Not for one but for all

By Ruqyyaha Deane

Cast and crew behind BC’s winning production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ tell the Mirror Magazine about the team effort that went into preparations which enabled them to emerge as winners

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Audiences were at the edges of their seats after a breathtaking set of performances for the Girls’ Category of the Shakespeare Drama competition organised by the Colombo YMCA and Rotary Club of Colombo North, but it was Bishop’s College that took home the acclaimed title of Champions a few weeks prior at the end of the competition.

Pix by Amila Gamage

Speaking to us, still on a high after their win was Director Javin Thomas and the cast that staged the winning performance of “Romeo and Juliet”.

“I thought it would be interesting for the girls because it is about love and they are a young bunch of children, it would be a fitting play and they were deadly against it which was an even bigger motivation for me to say, yeah we are doing that,” laughs Director Javin as he looks back to the reasons they chose the play.

He admits that he likes to challenge the cast and allow them to take on roles he believes will fit the picture in his mind. However, it was not just Javins’ efforts that helped the cast with winning their second championship in a row. The honour also belongs to the rest of the directorial team that consisted of Lehan Thomas, Nafeesa Amurideen, Ashini Fernando, Kanishka Herat and Shazad Synon.

Onaya Kulatunga who was a last minute addition to the cast after the original Mercutio fell sick, recalls how she took on the role of the abrasive Mercutio. “My character is a funny type of character. I had to work a lot on my voice to get a deeper tone. I started dressing like a dude and smelling like one too.”

Samantha Liyanamana who played Benvolio added on saying “I had a lot of help from my cast for sure and we had to do a lot of research on our characters. I felt like my character was a calm character and with her (gesturing to Onaya), she was pushing my boundaries and she helped a lot in getting into character.”

“One thing I found while doing the play was, taking the words of Shakespeare and even though I understood them, it was getting them across and making it conversational and natural that was difficult for me and I really appreciated the help from the directors and Aunty Ashini,” shared Nesandi Wickramanayake who played Lady Capulet on the hurdles she overcame to put on a solid performance.

Kavya De Silva

Ashini

“It was most definitely one of the most tough roles that I’ve had to play as Lord Capulet, who went on a rollercoaster of emotions. It was a really confusing role at first because he would walk in happy and leave furious,” Ruvindee Fernando says as she too was used to playing characters that were feminine.

“They would show me pictures of angry faces and tell me to imitate them,” chuckles Nikita Corea who plays the aggressive Tybalt. A girl with a calm personality, she said it was nerve-racking to play a character who expresses anger outwardly but with the cast and a lot of hard work she was able to portray this character well.

Anjuli Mahinkanda who played Juliet confessed that she was not the most feminine girl and did not expect to be playing the part of Juliet.

“I had to have a book on my head and go about my activities so that it could help my posture. The best part was that I was not even too sure when they took the book off my head,”she shared even elaborating on how she was chased around until she could deliver her monologue perfectly.

“We had a lot of ups and downs but something that Bishop’s is proud of is teamwork. Once all of us got together, we worked so well together and something that really drove us to this win was that we complemented each other rather than trying to outshine each other,” shared Raaeedha Faizel who played the role of the Nurse which won her the award of Best Supporting Actress which she shared with Gateway Colleges’ Dion Setunge.

“I struggled a lot as I had to be in love and it is so difficult to channel it and every character did something for love in their own way. We are all connected in some way – by way of words or actions to express our love but it was very difficult to execute it,”commented Kavya De Silva who played Romeo saying “When you come for rehearsals, you are hoping that you are going to make a big step and clear up your mistakes from the previous rehearsals, but I know most of us kept on making the same mistakes and even more mistakes.”

Sonakshi Jayamanne who played the Friar could not make it for the interview.

The cast showed a lot of appreciation for their ensemble as they aptly put it that there wouldn’t have been a play without their ensemble as it made the show complete. Where members of the ensemble picked up the main cast when they felt like giving up and filled in the minor details of the play.