Pallotti holds annual Drama Meet
There is no shortage of people who will tell you that drama in Belize is dead. This may be true but the corpses I saw on the stage this morning proved to be very much alive.
If you happened to pass Pallotti High School today and heard the roar of laughter and clapping of hands, it wasn’t because the students had taken over their classrooms. In fact they were inside the school’s auditorium enjoying their tenth annual Drama Meet.
Princessa Galvez, Organizer, Drama Meet
“We do it in order to assist the students to develop different skills in speech and also to prepare them for the C.X.C., since most of these texts are taken from the syllabus. Once they memorize their lines and that particular part is given in the examination they tend to recall a lot more.”
There were nine plays presented in this year’s Drama Meet including the dramatization of “Macbeth” Act 2, Scene 2, “A Raisin in the Sun” and “A Man for All Seasons”. According to the event’s organizer, Princessa Galvez, she is pleasantly surprised at just how serious the students are in putting out a good show.
Princessa Galvez
“I think they are very good. They are each responsible for their very own, each class that they present and they are also responsible for their own props and costumes, so I think they did a great job this year.”
A job that the students say they have been well prepared to do.
Indira Thompson, Thomas Moore, “A Man for All Seasons”
“Well actually it started from the beginning of March. We the students started to prepare and getting ready – getting the lines in perspective, learning the lines and getting actions and everything. So it took approximately four weeks.
Actually we were very creative in making these costumes. We bought crepe paper and from the crepe paper along with the staples and glitters and glues and everything, we put it together and were able to come up with all these costumes.”
Iris Samos, Ghost, “Macbeth”
“We began from several days ago, and I think we have gotten it to perfection – according to us right.”
Q: “Where did you’ll get the materials from? Did it cost you guys anything?”
Iris Samos
“Only like the makeup and the fake blood and like that, cause we use powder in our hairs and gowns from our brothers and sisters who have graduated.”
Q: “And how did you manage that effect on top of your head?”
Iris Samos
“It’s a bandoo with a false knife broke in two and then you just put one side here and one side there and glue it together and you hide it with your hair so it looks real and you put blood on it.”
The hard work and commitment was very much evident on stage. Indira Thompson who plays the role of Thomas Moore in “A Man for All Seasons,” was one of the favorites on stage.
Indira Thompson
“Actually it’s about King Henry wanting a divorce from Queen Catherine, but in those days a divorce was not legal, as such in the Church – in the Catholic Church. And King Henry visits Thomas Moore because you see Thomas Moore is an honest man, a man of his word and he believes that if Thomas Moore can agree to this divorce then he will have the divorce and it would be right in the Catholic Church and in the eyes of the Catholic Church, that it’s right for him to have a divorce.”
But friend or not, Moore to save himself from being beheaded decides not to get involved.
Indira Thompson
“Thomas Moore is a man of morals; he stands by his word; he believes in his church and he goes by the church. He doesn’t care what anybody has to think, he sees it that way and if he sees it that way, then that way it suppose to go.”
Another play that captured the audience’s attention was class 4P-B’s dramatization of “Macbeth”.
Iris Samos
“Three witches are in the forest doing their witch craft and then Macbeth comes and then the witches bring back all the ghosts, all the people that Macbeth killed, and we are trying to frighten him into being scared of all of us. At the end, he gets convinced and then we just walk off the stage.”
According to Galvez, the Drama Meet is more than just to prepare the students for exams. The show is also competitive.
Princessa Galvez
“It’s a very, very highly esteemed competition that the girls are divided into two categories: the junior category, we have all the second formers competing in the junior and the third and fourth formers in the senior competition.”
But while the winning class may be happy to walk off with a trophy and drama pin, Galvez says the overall success is that the students leave the stage feeling far more self confident than when the curtain first came up.
Speaking of winning, we are informed by Pallotti that the award for the best group performance in the senior category went to class 4P-A with the garden scene from “A Man for All Seasons”. Class 2F took junior honors with “A Brighter Sun”. Best senior actress was Natalie Alamina while Natalie Jackson won that category for juniors. And the trophy for best supporting actress went to Indira Card in the seniors and Teyonie Young in the junior category.
