‘Olivia’ Twist The Musical
Every student has had their first experience in leading a team or being elected as one of the committee members of higher post such as president etc. It was definitely one of the most scariest moments in my life. Back in my high school, I was part of the committee board for my high school’s annual musical event as a stage manager. It is held annually in hopes of raising funds for the school’s sustainability and maintenance. This annual musical is always the long-awaited event especially amongst the students from other schools.
In this annual musical which was held in 2016, the title of the musical was Olivia Twist. Olivia Twist was Olivia Twist is an innovative reimagining of Charles Dickens’ classic tale Oliver Twist. Directors came up with this idea as I was from an all-girls school.
What made it interesting for us was that it did not only involve the girls from my school, but we imported some boys from other schools as well. This annual musical is usually held in the middle of the year, when there is no examinations and other events which might possibly clash with it. Hence, our teacher advisors were there to help us months before the actual date, approximately in the beginning of the year. It was definitely not an easy task to come up with script and finding for suitable casts. There was a lot of proofreading on the scripts and setting cues for lighting and curtain call.
As a stage manager, I was assigned to recruit lighting manager, prop manager etc and few stage crews to help out with their respective managers. There were at least 30 stage crews involved in the musical. All of the managers and directors were asked to stay back almost everyday after school hours. Albeit we were tired, I liked how all of us were still so enthusiastic but also relatively stressed about our progress in our script writing and cues. Our biggest challenge was actually our props crew when we realised it involved so many major props. For an instance, we needed to build a tall tower made up of metal, hence the boys were helping the girls so much in props, they definitely played a huge part in this musical.
Handling big public events like these might sound fun but there were definitely conflicts among the crews but we solved everything very professionally. From this event, managing the stage was definitely very eye-opening for me and I have learnt so much on how to keep my emotions in check at all times. Not only directors played a huge part, but stage managers were very much crucial in keeping the crews together. My biggest struggle as a stage manager was I was not able to work in such stressful environment but eventually I have learnt to adapt and tried my best to give my best regardless. Furthermore, I have always liked working as a team.
And hence, I definitely have learnt on how to lead a team with more patience and having good communication skills. I am not going to lie but I definitely miss my life back in high school. Whatever I have been taught back then shapes me into who I am today, and I have grown to start appreciating all those little things, memories, be it good or bad and other’s flaws.