CITY OF LONDON FREEMEN’S SCHOOL 59

In reviewing the past year, it seemsincredible that our musicians packed somany performances in such short space oftime, both in and out of school. On a verywet Saturday in November the Jazz Bandplayed on the Worshipful Company ofFletcher’s and Bowyer’s float at the LordMayor’s Show. Despite the rain and the veryearly start, the band had a great day outplaying to the thousands lining the streets inthe City. Our thanks go to the Company forentertaining our musicians so well.

Music of a different kind was played whenour GCSE musicians and Music Scholarsspent a day at Reading University playingon a Balinese Gamelan. World music isnow a key element of both GCSE and A-level music. Both the pupils and staffrelished the opportunity playing thebeautiful and intricate Indonesian music.

Back on home territory our variousensembles and choirs spent the openingweeks of the year preparing for the Junior

and Senior Autumn Concerts. Cantabileand Phoenix alongside the now wellestablished Junior Concert Orchestra,together with Junior Brass and JuniorStrings provided a great evening of musicalentertainment. Their Senior counterpartsdid the same the following week inNovember. It was also an opportunity forour new musical scholars to perform.Stephanie Elstub, James Ellis, Yoo-Eun Anand Emily Yang all demonstrated the greatpromise they have for the future.

The majority of the term was spent inmany hours preparing one of the mosteagerly anticipated musicals at Freemen’s.A cast of 60 pupils performed AndrewLloyd Webber’s notoriously demandingmusical Evita to sell out audiences inDecember. Freemen’s was one of the firstschools in the country to be granted theperforming rights and the performanceswere regarded as among the finest musicaltheatre ever seen at the School. The plauditsflooded in for weeks after the event. We

were very fortunate to have five excellentprincipals supported by a committedchorus. Katie Rutherford played the role ofthe Mistress with great poignancy and WillNash was debonair as the club singerMagaldi. Tim Peters sang the role of Chewith great authority and Jack Flammigerplayed the role of Peron with great insightinto the complex characterisation. ClaraHutter’s performance as the lead, EvaPeron, was simply a “tour de force”. Shewas utterly convincing in this huge role.Long will it be remembered at Freemen’s.Another element that will live long in thememory was the choreography staged byprofessional dancer, Lucy Hall. Who willever forget the complexity of the chorusmoves in the number, Beunos Aires. Thelook of the show was stunning. My thanksgo to Barbara Tong who spent many hourspurchasing hundreds of costumes. Evitawas technically the most demanding everstaged in the Senior Hall. We werefortunate to have the use of the new

Class Act 3

Music ReviewClass Act 3

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MUSICANDDRAMA

lighting rig which included three hi-definition projectors. These were used todisplay an ever changing backdrop. Thewhole cast is indebted to Sixth Formstudent Joe Lott for assembling such acomplex video montage. Finally thanks toour Director of Drama, Phil Tong, ablysupported by Theatre Technician, ChrisRuby, for directing such a memorable show.

With Evita packed away our musicians werequickly into Christmas mode. Cameratamade their annual pilgrimage to sing at theGuild of Freemen’s Carol Service at StMartin within Ludgate, followed by threeCarol Services in St Giles’ Church. TheJuniors also had a busy Christmas schedulewith three carol services of their own. Thisyear the services were tinged with sadnessas they were last to be led by the Chaplain,Rev Daniel Rutherford. Daniel has been amarvellous supporter of the musicdepartment over many years, frequentlysinging in Camerata and Polyphony and onoccasions playing trumpet in the orchestra.

On our return after Christmas, ourmusicians were immediately busy. At theInvitation Concert in January, all our

senior music scholars performed withgreat confidence and skill. This wasfollowed by a series of instrumentalconcerts during the rest of the year. Thesepopular evenings allow members of theinstrumental staff to feature their pupilswhether they are a beginner or anadvanced players. Such is their popularitythat we are looking at increasing thenumber of these concerts in the future.

Cantabile and Phoenix took part in YoungVoices at the O2 Arena in March, joining achoir of 8000 singers who performed to apacked venue. Although it was a very longday, the pupils thoroughly enjoyedthemselves singing a wide variety of songsand quickly learning all the dance moves!

