Term 3 saw the 2016 Production Studies course put on their school production, “What’s On?” 

Most teachers during the school Christmas holidays are out enjoying the sun, relaxing drinking cocktails.  Not Mrs Reid however! Mrs Elizabeth Reid of Manawatu College spent 6 weeks developing and writing the new school production, “What’s On?”. 

After work and school finish for the day the McDonald family sit down for their nightly dinner in front of the TV while Grandma sits at the table. Each family member takes their turn in the spotlight watching spoofs of their favourite TV show on the Stage TV. Sick of the way the family are constantly in front of the idiot box, Grandma hatches a plan to bring them back together as a family. Grandma finally cuts the cord to the TV which brings the family back together again, playing games and sharing stories from their day as one unit. In modern day life, reality TV shows have taken over people’s lives, drawing them away from family time and important moments in life.

Manawatu College is known for its strong Arts faculty, putting on excellent Stage Challenge and School Production performances so it was no surprise that the 2016 production went off without a hitch!

As well as just the fun of acting and being apart of the production, there were credits available to students apart of the Production Studies class. Annotating and pulling apart the script into drama techniques offered students four credits.

Auditions began late in term one and there were a record number of students who wanted to be in the production! As auditions began and people put down their preferences for the roles they wanted, Mrs Reid started to get an idea about who she wanted to play the main roles of the production. After six separate auditions the main roles were cast. Some people were happy to receive the roles and others were disappointed that they didn’t get their first pick of characters. But after the initial disappointments the students really got into their characters and the scene was set for a great production. There was a huge number of roles in the production both on and off stage. Besides the actors, there were roles for lighting technicians, makeup and costuming, set design and prop making as well stagehands. This gave opportunities for a wide range of students to be involved - not just the extroverts.

As the scripts were handed out, it was time for one of the hardest jobs — people having to learn their lines. If nobody knew their lines then the production would be a flop! Throughout the process of reading and understanding the dialogue, some people were given extra characters to play, meaning they had more lines to learn! Once we had our lines rehearsed and memorised, rehearsals on stage could get underway! The difficulty with rehearsals is scheduling it for a time when everyone can make it. It's difficult to have Sunday rehearsals as some people have prior commitments but it worked in the end. Mrs Reid says, “If I could change anything, I would have had fewer characters.” This is because she thought that there would be enough people to fill every single character but in the end a few people had to fill characters and play more than one character.

During the hectic time of rehearsals, there were also backstage workers put to the task of finding equipment that could be used on stage. Things such as couches, backdrops, lighting systems and certain props needed to be sought so we could use them in different scenes. Lighting systems were the most difficult thing for us to find. We had thought that we would have been able to borrow lights from the local Foxton Little Theatre as we have for past productions, but this year we were unable to use them. This meant that we had to hire lights with money that we didn’t have. So in between learning lines and rehearsals, we had to make time and come up with ideas for fundraising. Oh, and not to mention keep up with all of our school work! We came up with the idea to order Cadbury Chocolate boxes to sell. Each person involved with the production was given a box with 30 chocolate bars to sell at $2 per bar.

Fortunately chocolate tends to be popular in schools and these sold relatively quickly. We even had some people sell more than one chocolate box! We made $1000 from the chocolate boxes so we were able to hire some lights with that money. We also did frozen food orders from the Frozen Food Factory situated in Palmerston North. With the extra money we made we were able to purchase props that we needed for the performance. A lot of our props were purchased from a $2 shop as things we needed consisted of fake work tools, plastic guns and police gear, fake flowers and cutlery. Because we bought things from a $2 shop, it meant that we could get heaps of things for a low price.

Costuming and making the props really brought everybody together. Everyone played a part in this. The Production Studies class had to paint backdrops, make any costumes we couldn’t buy and find any props that we could around the school. Finding props around the school and the wider community meant that we didn’t have to spend that extra money. We had a group of backstage workers that had the job of changing the stage settings on the two nights that the production ran. This job is a nerve wracking one and comes with a lot of responsibility and pressure. If the stage wasn’t changed in time between each scene, then the setting wouldn’t be right!

As well as the jobs in the lead up to the performance itself, there were also jobs that had to be done on the two nights the production ran. People were put in charge of moving the setting and costumes from the classroom to the hall where the production was being held. We were lucky enough to have the help of another Drama teacher on the night, Mr Nathan Webb: a regular performer at the local Foxton Little Theatre, and not to forget his amazing makeup skills! Every single actor needed to be coated in stage makeup so the brightness of the stage lights didn’t wash them out. Students were given the opportunity to help with the application of makeup.  Although there were no credits available for it, it was still a good experience to help with. Reflecting back on the production, Mrs Reid says that she ‘would have had fewer characters’ to make it easier to fill characters. Mrs Reid’s final thoughts on the production: ‘I liked all the tv shows, I liked the rest of it, just fewer characters’. All in all the production was a huge success thanks to everyone involved. The two nights went off without a hitch and they were extremely successful. A huge thank you to Mrs Reid for the amazingly written and produced production.  Without her the production would not have been as good and as successful!

It was a refreshing thing to reconnect with old school family values, which seem in today's modern society like a thing of the past.