Page 11 - 張祝珊英文中學－ECHOv1.2

Feature article

My Fair Lady

6B Lin Shu Cheong Leo

“Is the preparation process hard?” I was asked
the same question by many people. Yes, it was hard
indeed. It was demanding for all of us, yet I was not
the only one fi ghting. We were told many times by
Miss Leung, “It is never too much for all of you to
show up, but it is defi nitely not enough if any of you
is absent.” True, putting on a musical is a daunting
task. Without the cooperation of each member, the
show can never be staged. Honestly speaking, time
was not on our side. Practising once a week was
insuffi cient, and that meant we needed to collaborate
extensively to make up for it. Things were a bit
chaotic at the outset, but we were determined to
conquer every obstacle we encountered and bring
our very best to the stage. When the big day fi nally
came, I was nervous. We were all nervous, because
we had devoted ourselves entirely to the musical and
we all wanted so badly to see our hard work pay off.
Eventually, to our relief, the show was a triumph. We
received appreciation from our Principal, teachers
and schoolmates. We were deeply delighted and
honoured to know that they enjoyed our show.
Our school choir is not the only one who amount of time to make the props and backdrops.
performs a musical, yet being a part of it is defi nitely The endless effort of our members has led to a We are already preparing our third musical.
the highlight of my secondary school life. Being performance that was better than what we could Although I am not allowed to partake in it as this is
one of the actors in the musical, I have experienced have dreamt of. my last year at CCSC, I know that my juniors would
many tough yet heart-warming moments, and I am give another stunning performance, I was sure about
glad to be able to share every bit of them here. The whole production team was like a family this.
and the weekly practice was like a family reunion.
My Fair Lady, which is our second musical, We had members from Form 2 all the way up to
is a romantic comedy. The story is about Professor Form 6. Some of them were senior members who
Higgins meeting a poor fl ower girl, Eliza. Shocked had known each other very well, while others were
by Eliza's dreadful English, Professor Higgins newly joined recruits. Nevertheless, they were not
decides to transform her into a real lady and send seen as misfits in the group as we all knew that to
her to the upper class of the society. Not only does deliver a marvelous performance required the effort
the arduous training improve her English but it also from every one of us. We got to know each other
triggers the complicated romance between the two of through the training process and developed a close
them. The story sets off with hilarity and leaves the relationship. We would make fun of each other in
audience with an intrigue ending. a friendly manner, and even some petty things like
a common mistake in singing could become our
Rome was not built in one day. Behind the joke of the day. Subtle it might seem, it gave us the
scenes it was months of training and preparations, motivation to move on. Wong Lok Yan Rachel from 4C plays Eliza
involving dozens of cast, chorus members, pianists
and technical support team members. Every Tuesday The past few months were full of joy and
after school, all of us gathered in the school hall, laughter. It was exhausting, but we could always fi nd
grabbed our scripts, put on the costumes, cleared fun in the midst of tough training. In the story, there
our throats and started practising. For the first two is a character called Colonel Pickering, who helps
months, the training was mainly about singing as we Professor Higgins with his training programme. The
needed to familiarise ourselves with the songs. The interesting thing about Mr. Pickering is that he has a
challenging parts came afterwards, as we had to put funny accent because of his background of studying
our script and dialogues into action. Having more linguistics in India. When our member playing him
than 20 people to perform on the stage smoothly was read the script with a strong and hilarious accent
not an easy job. After all, we were not professional on his first attempt, every one of us, including our
actors and actresses. Our acting and singing skills conductor Miss Leung, burst into laughter! It was a
were put to test. Despite the mammoth task, long time ago, but we still remember it vividly like it
everyone practised extensively so as to adjust their just happened yesterday.
movements and emotions. We also spent tremendous
Li Yan Hei from 2A playing harp

Lin Shu Cheong Leo from 6B plays Professor Higgins Let's dance together My Fair Lady is a play full of tension, passion and laughter