Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)

Rukshan Kuru-Utumpala

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1 CAN YOU BRIEFLY DESCRIBE THE PRODUCTION? WHAT’S ITS NAME AND WHEN AND WHERE WILL IT BE HELD?

2 WHAT ARE SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF IT?

3 WHO ARE THE MAIN MUSICIANS, SINGERS ETC WHO ARE TAKING PART IN IT?

4 WHAT IS THE PURPOSE/ OBJECTIVE OF HAVING A PRODUCTION OF THIS NATURE?

5 WHO ARE THE MAIN PEOPLE INVOLVED IN IT ?

6 WHAT IS YOUR ROLE IN THE PRODUCTION AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU?

7 HOW DOES THIS PRODUCTION DIFFER TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTION­S YOU HAVE HAD IN THE PAST?

8 WHAT WILL THE PROCEEDS OF THE PRODUCTION BE USED FOR?

9 ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SAY ABOUT IT?

1 Back to Stage will be staged on Friday 17 th and Saturday 18 th of May at the Bishop’s College Auditorium. This has been jointly organised and produced by the Bishop’s College PPA and the S. Thomas’ College OBA.

Sonali Dias from the BC PPA reached out to the STC ML OBA about a year ago to see how we could collaborat­e and do a joint theatrical production like the previous one, Divorce Me Darling which was produced by the BC PPA and STCML OBA a few years ago. A joint organising committee was then put in place and after much debate and brainstorm­ing as to what type of event we should do, Back to Stage was conceptual­ised and put forward by Shaddy (Shadwell Weerasingh­e). We liked it and agreed to move forward with it as this was a performanc­e that would help bring together a wider fraternity of Bishopians and Thomians and provide a stage (both literally and metaphoric­ally) for them to showcase their talents in music, dance and drama. Current students and alumni of both schools could perform together and the alumni could re-live their school-day performanc­es with nostalgia by coming ‘Back to Stage’.

2 Both schools have a legacy of a choral tradition with regular training of vocal talent that helps maintain a very high standard. In addition, the dram-socs of both schools have been known to put out high quality production­s. This also means that there are a lot of alumni from both schools that have received a good grounding and training in the performanc­e arts and some have even taken it to greater heights profession­ally. During the show,the audience will get to see not just fabulous performanc­es from vocal and music groups and solos from students but also combinatio­ns like Father-son, father-daughter, brothersis­ter and even a daughter-son-fatheruncl­e collaborat­ion.

3 From the students' side, we will have the BC Middle School Choir, a Bishopian dance troup, the Thomian Brass Ensemble and Canto Perpetua to name a few.

In addition, the programme will also feature performanc­es by renowned musical acts like ‘The Revelation­s’ World Champion, male voice ensemble, Dr. Gananath Dasanayaka on Saxophone and vocals as well as a few Thomian musicians comprising singers Jerome Spelderwin­de, Joel Fernando and

Manith Fernanado, bassist Dulip Gnanakan, trumpet player Prashan Bastiansz, percussion­ist Jehan Kumara and drummer Birendra Siriwardha­na who have been brought together very specially for this event by Aruna Siriwardha­na. They will also be joined by Bishopians Shyama Perera on Keyboards and Gayathri Fernando on vocals for some items of the performanc­e.

4 Back to Stage’; is also a celebratio­n of 150 years of Bishop’ s College this year and the 175 years of S. Thomas’ College (to be celebrated in 2026). One of it’s key objectives therefore is to foster the rich heritage of both these institutio­ns that share the same founder, Dr. James Chapman, first Anglican Bishop in

Sri Lanka.

5 Directed by Nafeesa K. Amiruddeen, Shadwell Weerasingh­e and assisted by Shyama Perera with vocal direction by Sanjeev Jayaratnam, this carefully curated line up looks promising to provide an enchanting evening of quality entertainm­ent. Akhry Ameer has also come on board to be the Stage Manager and ensure the programme proceeds smoothly like clockwork. This is a fantastic high powered team that brings in a wealth of experience from the many other production­s and performanc­es they’ve been involved in and we are truly grateful to them for coming on board and supporting us to ensure we put on a great show.

6 I’ve been tasked with co-chairing the joint organising committee together with Sonali Dias. As with any group or team that is formed for a specific activity we’ve had many challenges, difference­s of opinion, disagreeme­nts and some stressful moments, but that’s all been in order to get what’s best out for the show. We have a fantastic team that pulls each other up when required and joins together when the need arises and functions with a common goal and purpose. Any tense moment is addressed quickly and diffused with some hilarious banter that leaves us all reeling. Overall, It’s been a most rewarding experience and enjoyable journey working with like-minded people who have the show and their school at heart.

7 Our previous joint production­s have mostly been theatrical ones. When I was in school, I was part of South Pacific which was a musical that was produced by both schools at the time. It is nice to have a few from the South Pacific crew also working with us on Back to Stage.

“Both schools have a legacy of a choral tradition with regular training of vocal talent that helps maintain a very high standard. In addition, the dramsocs of both schools have been known to put out high quality production­s.” -RUKSHAN

8 All proceeds from the event will be channelled towards promoting and supporting the developmen­t of music and drama in both schools.

9 Its’ been a most enjoyable journey, working with the Bishop’s College PPA team on this and the camaraderi­e and dynamics that exist between them and us, the S.thomas’ College Mt. Lavinia

OBA, is truly amazing and really rings true the accepted moniker as sister / brother schools. Organising a joint production like this also makes one realise the importance of the shared set of values, character and integrity these two institutio­ns were founded upon and how it keeps permeating down to the next generation­s to come. All in all, this joint committee has been working tirelessly to ensure we put on a most enjoyable and entertaini­ng show. We hope to see you there.

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