LEGALLY BLONDE 2018
Every year the transition year do a fantastic musical, for me when I was in 1-3rd year, it was all I looked forward to when planning for my TY. Watching all of the brilliant productions the years ahead of us have put on had gotten everybody so excited; our TY is renowned for the quality of the musical. The auditions and preparations for the musical finally began around October/November.
We began taking part in singing and acting workshops and auditions with Ms. Jackie Olahan and dancing auditions with Aisling, the choreographer and director. We were all very nervous for these auditions as they were the first ones and nobody was used to singing in front of their class. We had many auditions before they could decide on the perfect musical for our year group. After many weeks of auditions and workshops and waiting with excitement, they finally announced that we would be performing Legally Blonde. Not one person was disappointed with the choice as it is such an upbeat, funny and interesting musical for our age group. Once the auditions for certain characters began it became clear who had a real talent for the stage, this whole process was so much fun to be apart of. When the rehearsals started for the main dances in the musical I realised how much I was going to enjoy taking part in the musical with everyone. The rehearsals gave everybody a chance to be apart of the musical even if you didn’t have that much interest but it gave you the opportunity to get to know different people and to widen your friendships with people you wouldn’t have necessarily been friends with before the musical began. It gave many people the chance to become more involved with school life and their friends.
We had rehearsals almost everyday of the week and if you were a principal character you got to attend every dance rehearsal which means you missed a lot of class during January which led to falling behind in class projects that had been assigned. Keeping up with the school work was tough while not being in class everyday so learning to adapt to that was a challenge. Rehearsals were one of the best parts of the show in my opinion, everybody had so much fun dancing and singing and just getting to know each other in a way we would never have done if the musical wasn’t a part of TY. I never thought that something like this would have such an impact on people. While the shows crept closer and closer, tensions ran high while trying to bring the show together while practicing with the band and on stage was different to just listening to the track in the halla nua like we were all used to.
The week of the show, February 5th-8th, had to be one of my favourite weeks in TY so far as everybody was so lively and ready to show our parents and the rest of the school what we had been doing for the last few months of our lives. In my opinion, the productions for the senior school students was the hardest one of all, to perform in front of our peers who had never heard us sing, dance or act was something I personally found very difficult and I believe others did too. The shows for our parents were so much fun to be apart of. The atmosphere backstage and in the hours before and after the productions was surreal. I didn’t believe something like the musical would bring everyone so much closer as a year group. Personally, I think that if the musical wasn’t a big part of TY or it wasn’t compulsory for everyone to take part in, our year would not be as close or as comfortable with each other as we are today, and I am so thankful for having that opportunity to get to know these people like I do now. The musical is definitely one of the highlights of my transition year so far and I’ve no doubt that it will stay a highlight as the year progresses.
We began taking part in singing and acting workshops and auditions with Ms. Jackie Olahan and dancing auditions with Aisling, the choreographer and director. We were all very nervous for these auditions as they were the first ones and nobody was used to singing in front of their class. We had many auditions before they could decide on the perfect musical for our year group. After many weeks of auditions and workshops and waiting with excitement, they finally announced that we would be performing Legally Blonde. Not one person was disappointed with the choice as it is such an upbeat, funny and interesting musical for our age group. Once the auditions for certain characters began it became clear who had a real talent for the stage, this whole process was so much fun to be apart of. When the rehearsals started for the main dances in the musical I realised how much I was going to enjoy taking part in the musical with everyone. The rehearsals gave everybody a chance to be apart of the musical even if you didn’t have that much interest but it gave you the opportunity to get to know different people and to widen your friendships with people you wouldn’t have necessarily been friends with before the musical began. It gave many people the chance to become more involved with school life and their friends.
We had rehearsals almost everyday of the week and if you were a principal character you got to attend every dance rehearsal which means you missed a lot of class during January which led to falling behind in class projects that had been assigned. Keeping up with the school work was tough while not being in class everyday so learning to adapt to that was a challenge. Rehearsals were one of the best parts of the show in my opinion, everybody had so much fun dancing and singing and just getting to know each other in a way we would never have done if the musical wasn’t a part of TY. I never thought that something like this would have such an impact on people. While the shows crept closer and closer, tensions ran high while trying to bring the show together while practicing with the band and on stage was different to just listening to the track in the halla nua like we were all used to.
The week of the show, February 5th-8th, had to be one of my favourite weeks in TY so far as everybody was so lively and ready to show our parents and the rest of the school what we had been doing for the last few months of our lives. In my opinion, the productions for the senior school students was the hardest one of all, to perform in front of our peers who had never heard us sing, dance or act was something I personally found very difficult and I believe others did too. The shows for our parents were so much fun to be apart of. The atmosphere backstage and in the hours before and after the productions was surreal. I didn’t believe something like the musical would bring everyone so much closer as a year group. Personally, I think that if the musical wasn’t a big part of TY or it wasn’t compulsory for everyone to take part in, our year would not be as close or as comfortable with each other as we are today, and I am so thankful for having that opportunity to get to know these people like I do now. The musical is definitely one of the highlights of my transition year so far and I’ve no doubt that it will stay a highlight as the year progresses.