'All that gushes is surely not gold'

Apparently, a lot has been said about Thomian drama of recent times when the outgoing Warden of the College was being felicitated. Now, certainly all Thomians will raise a hat to the outgoing Warden , especially if they love the school, because there doesn't seem to be much dispute abut the fact that he has done much for the old alma mater.

But that doesn't give automatic licence for hyperbole on other subjects. The story goes there was an evening of drama to felicitate the outgoing warden, at which a very young old Thomian who was a product of the Warden's era claimed that the past 15 years or so signified the golden era of drama at STC.

Felicitating the Warden is one thing, but being self serving in the process is another. The fact is that Thomian drama was of a high standard several years ago when the likes of Rohan Ponnniah and Steve De La Silva strutted their stuff on (um, graced) the Thomian stage.

This is incontrovertible to anyone who had seen Thomian drama over the years. The era when STC won the Shakespearean drama competition for around eight years running surely has to signify the golden years of Thomian drama, and this is certainly not the era that our young old boy is talking about. Enthusiasm, our young friend has to savvy, is no substitute for real talent.

Young man's golden era had a surfeit of enthusiasm, but, watching some of his plays, it appeared he didn't even know the core of what drama was really about. That's a pity, because young man really did have a great deal of raw naked drive.

But if he didn't know what drama was all about, and if he don't have the intellectual capacity to understand that acting is not merely reciting lines, then he had a great deal to learn.

STC may have had many "ingenues'' in the past 15 years, but only a very few true thespians who could live and breathe the characters they were portraying on stage.

Now that the Ponniah's and de la Silva's were able to do ( Sansoni's etc., etc., ) so lets get this straight. Golden era's have to be made of 40 carat stuff. All that gushes is surely not gold.

– By Rally Round

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