Abingdonian 2018

10 The Abingdonian Black River Bridge This year’s Lower School play which was performed in December was Black River Bridge , a new play specially written for the school by Andy Cargill, and directed by Mr McDonnell. The play was about the role of child soldiers in the American Civil War and the devastating effect of the war on their lives. The rehearsal process was extremely fun and it was fascinating to learn about the American Civil War, a subject we previously knew little about. As the play has lots of action scenes in it this led to some slightly chaotic rehearsals to begin with because we only had one hour a week to rehearse and there were lots of fast moving scenes to devise. However once we had done a full run through in the Amey Theatre everything came together. The most difficult scene to perform was the final battle of the titular Black River Bridge. In this scene the cast was split into three groups who had to stick together, repeatedly running across and behind the stage to portray the different points in the battle. This was difficult for each group to coordinate, but in the end it was executed well and we worked effectively as an ensemble. Two of the things that contributed to it becoming a really interesting performance were the music and the special effects. The effects included large projections of real boy soldiers from the Civil War onto a gauze curtain, a fog machine and different colour lights and battle sound effects. I played a child soldier, called Orion Howe, who had run away from his home to join the army during the American Civil War, which took place from 1861-65. Orion Howe was a real soldier who fought on the Union side against the Confederates. It is estimated that up to 750,000 people died in this war, including many child soldiers and drummer boys. Orion Howe himself dies during the battle scene in the play. I found it difficult to play the part at first because I had to do an American accent, which I had never done before, and it took a while to understand the story of the battle which the play portrays. However it was interesting because we got to learn about the American Civil War and it made us think about the implications of what it would have been like to be a child soldier caught up in that war. Another reason for it being a fantastic show was how all the cast members and crew performed as an ensemble. There was great teamwork between the whole cast which led to a great performance. The show would not have been possible if it wasn’t for the Amey Theatre Technical Crew who helped backstage as well as dealing with special effects. The show was very exciting and we were all a bit nervous, but once we had done our first performance the nerves went away. Special thanks to Mr McDonnell, Edward Hodges, Kevin Yuan, Matthew Hui, Alvin Tam, Dominic Swain, Miss Fever and Mr Lloyd. Lachlan Borthwick, 2SCVM