An Incredible Production
10th February 2022
I wish I could distill and bottle the magic that happens at BISA around about this time every year, so I could uncork it and show it to anyone who doubts the incredible power of theatre on children. We’ve just completed our first 4 shows of A Monster Calls – one more to go in Dar es Salaam. We had our intensive 4 days in Nairobi where we draw together all the threads of our production that we have been working on since September, and weave them together into this beautiful, powerful, transformational piece of theatre and storytelling.
In the last week we work incredibly long hours, from early in the morning, sometimes coming home at 11pm. Our casts are anywhere from 50 – 90 children from the ages of 11 to 18. And during this time, you witness these little pockets of magic. Here we have Mohammed in Year 13 helping Isaac in Year 7 with how to position himself properly to get the most out of the warm up that one of our 6th formers is leading; over there Lara in Year 8 is not needed in this particular scene so she and Catherine in Year 10 are sitting on the floor trying to figure out how to make origami boats; waiting patiently for her scene to come up is Martha, sitting reading her book. In this corner Sula is quietly focused, going over his lines; and in that corner, Ella is asking Ms Konig to give her extra lessons on how to climb the ropes in the next break. Everywhere you look you see teamwork, you see resilience, you see patience, you see empathy and real-world professionalism at work. You see children learning the importance of working to a deadline (the show must go on, after all), building their confidence and their ability to speak up and speak out and of course, incredible discipline.
I am always moved beyond words during this process. I am so incredibly proud of all these young people who have put in so much of their time, their energy, their emotions. And every year I am astonished at the calibre of theatre that they manage to pull off. This year was no different. A moving, haunting, beautiful piece of theatre.
Ms Miranda Rashid
