Congratulations to Form 5 and 6 as well as Packwood’s ‘tech team’ for two fantastic performances of Madagascar Jr. The story centres on a Zebra called Marty. Unlike his best friend, Alex, the lion, Marty has big dreams to return to the wild. The story begins at the ‘Central Park Zoo’ where we meet a range of its inhabitants including Melman, the giraffe; Gloria, the hippo; Mason, the monkey; a pride of lionesses and a colony of penguins. Marty decides to escape and all his friends follow him to Central Station where they are captured by Animal Control and end up on a boat to Madagascar. They survive the journey and meet Madagascar’s conspiracy of Lemurs led by King Julien who is pleased to have Alex on his side as he scares off the infamously savage Foosa.
The transition into the ship scene provided the backstage crew with the challenge of transforming the stage into the inside of the ship including 5 crates and a ship’s wheel with a full stage of penguins! The trap doors were also in use as the penguins burrowed their way to freedom! The energy of all the penguins and lemurs was a real highlight, especially as they performed the cast’s favourite song: I Like to Move it, Move it!
We are so proud of all our form 5 and 6 children who showed boldness and tenacity to perform with confidence in front of an audience and most importantly, excellent teamwork and support for one another backstage and during the rehearsal process. Whilst the performances are the culmination of everyone’s hard work, the process to get to the performance is always just as important as the end product in terms of the opportunity it provides pupils to harness their imagination and cultivate a growth mindset as well as develop their performance skills. We are also very proud of the older members of our tech team who were so supportive of our upcoming team as part of the technical rehearsal, and congratulate those who took on roles in the tech team for the first time.
The songs can still be heard around the school and we hope our audiences enjoyed the performances as much as we did, along with the wonderful refreshments including an afternoon tea during Saturday’s interval.
As ever, we thank all the staff and form 5 and 6 families who helped to make this opportunity possible for the children and look forward to welcoming you again to The Malcolm Mitchell Theatre.