House Music had a revamp this year with anew scoring system for the auditions round.It certainly proved to be a success with over300 auditions performed prior to the finalsthemselves. Mrs Sandie Mady from StChristopher’s School, Epsom adjudicatedthe Junior Competition and we were joinedby Mr Richard Burdett, Director of Music atBournemouth Grammar School for Girls, forthe Senior Competition.

Evita

Evita

Evita Evita

CITY OF LONDON FREEMEN’S SCHOOL 61

MUSIC AND DRAMA

Class Act 3 Class Act 3

250 pupils took part in the eagerly awaitedClass Act 3 in April, the third Freemen’sconcert at the Dorking Hall’s to a sell-outaudience; the highlight of the musical year.Lucy Cole performed Chaminade’s FluteConcertino, Becky Baker played Bach’s Gminor Violin concerto and Daniel Sperrinperformed Sweet Georgia with the JazzBand. All major ensembles and choirs fromthe school took part including SeniorOrchestra, Senior String Ensemble, SeniorConcert Band, Senior Brass Ensemble, JazzBand, Junior Concert Orchestra, JuniorStrings, Junior Wind Band, AfricanDrumming, Camerata, Polyphony,Cantabile and Phoenix. All pupilsperformed with great confidence andmusicality to give the audience a night toremember. The concert opened with thepremiere performance of The Moment byPeter Lam, a piece especially written forthe occasion. My thanks go to MrsEaglestone who masterminded theoccasion. Sadly she was unable to be with

us on the night due to her maternity leave.I am particularly grateful to Mrs Ashworthwho conducted the two junior choirs withjust two weeks rehearsal.

The year concluded with a busy schedulefor Prize Day – two concerts, Jazz Bandplaying outside the Sports Hall, SeniorBrass announcing the arrival of the LordMayor, the newly formed Jubilee Choir,Cantabile and Junior Wind Bandperforming in the Junior ceremony andsolos from Lucy Cole and Tor Walberg.The evening before Prize Day we held ourSoireé in the Ferndale Theatre, this year ajoint event for Juniors and Seniors. It isalways tinged with sadness as we saygoodbye and thank you to our leavingmusicians. This year we were particularlygrateful to Lucy Cole, Daniel Sperrin,Chris Etherington, Cat Chick, Peter Lam,Philippa Ridgway and Darcy Taranto foreverything that they have contributedtowards music at Freemen’s.

Many pupils have achieved musicalsuccesses outside of school during theyear. Tim Peters and Samuel Strijdom aremembers of the National Youth Choir ofGreat Britain. Tim is also a member of theSurrey Youth Choir and Surrey AdvancedBrass Ensemble. Peter Lam won first prizein the Dulwich Symphony Orchestra’sYoung Composer’s Competition and is aviolinist in the prestigious StoneleighYouth Orchestra. Marie O’Donovan playedthe role of Kendra in Kingston MusicalTheatre’s production of 13 The Musical.Lucy Cole passed her piano diploma withdistinction. Alastair Cockrem won theorgan class at the Godalming MusicFestival. At the start of the year BeckyBaker became organ scholar at St Martin’sChurch in Dorking. Sarah Etherington,Oliver Baylis and Emma Bridgland aremembers of the National Children’sOrchestra of Great Britain. Oliver also wontwo Brass classes at the Godaming MusicFestival and a class at the Richmond Music

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Festival. To round off such a successfulyear our Junior String Quartet and JuniorString Trio gained honours at the ReigateMusic Festival with the latter winningtheir respective class.

2011-2012 will be remembered for so manyreasons. Our musicians have excelledthemselves in every respect, performingsuch a diverse amount of music to a highstandard and most important of allenjoying it!

Mr Paul Dodds

MUSICANDDRAMA

Junior House Music

Lord Mayor's ShowO2 - Singing Voices

Senior House Music

CITY OF LONDON FREEMEN’S SCHOOL 63

Drama ReviewOnce again this has been a very busy yearfor the Drama Department. It began withour Year 11 GCSE students presentingperformances of AMidsummer Night’sDream and Measure for Measure atLeatherhead Theatre in the ShakespeareSchools Festival. Lorna McKellar, inparticular, was a standout, but there wereseveral other fine performances includingDan Sareen as Angelo and Alex Duke,Laura Douglas, Max Davies and ClaraHutter as the lovers, together with CelineO’Donovan’s febrile Puck.

