Mulan Production: an Update
By Jake Gichan Wang, G6
Mulan, 2022
Tod Lu, G11F, as narrator on Mar. 4th, Shunyifornia.
After the fantastic sneak peak performance of “Mulan” at the BIBA 2022 Concert in March 4th, many of us may have been wondering “How is the “Mulan” Performance coming up?”. Last Assembly at our school, we were introduced by the Mulan Teaser: “Honor To Us All”. Of course, that dramatic and famous scene of “Mulan” isn’t the full production itself. Soon, the official performance will be due on June 25th, later this year.
Since the beginning of this school year, the drama department has gathered willing students to take an act in this play through a rigorous audition process. According to the Mulan rehearsal schedule, after school rehearsals are scheduled almost every afternoon as the performance obviously needs lots of preparation. Plus, there are lot of other groups participating in this event to help finalize this performance! For example the dancers, the artists, the singers, et cetera are those who make up the play.
“Mulan” caste member, before the performance of “Honor to us all” on Mar. 4th.
In an interview on Mar 10th, Mr. Valencia, one of the directing teachers in the production said “We had our first full Saturday rehearsal on 26th Feb. Choir has been added to the play to enhance the emotions and impact of the play. And they sound fabulous. Thanks to Mr Walker and Ms Connie and their Choir group for this.” The “Mulan” performance is coming up successfully, and finally the actual play and the music team were added.
Ms. Kiki Davenport, who adapted and wrote the script for the BIBA Mulan prduction, when asked about the latest rehearsals told us “Most recently, we have completed our first Saturday rehearsal. It was a successful time. It has allowed us the space to have students connect and spend a longer amount of time on scenes and choreography.” She also gave some advice to performers and those interested in acting “Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.”
In this article, we interviewed and organized what our Mulan performers and Drama teachers wanted to share with you readers.
“There was such a positive sense on ensemble-ship and in the coming weeks of rehearsal, I am hoping that will continue to grow. We have so many moving parts and it is actually quite difficult to manage. We have multiple directors, for stage and music; stage managers, assistants, actors, dancers, singers, designers, and the list goes on. Although it can feel a tad chaotic, it shows you just how committed we are here at BIBA and in the Drama Club and how strong our support system is. Our performances are scheduled June 23rd-25th. So although there are about 16 weeks left and it feels like a lot of time, its not and we have a lot more work to do but we are in a really good place. This show was meant to bring our students and staff together to create something magical and I believe that we will do that. We have a few more performance opportunities to showcase some moments from the play leading up to the end of year performance so stay tuned!”
— Ms. Kiki Davenport (Left)
Make it stand out.
— Mr. Darshan Naik (Right)
“For the winter concert, we will perform a scene from the show "Honor To Us All". We will include actors, singers, and dancers. The Drama team has partnered with the MS Choir to perform the scene together. All the actors will be in costume and makeup.”
“For the end of the year show, the actors have learned their lines and the rough stage blocking for the show. We are now working on cleaning up the blocking and the character development and expression for each performer. We are also beginning to work with the musicians to bring each scene to life. Incorporating music can be difficult for actors and so it is important to introduce this element early. The next big task is getting all the actors ready for stage combat. Our show has three (3) scenes of combat and it's important the actors involved can do this safely. The next big task for the production team is building the set itself. We are building a large set and must ensure each component can be safely executed so no one will get hurt. The sooner we can have our set finished, the sooner our actors can begin rehearsing on it.”
“Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.”