White Horse Theater “Silver Jane”

On Wednesday the 20th April 2018 we went to the assembly hall of our school. We watched the theater play "Silver Jane". The story is about a girl with superpowers.
A man and a woman find a baby in the forest. The baby's real parents aren't human. Therefore the girl has superpowers. In the school she finds out about her first superpower: She knows EVERYTHING. After school she finds out about her second superpower: She is very STRONG. With this skill she saves civilians from a terrorist, a bank from a robber and a computer programmer from a bear. At the end her mother tells her to save the universe but she has to fly to another planet. That is her third skill: She can FLY. On the planet she has to fight a monster that wants to destroy the galaxy. Back on earth her mother speaks to her again and says that she has to come back to her parents. But Silver Jane wants to stay on earth.
After the play the actors allowed us to ask questions in English. It was an interesting play and cool to talk to British people in English.   

     
                --- by Niklas Kutschke (6b)

The White Horse Theatre at our school

On 20th March 2018 the White Horse Theatre performed the play "Silver Jane" in the hall of the Werner-Heisenberg-High School Riesa for the pupils of the grades 5-7, which was about a wonderful girl with silver hair who had to save the universe. It was funny but in some ways a bit childish -anyway, everybody liked it. At the end of the performance, the students applauded a lot and asked many questions, but unfortunately there wasn’t enough time to answer them all.

                --- By N.D.,  from 6a

"All's Well That Ends Well"

"Love all, trust a few, do wrong none!" This is a wonderful line taken from "All's Well That Ends Well" by William Shakespeare, which represents the dramatic and hopeless love between Lord Bertram and Helena, a servant, but it also shows how strong and powerful women are, which is nowadays even more important.
Everyone, from the youngest to the oldest student in our school, is totally excited about this one day of the year - the day, when the White Horse Theatre Company comes to us. It is already a tradition, but every year there are new actors and actresses and a new play that is awesome and nobody gets bored!
The story starts in the palace of the King of France, where the audience gets to know more about Bertram's life and Helena, who has completely fallen in love with Bertram. The costumes were old-fashioned like you probably just see in the 17th century; every dress was different and handcraft and perfectly showed the personality of the characters. Helena is shy and not very confident, she wore a simple but pretty dress, entirely different to Diana - she is brave and honest and wore a purple dress with open hair.
The stage decoration was a wall, which was turned or moved to create Diana's bedroom or the throne room. It was simple, but creative to make the audience feel the change of atmosphere easily. Besides, the special effects like a smoke machine or music supported the whole play.
At the end the wedding of Bertram and Helena is revealed. A better than such a happy ending isn't possible.
All in all we loved the theatre production because of the lovely, talented and passionate actresses and actors.
Thanks a lot!

                --- by K.-A.D., 8S

Theatre Review

‚Sometimes our impulses are too strong for our judgement.‘ This is a quote taken from Thomas Hardys novel ‚Tess of the d’Urbervilles‘, which was published in the year 1891. It also plays a role in the theatre play which was performed at the Werner-Heisenberg Gymnasium, on 20th March 2018.
Tess Durbeyfield comes from a poor peasant family. Her father is addicted to alcohol, her mother is helpless and nevertheless she feels well at home. Tess probably comes from the aristocratic family of the d’Urbervilles and Tess‘ mother wants her to use it to gain a high position in society. When tracking down descendants of the former noble family she meets her supposed cousin Alec-Stoke d’Urberville in Trantridge. He is very pleased and pushy, until Tess can no longer escape his overtures and becomes his victim and becomes pregnant. After losing her child because of illness she meets Angel Clare. They fall in love and marry, but when Tess tells him about her past, he makes a momentous decision. Can Tess handle it and restrain her strong impulse of revenge (about Alec)?
This theatre play is close to a classical tragedy. Marked by the Victorian era, conflicts between the rich and the poor, purity and impurity are portrayed. The numerous characters are represented on stage by only 4 actors, which may be confusing for one or the other. To better illustrate the situations and settings to viewers, they work a lot with props and especially costumes. On the left and right are two clothes racks with all costumes, so it was possible for the actors to quickly and easily slip into another role. In the background stood a painted canvas depicting a beautiful countryside ( as in England). For space/location and time separation a metal frame was used (looking like a cube). If one character was inside and one outside, then it showed the audience that they were in different places/rooms. In addition, the emotion was supported with the help of music. An actor occasionally played the guitar live and sounds such as that of a carriage, were recorded. This theatre play captivated the audience. They immediately felt with Tess and hoped again and again for a happy ending. At the end, Tess does not suspect that she will feel desperate until then, so most of the viewers are shocked. The idea of the Victorian values definitely gets to the limit and thus it becomes clear that social life is constantly changing and you can hardly stop it. This is also shown by the quote ‚Sometimes our impulses are too strong for our judgement.‘ About 100 years ago, Hardy developed a story about a woman who suffered from social restraints. The fact that this topic is still taken up in a theatre today proves the timelessness of this topic!

                --- by M.H.  12/2

Taken to the Victorian Age by a timemachine
     

Last Tuesday the  “White Horse Theater Company“ visited our school for the 21st time.

They presented their adaption of ´Tess of  d´Urbervilles´ based on the same-named novel by Thomas Hardy.

The play is set in a rural region (in Wessex/England) in the time of Queen Victoria´s reign.
It tells the touching and unusual story of the innocent farmer´s girl Tess Durberfield, who is raped by a wealthy man, supposed to be a wealthy relative of hers - called Alec d´Urberville. She gives birth to a baby who dies early and she leaves her home to work as a maid.
Tess falls in love with her employer´s son...and they marry soon. But in their wedding night her husband- Angel Clare -finds out about Tess´ past and leaves her.
Finally the couple meet again but they cannot spend more than a day together because Tess is arrested by the police for killing Alec d´Urberville.

This play was presented to us by only four actors who had to perform eight characters.
And it was just stunning how fast they could change their clothes and gestures to create these completely different roles. Personally, my favourite actor was the one who performed Angel Clare because I actually loved his guitar play.
Furthermore, it was really impressive how they got along with just little props.
Besides the amazing and convincingly realistic costumes, some chairs, a bench and a painted wallpaper background they did not use anything else.
The ride on a horse was e.g.created by a bench and chairs etc., which was actually pretty entertaining.
Moreover, they used really creative special effects: such as a great guitar player between the scenes or a simple wardrobe used as a ´timemachine´.

So in conclusion, the whole performance was a great success reflected by the attentive and amused audience in our assembly hall.

                --- by Laura Meschner