Lower Sixth Drama scholar Ethan Thorne has written an original play ‘TRAUMA’ and is performing it with two fellow A Level Drama students as part of the Southern Counties Drama Festival in Oxted. The festival performance on Saturday 24 February has already sold out, but you can catch the special preview in the Mitre Theatre from 6.00pm-7.00pm on Friday 23 February (free tickets available HERE).
Set amidst the dawn of a civil war, TRAUMA follows Jimmy, an undercover police officer working to shut down a terrorist organisation led by the infamous freedom fighter Mark.
Ethan is taking the role of Mark, with fellow A Level Drama students Alexander Molony as Jimmy, Bailee Sheldon as the Interrogator and one of Ethan’s friends from outside of school playing the Friend.
Ethan says, “After hearing about Rob and Barney entering a piece for the festival last year, I decided that I wanted to try to enter my own play. I thought it would be a brilliant opportunity to write, act and direct my own production and present it to the public. The play is inspired by my GCSE devised piece, which I loved performing and wanted to live on in some form. I took the storyline, developed it more, added new characters and rewrote the dialogue.
“I wanted to enter the Southern Counties Drama Festival completely by myself, not quite realising the enormity of what I had taken on. The whole process has been a massive learning curve! Other than writing the script, acting and directing on the ground I had to figure out what to do with the sound and the lighting. I then needed to find people willing to take on stage manager (thank you Aiden Keogh!) and sound technician (thank you Mum!) to make sure everything ran smoothly. Thankfully the festival has its own lighting technician, but we also needed one to run our dress rehearsal (thank you Ethan Campbell!). I also discovered at the festival meeting that we needed insurance to perform. Luckily Alan Bishop and The Mitre Players came to our rescue and will be covering us under their insurance, so our name is now Serenity in Collaboration with The Mitre Players.
“I am looking forward to seeing the finished product come together. Rehearsals are currently going at full pace and by the time we put in lighting and sound, we’ll hopefully have a final piece we can be really proud of.
“I’d like to say a special thank you to Mr Chambers, Mr White and Miss Robinson who have given loads of advice and support, allowing us use of the Trinity rehearsal spaces and putting on the public dress rehearsal in the Mitre Theatre.”
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