Plays at Budhanilkantha School
Robin Hood
I remember this vividly. I was a kid in Budhanilkantha School, and I was acting a small part in the school play, Robin Hood. In this particular scene, there is an archery competition going on, and Robin Hood, comes to participate from Sherwood, disguised of course, with an intent to kill his enemy.
In the legend, after this enemy shoots an bullseye, Robin allegedly lands another arrow on top of the enemy's arrow , splitting it in halves, and thereby winning the competition.
However, in the play, since this can't be done, the target was kept offstage on the right wing, where the audience could not see. They were supposed to marvel at the Robin's shot judging from the 'ahhs' and 'ohhhhs' by the spectators of the competition in the play.
Unfortunately for Robin, the arrow does not even go offstage, and hits an unfortunate guard on his head (who, owing to the limitations of the wardrobe, is wearing a cassock-style black Gorkhali costume of the royal guard of Prithivi Narayan Shah, complete with the Khukuri. Luckily for the guard, he is wearing one of those turbany-type caps (the one that students joked looked much like a condom!), and the cap was thick enough to break the momentum of the wooden arrow without pain! So while the audience is roaring with laughter, this guard does not know what to do and just stands there sheepishly... and I see from the left wing (i was awaiting my entry into the stage) that everyone in the stage is too awed to continue.
The father of Robin's lady is in a big dilemma, because he was supposed to say something equivalent to a 'wow, a great shot!'. Finally, the person reluctantly says it, and the audience goes into another howling bout. Robin Hood is looking so shamefaced, and he scratches his head in embarrassment, guilty of hitting the poor guard, and even more embarrassed because he is supposed to have hit the target. Anyway, after that hilarious hitch, the play went on.
Being a girl
This was the most embarrassing part I had ever played. I was in grade 4, and was small and soft enough to be a girl (BNKS used to be an all-boys school) for a part in the school play. The play was called "Out of the Dark Empire" - I still have no idea what the play was about, I was too little to care. But I remember I was to act as a dancing girl in one particular scene (<5 style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-weight: bold;">Three Planets
When I was in the sixth grade, I was taking part in a junior play. This one was a sci-fi, and it concerned a story about three planets, one of which was called 'Zaran'. I was initially chosen as one of the seek-and-destroy robots whose vocabulary is limited to "Don't Move! Or you will be ex-ter-mi-na-ted!" whenever we saw any living creature on our planet. During this statement, we were supposed to make stiff hand movements, tracing a vertical square in the air. Luckily for me, I was promoted to a speaking-role, as a rebel who's invading this evil planet to save the universe. I was the commander of my 'platoon', and I was supposed to liberally caution my subordinates whenever we heard someone approaching. My lines were something like "Quick! Check the laser gun! Stunballs ready!". It was fun, actually!
The playwright was probably a huge Star Wars/Star Trek fan. Anyway, the most hilarious part was that there was another rebel who had one line to speak:
(in horror) What ! Back to Zaran's?!
The problem is he used to verbalise the emotion part too. He always used to say:
In Horror! What? Back to Zaran's?!
Our drama teacher was Glenn Tulip. She sounded soo funny to us, since we hardly understood what she was saying, being an Australian. And she used to lose her patience so often (So obviously she often resorted to screaming at this poor guy), that she seemed much like one of those hot-blooded outrageously colorful characters in Asterix comics. That was, until we got to know her!
Repeated Lines
There was another instance where guys from one of the houses staged a play. Unfortunately one of the guys forgot most of his part. But things got even worse. He got confused in such a way that he started repeating the lines that had already been acted out... after a while, others also got confused too, and soon the play was something like a never-ending story... whenever they got to the part where the guy initially screwed up, he would repeat the old line once more! I dont know how the play ended, but it did finally, and that was that. So I guess all that ends, ends well!
I did not take part in the plays in later years, but those 'onstage days' were quite worth remembering! There are so many memorable moments in that assembly hall for me!