Later in the term there was an ambitiousand adventurous multi-media production ofEvita. This production was built around atour-de-force performance by Clara Hutter,who excelled in the role of Eva Peron. Shewas ably supported by Tim Peters as CheGuevara, Jack Flammiger as Juan Peron andWill Nash as Magaldi. Joseph Lott should becongratulated on the films he created toaccompany the action on stage from archivematerial together with his atmosphericlighting design that really captured thechanging mood of the piece.

Next up were our Upper 6 students whoperformed a piece of their own devisingcalled Exit Wounds. This challenging piecedealt with the complex issue of terrorismand female suicide bombers. The piece wasboth moving and thought provoking andJess Ventham, Sarah Moore and LivvyLaverock are to be congratulated on this finepiece. It is a feature of this aspect of theexamination that students are required toaddress an issue that seems important tothem and that relates in some way to thepolitical, social and historical context of ourtimes and this piece certainly addressed theway in which young people can be broughtunder the spell of terrorist influences.

Following close behind were the AS-levelgroups who presented some strikingphysical theatre in Pool No Water by MarkRavenhill, for which Joseph Lott designedthe lighting and enhanced the wholespectacle of the piece with brilliant videomodelling. This was a technical break-through for us at Freemen’s and it will beinteresting to see if he can top this inUpper 6. The actors produced somebreathtaking work with Claire Menghamand Liam Fernandez outstanding.

MUSIC AND DRAMA

Boy Who Fell

Boy Who Fell Boy Who Fell

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In the following week the mood changedentirely with the surreal comedy A Bucket ofEels. This wonderful piece by Paul Godfreyfollows the fall out of Nick who decides lateon that he can’t go through with hismarriage to Julia. There were some terrificperformances but Olivia Bieri, Kitty Brookesand Harry Househam stole the show withsome very funny moments.

In May we then had The Four Quartets, anevening of original writing by our Year 11GCSE students. This is the first time allgroups have shown original work and allfour pieces were outstanding. The showopened with Jack and Gill, an explorationof male/female relationships in the early1950s. This piece showcased the work ofKat Daly and Laura Douglas who wereboth very strong in the central femaleroles, and Alex Duke, who once againdemonstrated what a very good actor hehas become. Next up was The Prodigal Son,a piece about the aftermath of the troublesin Northern Ireland; largely written byJack Flammiger. In this complex piece Jackplayed a young man who was fleeing hispart in the betrayal of members of hisfamily with terrorist sympathies to theauthorities. This strong performance wasmatched by Celine O’Donovan and ClaraHutter and a wonderful cameo from JessMusgrove as Jack’s aging mother. This wasfollowed by Girl on a Train; a pieceexploring the tragedy that war can bring,and the sometimes terrible consequencesof trying to do the right thing. There werestandout performances by Maia Penfoldand Jack Hamer. There was barely a dryeye in the house after these two hadfinished. Finally the evening closed withPositive Result, a piece about sexuallytransmitted disease, and the sometimeshidden dangers to our sexual health. Thispiece was written by Daniel Sareen and iscertainly one of the best pieces of writing Ihave ever had from a student of his age. Itwas matched by a fantastic centralperformance by Dan himself together witha real tour de force ensemble of LornaMcKellar, Hugo Solway, Libby Wells,Laurence Belcher and Issy Pickett. Specialmention must go to the fine performanceof Issy who perhaps does not regardherself as a performer but yet proved whata fabulous actress she has become.

The school year drew to a close with a pieceperformed by our Year 10 GCSE students,that many also saw on Prize Day, The BoyWho Fell Into A Book by Alan Aykbourn. Thisproduction also raised a great deal of moneyfor the Year 10 charity. This was a terrificensemble effort from these young studentsand promises much for the future; CameronWatson, particularly, shone as thebelligerent gumshoe.

