It’s not every day you can write: Zombies took over Scarborough College!
A story of acceptance told through the eyes of a whacky 1950s B movie style musical took to the stage of Scarborough College under the guidance of local theatre professional Alex Weatherhill.
“I wanted to bring something completely different to the school.” Says Weatherhill, most recently associated with Scarborough Theatre Company’s ‘The Addams Family’ and the Stephen Joseph’s ‘Comedy of Errors’. “Something that no-one will have seen. I wanted to push boundaries and introduce a new show to the school and the wider community.”
Zombie Prom is a Grease style musical, set in the American 1950s Atomic Age, full of camp humour and sending up of the stereotypes of the time. The opening number begins with Headmistress Miss Delilah Strict (by name and nature), played by Brazilian student Bruna Amaral Simões in her first ever English-speaking role, overseeing the school Nuclear Fair where girls (only) whip their eggs cooking for the fallout shelter and boys (only) make gun racks for ‘A Safer Tomorrow’. The tone is set.
“It took a while for the humour to land with the students, they began the process a little thrown by the misogyny and prejudice displayed in the script and story.” Continues Alex. “- particularly as Scarborough College is an international school and the story is set in full Cold War American hype territory. In fact, we had around 10 nationalities on or backstage. Once they got it, though, they all fell in love with it.”
Principal players included: Toby McTurk as Jonny (protagonist student who turns Zombie), Heidi Maxwell as Toffee (his love interest), Bruna Amaral Simões as Miss Delilah Strict, Ted Kellock as sensationalist magazine journalist Eddie Flagrante. Support players included Pearl Basson, Aishani Datt, Izzy Hall, Joe (JD) Duffy, Joe Swann and Pun Veeraphan plus over 50 other students from the school.
The musical was choreographed by English teacher Sarah Cox, with the exception of theExposé tango which featured the work of student Daria (Dasha) Karmazih and Musical Direction came from Director of Music Rebecca Leeson.
Categories: Scarborough College School News
