Team effort pays off for D.S. Senanayake College
To put it simply, it was a team effort coupled with passion and dedication that led the cast of D.S Senanayake College to be crowned champs of the 45th Shakespeare Drama Competition. As the celebrations receded, this week we met up with the directors and the cast who gave us an insight into the secret for their success at the competition.
Pix by M.A Pushpakumara
Interestingly ‘Comedy of Errors’ hadn’t been Vishan Gunawardena and Haseeb Hassen’s first choice. Rather, both directors started off by looking at the script for ‘Macbeth’ because they had a few ideas for it. But they soon realised their cast was more comedic and decided to play to their strengths.
When it actually came down to the work, the directors traced back the number of times when the school had come to the finals but had not won. They identified the mistakes they had made, what the plays had lacked and worked on them. “In that way, we needed this play to be more of an ensemble effort as opposed to just one or two lead characters pulling the show,” Vishan explains.
They made sure the production did not revolve around any particular character, rather everyone was focused on and prominence was given to each of their stories. “There was detail as opposed to just the main story going on.”
“You have to change with the times,” Vishan tells us adding that back when both he and Haseeb were students, practices would go on till late night. And sometimes, even when they had done really well at the shows, they’d still be worn out.
So when their time came to train the students, things changed. Both Vishan and Haseeb firmly believe that its more important to practice smart as opposed to practicing for long hours. “If your cast is tired, they wouldn’t enjoy the process.” The pair would start off at 7.00 pm and go on till 11.00 pm maximum.
“The only thing was that we spaced out the practice to keep everybody in touch with what we’re doing and the changes,” Vishan says adding that their saving grace this year was that they started off early.
Khalid Ismail
Vishan gunawardena
Haseeb Hassen
Drawing from their past experiences, the directors also strived to play to the venue. “For the Wendt we kept it a little subtle.” But when it came to the Bishop’s College Auditorium, they had to change a few scenes to bring out the same level of energy. This was because the hall is much larger. “Although it wasn’t subtle we managed to get the point across without killing the pace of the play,” Haseeb says.
Since it was a comedy the duo had also wanted to keep the lighting fresh and colourful. They also preferred to stick to the basics and focused on getting the meanings of the lines out. Once the audience understood the lines it made the production much more interesting.
Despite the play being a comedy, they only wanted “to play to the slapstick within reason,” preferring to get the comedic lines out from the script “as opposed to doing things which were fluff to get the laughs out.”
Their victory at the Semi finals had assured both the cast and the directors that they were on the right track. “In fact after that performance we had people come up to us and say ‘I don’t know Shakespeare. But I understood what was happening in the play,” Haseeb recalls.
Helitha Karunarathne
Dulina Chandrasiri
Areeb Huzair
One of the challenges they had to face down the road however, was the lack of a strong lead role, which the school has always had in the competition. But as Haseeb puts it, the cast pushed themselves tediously making it more of a team effort this time. And instead of simply pondering on individual performances, each actor gave focus to what they could bring to the play as a whole. “It worked better that way.”
The cast tell us, despite the language used by Shakespeare, the emotions of their characters were relatable. In that sense their job was to simply put themselves in that position and act out their roles even though the situations might seem funny to the audience, it’s not so for the characters.
Khalid Ismail (19) who played ‘Antipholus’ first had to figure out how to differentiate between his twin characters . Khalid preferred to keep things simple. But he did make a back story to bring out the intent behind the lines as opposed to making it seem rehearsed.
Aside from Khalid, another performance that stood out from the production was that of ‘Luciana’, played by Areeb Huzair. At the onset Areeb had no clue on how to play a female role. But with help from the directors and several others he managed to pull it off.
For Areeb, winning the competition was a dream come true but it was more special because this was his last year taking part. “We’ve always put on satisfying performances but were never able to win.”
Dulina Chandrasiri (16) who portrayed ‘Dromio’ of both towns, shares a similar sentiment as he recalls the winning moment being a special one. “It’s hours of practices, combined with sacrificing so many things such as family meetups.”
But at the end of it all it was worth it. And win or lose, or regardless of whether you’re a student or an old boy, it’s that love and drive, each of them have towards performing that’s kept the school coming back to the competition for the past 33 years. And there’s no stopping them now.