Bucket of Eels

For the Love of Willie

For the Love of Willie For the Love of Willie

CITY OF LONDON FREEMEN’S SCHOOL 65

Finally the year was brought to a closewith the highly successful EdinburghFestival production of For the Love of Willie.This show, adapted from the novel of thesame name by Agnes Owens was a criticalsuccess in Edinburgh, gaining four andthree star reviews in the national press.Below are some extracts from the reviewsthat give a flavour of the performance andthe standard of work we are now able toproduce here at Freemen’s.

‘The City of London Freemen’s School hasbeen performing at the Fringe for over adecade and they consistently producequality work; this year is no exception.’

‘James Cole Ezen plays the eponymousWillie Roper with deftness beyond hisyears. The charm with which he disarmsPeggy is edged with a creepiness thatbodes ill for the future of the relationshiphe so clearly wishes to develop. Similarly,Claire Mengham plays Peggy’s motherwith utter conviction. Her knowingremonstrations towards her daughter giveher character a believability and maternalquality that make her utterly relatable.’

‘The performances of the two bickering oldladies are delightful to watch: AbbyHampden (Old Peggy) conveys a notablethoughtful maturity, and Lorna McKellar’s(The Duchess) portrayal is both emotiveand amusing. Laura Douglas (Young

Peggy) captures the youthful meeknessand latent strength of the character,resigned to let others make decisions abouther life, until she makes a life-changingresolution of her own.’

‘A large cast of capable young actors, someshone even in smaller roles: among others,Grace Roger (Lily), Olivia Bieri (MrsRoper) and Dan Sareen (Boris) were allunderstated and believable.’

As for past students, Andrew Garfield wasrevealed to the world as the newSpiderman; whilst still wowing critics andaudiences alike on Broadway with PhilipSeymour Hoffman in Arthur Miller’s,Death of a Salesman. Faye Winter had aseason at Watford Palace doing Our Fatherthe new Charlotte Keatley play, and wenton to appear in Bash at Baron’s CourtTheatre, where she was nominated for anOff West End award as Best Actress. StephHyam graduated as an actor fromMountview this summer and was one ofonly 17 Laurence Olivier bursariesawarded for her work in her final year. Isaw her in her final show, Electra, and shewas terrific; so it was no surprise that shegained an agent straightaway and hasalready begun work on a short film. Watchthis space; we are destined to see more ofthis great actress.

Mr Phil Tong

MUSIC AND DRAMA

Shakespeare - Tiitania and Botttom

Shakespeare - In Prison

Pool No Water

Pool No Water

GCSE

GCSE

66 ASHTEADIAN MAGAZINE 2011-2012

This year we were highly entertainedby a large number of Junior Schoolpupils in the annual talent shows.

The evening of Tuesday 20th Marchsaw members of Form 1, Lower 2,Upper 2 and Lower 3 take to the stageand demonstrate their considerabletalents in the fields of singing, dancingand acting. All the children performedsuperbly on the big stage and we lookforward to seeing them performingagain next year.

On the evening of Thursday 22ndMarch it was the turn of pupils inLower 3, Upper 3 and Lower 4 and,once again, they provided an excellentevening of very varied entertainment.The evening started with an Oasis songand culminated with four Lower 4 girlsdancing. The panel of judges, MissButterwick, Mrs Cooper and MrMetcalfe, deliberated long and hardbefore choosing their eventual winnerswho were:

Highly Commended Awards: TheFood Fighters (James Stanley, MatthewStanley, Alex Lane, Luke Butcher andCharlie Bolam); Haven’t Met You Yet(Annie Foster); Camping with Sherlock(Matthew Parisi and Benedict Connor);Bouncey Knowles (Leonidas Kanavos);Harry Potter in 90 Seconds (Suzy-MayLister, Izzy England, Anna Goldman,Abi Jordan and Sheree Paton) andInvasion (David Lingard and TomClark)

Solo Performer: Jar of Hearts (CharlieJowitt)

Group Music: Four Chords (MarieO’Donovan, Izzy Nash and ZaraBailey)

Group Drama: Your Name, Sir? (BenSidwell and Victor Fohn)

The two talent shows together raisedabout £1500 for the Junior Schoolcharities.

