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Despite their initial reservations, the students at Verdala did not shy away from the challenge. They spent long hours in class, after school and on weekends rehearsing. Through experimentation, curiosity and a commitment to sharpen their acting skills, the students (with support and guidance from Ms Said and Ms Quick) got the play on its feet and made it work.
No play is created by actors alone though, and Galileo was no exception. The staging of Galileo was a community event. Countless Verdala teachers volunteered their time to help with the behind the scenes running of the play. Ms Boylin ran the sound. The IT team helped with projections and other technical aspects. The administration supported decisions and found the necessary funding for the play. Art students volunteered to make props and paint the set dressing. The maintenance team also played its part by building the set and lighting the dramatic rooftop fires for the carnival section, as well as tearing everything down once the play had finished.
After the play was over, there were many positive comments on the work. Some audience members remarked that the play had kept them thinking long after the curtain call. Ms Aris observed that this was “truly an IB play”, and one parent commented that she would never be able to see the school in the same way after its transformation to the world of Galileo for two nights in November.
The famous director Peter Brook once wrote that there was only one test for good theatre – that something of it was seared into the memory. He remarked,
"I know of one acid test in theatre… When a performance is over, what remains? Fun can be forgotten, but powerful emotion also disappears and good arguments lose their thread. When emotion and argument are harnessed to a wish from the audience to see more clearly into itself – then something in the mind burns. The event scorched on to the memory an outline, a taste, a trace, a smell – a picture…"
The sets of Galileo have been torn down, and the students have all moved onto new challenges. Still, for those of you who watched it, does a trace of it linger? An image or an idea? Everyone involved in the making of Galileo certainly hopes so.
The Theatre Department