The Sunday News
LAST week 38 high schools from Bulawayo went on stage to battle it out for the 15 slots reserved for the semi-finals of the Plan High Schools Drama Competition. The annual drama competition is in its fifth year and the first preliminaries were held on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd of July 2015 at Montrose Girls High, Gifford Boys High and Eveline Girls High respectively. The theme for this year is “Disability is not inability’’. The biggest worry for the organisation was the sensitivity of the theme and the fear that schools, particularly students, in trying to win the competition at all costs, would trivialise the issue. However, the majority of the presentations showed a lot of respect for the issue.
The decision to have two preliminaries before the finals was a “stroke of genius”, especially when it comes to separating chaff from real crop – poor plays from good ones. The good plays were obvious. They were there for the adjudicators to push them to the next round. The quality that sailed through so far will make any competition proud.
Attendance was excellent. Of the 42 schools that had registered only three did not turn up. Some schools like Mbonqane Secondary School, Pumula High, Prestige College, Herentials and Methodist Colleges were coming in for the first time, proving the popularity of the competition itself. Those that did not turn up did so for various reasons ranging from lack of preparedness to lack of support from their schools.
Here are some general observations about the competition:
1 Little research was done on the issues of disability. Some stories could have been much better and more powerful with more research. Blindness and physical disability were the common forms of disability presented by most schools. Schools were then encouraged to research more on the type of disability, causes, and how this affects their character and their dream.
2 There were a couple of schools that exaggerated the disability they were presenting. The exaggeration was obviously for comic effect. However, viewed from the auditorium it looked insensitive.
3 Several schools presented disabled characters as charity cases, always waiting for a miracle or manna from heaven.
4 Good drama is all about good storytelling. It all starts with a well thoughtout story. Most schools seemed to forget this. Their stories were weak. There is a need for schools to thoroughly examine their story before presentation. For example: What is the story about? Who is it about? What is the message of the story?
5 There were few positive stories. Most schools focused on the negative and yet forgot to offer alternatives – which positive attitude for future reinforcement.
6 One of the schools had very under rehearsed plays and the plots were very suspect. Too weak. Some schools also went off tangent as far as the theme was concerned.
7 In general the competition standards continue to rise. Schools are now coming up with interesting concepts and techniques in their presentations.
Some good things we witnessed:
1 Some good plays came from unexpected areas. They came as good surprises.
2 One or two schools challenged the audiences to think out of the box. These brought in other ways of looking at disability and this changed a lot of perceptions about disability.
3 There are some schools that continue to raise the bar. The standard of their presentations continues to rise and impress everyone.
4 A lot of students that went on stage exhibited an intense passion for drama. They need to continue being supported.
The Bad:
1 Discipline. Some schools need to work on their discipline. There was one school that had students who were drinking and almost went on stage drunk.
2 Schools that did not attend pre-competition workshops performed dismally proving the effect and impact of the workshops.
The following are the schools that qualified for the semi-finals to be held on 3 and 5 August 2015 at venues to be announced once finalised:
1 Msiteli High
2 Townsend Girls High
3 Prestige College
4 Pumula High
5 Sobukhazi High
6 Eveline Girls High
7 Montrose Girls High
8 Gifford Boys High
9 Mandwande High
10 Northlea High
11 Tennyson Hlabangana High
12 Nketa High
13 Entumbane High
14 King George V1
15 Njube High.