Mrs Helen Irwin and Mrs Janet Wilby

Juniors'Got Talent

MUSICANDDRAMA

CITY OF LONDON FREEMEN’S SCHOOL 67

On Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd June, all the members ofForm 1 took to the stage to perform Uncle Crumble’s TimeMachine to packed audiences. Oliver Furze played the role ofUncle Crumble, the eccentric inventor, whose latest creation isa Sonic Fission Date Travel Converter. (A what? – A timemachine, of course.) During the course of the performance, thechildren (Danny Adams, Jack Hamilton, Tabitha Sunderlandand Kiara Valkenburg) use Uncle Crumble’s invention to makeadventures through time. In ancient Rome, parents andgrandparents were stunned by the acrobats and amazed by thepower of the strongmen who could bend iron bars and breakrocks with their bare hands. Both children and adults alikewere mesmerised by the exotic dancers, frightened by thevicious lions and captivated by the brutal gladiators.Audiences were appalled by the tyranny of Caesar, superblyplayed by August Msimang, (despite the poor emperor beinghenpecked by the glamorous Cleo, acted by Amelia Rawling!).

Form 1 also invited their spellbound audiences back to 1967 toglimpse the ‘flower power’ people of the Swinging Sixties, notto mention a surprise performance by the chart topping RavingRocodiles Rock Band. In the futuristic City of LondonFreemen’s School, in 200 years’ time, Tinface the robot (ClaraHarris) instructed the children to do easy sums such as 937 x36, without the aid of calculators! Could the children answersuch questions without being zapped by Tinface’s ray gun?Did Mark (Jack) fall in love with Sally (Kiara)? Did Fido,Jasper, Rory and Leo the lions get their din-dins? Could it bepossible that Angie’s and Larry's flared trousers would comeback into fashion? And most importantly……would the timemachine leave the children stranded in time? These and othervital questions were answered in front of the astoundedaudience’s very eyes!

Mrs Catherine Williams

Uncle Crumble’s Time Machine

MUSIC AND DRAMAMUSIC AND DRAMA

To be or not to be – that was the questionfor our Upper 2 and Lower 3 children onMonday 2nd and Tuesday 3rd July.

120 children, including a 20 pieceorchestra; five singing gravediggers; morethan 40 dancers and a large chorus, wereinvolved in producing two stunning andenergetic performances of Shakespeare 4Kidz’ Hamlet.

Jacob Bircher was an outstanding Hamlet,whose long soliloquies astounded theaudience. Alice Bridgland’s performanceof Ophelia’s Lament was breathtaking,accompanied by the beautiful harmoniesof Olivia Wilson. Many other amazingindividual and group performancescombined seamlessly to produce aspectacle of which all of the children canbe rightly proud.

Thank you: to Mr Metcalfe for hisinspirational direction; to Mrs Smith forarranging orchestra parts and directingsome stunning musical performances; toMrs Jowitt for her beautiful choreography

and to everyone else who workedtirelessly behind the scenes to make thisperformance such a success.

Mrs Sarah Gillespie

This all new production was the best yet: ithad it all from murder to romance. “If youare alive at the start of the play, you’re deadat the end,” Mr Metcalfe remarked at thestart of rehearsals. He chose the playbecause he likes to do a Shakespeare playevery two years and Hamlet is well known.

After being asked about singing a soloMarnie Ashbridge (Polonius) said; “It’s alot of pressure, but it’s nice to know othershave got your back.” Everyone involved islike Marnie: everyone has got everyone’sback, and although there might have beena few small mistakes, these were muffledso professionally that they went unnoticedto the audience.

The original Hamlet didn’t have a musicalnote in it, but ours changed like that for thebetter. All of the musicians enjoyed learningand performing their music. The work of

Mrs Smith and Mrs Gillespie shouldn’t beunderestimated: they worked a wonder incomposing all of the orchestra parts.

A massive thank you should also go toMrs Jowitt for choreographing the OpheliaDance and Mr Metcalfe for directing atriumph of a play. All of the children,whether they played Hamlet or were just amember of the chorus, worked together atmaking this the spectacle it was.

Oliver Baylis and Billy Jordanwith help from Charlie Kempf

Hamlet