The Berwickshire High School Senior Musical Theatre Group was extremely grateful to receive support from the Blackhill Windfarm Community Fund for our production of “Sister Act”.
“Sister Act” was the first show we were able to stage after the Covid lockdown. For that reason, it saw lots of new faces get involved – both on stage and behind the scenes. Having developed a strong tradition of musical theatre from 2015 to 2020, this show saw us having to build up our cast and crew again after an enforced gap.
Staging a musical is always expensive. It always costs over £1000 for the rights to perform a show, and then there is the cost of hiring costumes, set and sound equipment, expenses for the orchestra, programmes and publicity, and more. The total cost for Sister Act was c. £5500. The grant from BWCF helped to meet these costs and, significantly, allowed us to keep the cost of tickets to a minimum, allowing families on low incomes to come along to see the show.
Sister Act was a great success. The show played to very full audiences for four performances and was lauded by all who came to see it. A group of then S3 students took leading roles in lighting and choreography, as well as taking on many of the lead roles. That same group of students have become the core of our Summer and senior shows in the time since Sister Act.
Musical Theatre at BHS continues to go from strength to strength. Since Sister Act, we have put on two shows each year, with students taking an increasingly prominent role in bringing the shows together. A lot of rehearsals for recent productions have been led completely by senior students (most notably in our production of “Chicago”, which was entirely student-driven).
It is no exaggeration to say that the experience of preparing and performing in a school show is life-changing for many of the young people involved. Over the years, many of our students have discovered a life-long passion and gone on to pursue music or acting after school; no less important, many students have simply become more confident and developed a sense of belonging. Karl McGrath, who appeared in our senior show “9 to 5”, wrote that he had “grown so much in confidence” by being in a BHS musical and that only after becoming part of the cast did he “truly feel that he fits in” at school.
More generally, our musical productions have an amazing impact on the ethos of the school and do a great deal to enhance the reputation of the school in the community. It is always fantastic to play to a full house and without the support of BCWF we would not be able to keep ticket prices as low as we have done, allowing hundred and hundreds of people to see our shows.