I remember this vividly. I was a kid in Budhanilkantha School, and I was acting a small part in the school play, Robin Hood. In this particular scene, there is an archery competition going on, and Robin Hood, comes to participate from Sherwood, disguised of course, with an intent to kill his enemy.
In the legend, after this enemy shoots an bullseye, Robin allegedly lands another arrow on top of the enemy's arrow , splitting it in halves, and thereby winning the competition.
However, in the play, since this can't be done, the target was kept offstage on the right wing, where the audience could not see. They were supposed to marvel at the Robin's shot judging from the 'ahhs' and 'ohhhhs' by the spectators of the competition in the play.
Unfortunately for Robin, the arrow does not even go offstage, and hits an unfortunate guard on his head (who, owing to the limitations of the wardrobe, is wearing a cassock-style black Gorkhali costume of the royal guard of Prithivi Narayan Shah, complete with the Khukuri. Luckily for the guard, he is wearing one of those turbany-type caps (the one that students joked looked much like a condom!), and the cap was thick enough to break the momentum of the wooden arrow without pain! So while the audience is roaring with laughter, this guard does not know what to do and just stands there sheepishly... and I see from the left wing (i was awaiting my entry into the stage) that everyone in the stage is too awed to continue.
The father of Robin's lady is in a big dilemma, because he was supposed to say something equivalent to a 'wow, a great shot!'. Finally, the person reluctantly says it, and the audience goes into another howling bout. Robin Hood is looking so shamefaced, and he scratches his head in embarrassment, guilty of hitting the poor guard, and even more embarrassed because he is supposed to have hit the target. Anyway, after that hilarious hitch, the play went on.
Being a girl
This was the most embarrassing part I had ever played. I was in grade 4, and was small and soft enough to be a girl (BNKS used to be an all-boys school) for a part in the school play. The play was called "Out of the Dark Empire" - I still have no idea what the play was about, I was too little to care. But I remember I was to act as a dancing girl in one particular scene (<5 style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-weight: bold;">Three Planets
When I was in the sixth grade, I was taking part in a junior play. This one was a sci-fi, and it concerned a story about three planets, one of which was called 'Zaran'. I was initially chosen as one of the seek-and-destroy robots whose vocabulary is limited to "Don't Move! Or you will be ex-ter-mi-na-ted!" whenever we saw any living creature on our planet. During this statement, we were supposed to make stiff hand movements, tracing a vertical square in the air. Luckily for me, I was promoted to a speaking-role, as a rebel who's invading this evil planet to save the universe. I was the commander of my 'platoon', and I was supposed to liberally caution my subordinates whenever we heard someone approaching. My lines were something like "Quick! Check the laser gun! Stunballs ready!". It was fun, actually!
The playwright was probably a huge Star Wars/Star Trek fan. Anyway, the most hilarious part was that there was another rebel who had one line to speak:
(in horror) What ! Back to Zaran's?!
The problem is he used to verbalise the emotion part too. He always used to say:
In Horror! What? Back to Zaran's?!
Our drama teacher was Glenn Tulip. She sounded soo funny to us, since we hardly understood what she was saying, being an Australian. And she used to lose her patience so often (So obviously she often resorted to screaming at this poor guy), that she seemed much like one of those hot-blooded outrageously colorful characters in Asterix comics. That was, until we got to know her!
Repeated Lines
There was another instance where guys from one of the houses staged a play. Unfortunately one of the guys forgot most of his part. But things got even worse. He got confused in such a way that he started repeating the lines that had already been acted out... after a while, others also got confused too, and soon the play was something like a never-ending story... whenever they got to the part where the guy initially screwed up, he would repeat the old line once more! I dont know how the play ended, but it did finally, and that was that. So I guess all that ends, ends well!
I did not take part in the plays in later years, but those 'onstage days' were quite worth remembering! There are so many memorable moments in that assembly hall for me!
posted by Milan at 10:11 PM
1 Comments:
thenks! I'll change it.
Post a Comment
<< Home