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CAS Blog
Luciana Pun
Markham On Stage
Markham On Stage (MOS) is one of the house conpetitions that take place in Markham College. Last year, I was elected as Rowcroft's House Captain, along with Rodrigo Manrique, which has made us incharge of all the events, incluiding this. MOS is a fifteen minute play which the house captains have to plan before the event. It involves acting, singing, dancing, backstage, etc. The only thing we have to strictly follow is the theme given. This year is was "70 years of Markham". I am claiming 18 hours of CREATIVITY because of the practices I assisted and the time Rodrigo and I spent brainstorming about the ideas.
The learning outcomes of this activity will be:
LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
LO3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
Before:
The preparation for the Markham On Stage (MOS) was very intense as every detail had to be worked out. First of all, I delegated some jobs to other members of Rowcroft so that the play could be done quicker and with more ideas than just Rodrigo and mine. We put Ariana Chacon in charge of the dances, Valeria Cacho-Sousa and Valerie Wong in charge of backstage and Mariana Reyes in charge of music.
I would constantly get messages from them asking what we should do and what where the ideas of the play. For this, Rodrigo and me had to meet on a Sunday to plan the ideas and how the play would be structured. This day was crucial because we had to think of all the different possibilities we had and which was the best.
We started out wanting to do a time-machine but the idea would have been too difficult for the audience to understand. After a lot of discussion, we agreed that the present scenes would be in a job interview and the past would be flashbacks of the same characters but in school.
Also we decided which songs, dances and people we were going to use in the Markham On Stage. This took an extensive amount of time because we had such different ideas that agreeing to one was hard, very hard. Finally, after three hours we finally agreed about the general ideas and we could start the rest of the MOS.
Over the next few weeks, the people in charge gathered their team and they began brainstorming about which ideas they wanted to use. Then they talked with Rodrigo and me to see if we wanted to change anything. The last week before the Markham On Stage was crucial because the official practices had began. The backstage team began making the scenery, the dancers and singers began to practice and the actors began to familiarise with the script.
Apart from my role as House Captain, I was also going to dance and act in the play. So that I could accomplish a successful job, I had to stay 6 days after-school to practice (a total of 18 hours). The last practices were the best because all of the different parts of the MOS joined and we would go over the whole play. There were many people that collaborated with the play, going from P6 to 6B. It was awesome to see how different classes integrated and how, together, we managed to create a play all by ourselves.
CAS supervisor: Luciana de Idiaquez
During:
The day of the Markham On Stage was very tense for Rodrigo and me, and I think that for all house captains as well. There were no opportunities to make mistakes as everything preformed in the play was going to be judged by the public and judges. There was no second time to fix the show or make it better.
We were very worried that the play was going to be a disaster because the final practice had not gone so well because backstage was slow and made mistakes continuously. Additionally, the lighting was not coordinated and the microphones sometimes did not work. Apart from that, everyone had executed his or her job perfectly.
Before our turn we gathered the entire house and gave them a pep talk. We discussed what could be improved and wished them all luck. While all of them found their places, Rodrigo and me found ourselves in a caos because we did not find the microphones. We had to run around finding them and making sure that everything was in its place.
The lights finally darkened and the play began. I think that through the entire play I was more nervous about the other students saying their lines correctly than if I screwed up. When it was my turn to act, I let myself go and I got into the character. It felt so natural that I did not care about the 800 people that were looking at me.
When the play ended, there were no words to describe what had just occurred. You could just feel Rowcroft’s energy beaming through the hall. We were so happy about how we preformed we all started jumping up and down. Some even began singing to the top of their lungs and everywhere you turned you could see big smiles.
After:
Although we did not win, I am still very happy about our result because we managed to unite Rowcroft and eventually become a family. All of the different ages had become friends with people they don’t normal talk with. Also seeing how much fun everyone had, despite they had to practice a lot, was worth it. The bonds that I created with my fellow students is something unbreakable and I will never forget about this event.
LO2: I did not know how to dance and as I have always been involved in sports this was out of my comfort zone but I still managed to learn.
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LO3: We had to create a play with no help from teachers and we only got the theme it had to follow.
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LO5: I could have not done the play alone and it was a result of many people collaborating as each could managed one part of the play.