Year 6 at The Vine always perform a play at the end of their time at our school. This year we performed Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream … or our version of it anyway, but we think that William Shakespeare would have been proud of us because it was still a masterpiece! We made it truly our own.

After studying Twelfth Night in English lessons, the news that we were to perform another Shakespeare came as a great surprise! The only problem was; Mr Shakespeare didn’t write the play for The Vine so there weren’t enough characters for us all to perform a part. So, we had a lot of fun adding some: we made up a very jobsworthy bodyguard for Duke Theseus (who eventually got the sack) and an extra mechanical (the workmen who perform their play for the royal wedding) who burst into song at every possible opportunity (and was told to shut up just as often!). We don’t think that Will would have minded that we added a few – he was a jobbing actor, after all. We had boys dresses as girls (just like in Elizabethan days), people turning into asses (just like in Eliz … well, maybe not) and a fairy and a mortal court with lots of problems.

We rehearsed practically every day for four weeks and when we had learned our lines and left our scripts in the classroom, we found it so much easier to act our parts and our performances improved dramatically. We had a lot of fun putting cheesy actions to the songs and now we all want to go on Britain’s Got Talent! We would totally win. Simon would press that golden buzzer!

It is always a pleasure seeing the quiet and shy among our year group singing and dancing and doing some very silly things and this year was no different! We also know that if Shakespeare is a bit hard sometimes and that’s ok too. We just stick with it and persevere and end by understanding the strange language and odd names.

Then came the Big Day. It began with a full Dress Rehearsal in front of the entire school  (over 300 people) and the evening performance to our parents and friends.

We were nervous …

we were excited  ….

WE WERE FABULOUS!!