in a music room, learning some of the songs, so I won’t go into detail about them. In the third rehearsal, we started setting scenes out. The scene we did then was the Food, Glorious Food! scene. Rehearsals were well into way when BBC cameras starting arriving. Everyone was a little nervous, especially when the Music Department’s Mr McKinnon chose my table to be interviewed. 

You might have seen us on Reporting Scotland a few days ago. They had been investigating an American survey which said that Scottish people were losing their accents as TV was affecting us and changing them.  We managed to prove the survey wrong, as we came to the conclusion that most of our accents had not been affected.

The fourth and final rehearsal I will share with you was extremely fun. We learned more of the Food, Glorious Food! scene and what was particularly thrilling was the main moment, in which our very own Frankie O’Donnell, as Oliver, says the doomed words ‘Please sir, I want some more!’. The reactions of Mr. Bumble, Widow Corny and the warders are certainly something to look forward to. Singing and also making the facial expressions to show mood is quite fun, especially when the threatening and frightening Mr. Bumble walks over – everyone must cower in terror!

Already, there’s an overall sense of pride spreading throughout the cast and crew. There’s nothing like singing a song or doing a scene together successfully, knowing that you all put something into it. There is this inner feeling that you are making something that really means something. Something amazing.

Hannah O’Donnell (2a1)