Press Release form Vernham Dean School

Vernham Dean School is a small village school in North Hampshire. Wishing to celebrate the Millennium, its Headteacher, Pat Horne, successfully applied for a grant under the Awards for All scheme. A nearby composer, Edward Lambert, was commissioned to create a musical drama in collaboration with the children based on curriculum work in the school: he chose the current topic of the Tudors.

Initially children brainstormed ideas for the plot, which gradually grew into a story based around Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which the older pupils were studying in English. At the same time the children generated musical ideas which the composer wove into fully-fledged songs with parts for all the children learning instruments as well as for percussionists that had no such experience. Further workshops were led by a professional writer, an opera singer, a vocal coach and a choreographer.

The project threaded its way into every aspect of school life. In history the children studied the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Tudor times – a main theme for the play. They looked at clothing to dress the cast: every child - 107 of them - has a costume. ICT in almost every form imaginable has been used by the children – helping with the technical equipment, computers in word processing, digital camera work, videoing (and then evaluating and improving), ordinary camera work for recording process along the way.

The final product, which lasts for over 100 minutes, incorporates the mock-opera Pyramus and Thisbe by John Frederick Lampe, written in 1745. It was sung by six Y6 boys.

We performed the show on three occasions:

Vernham Dean Village Hall

Friday February 9 2001 at at 7pm

Cricklade Theatre, Andover

Monday 12 February 2001 6pm

Tuesday 13th February 2001 at 7pm

Further information from the school tel 01264 737241

The Dream That Hath No Bottom

a comedy with words and music by Edward Lambert

with help from the pupils of Vernham Dean Gillum’s School, Hampshire

and William Shakespeare

featuring Pyramus and Thisbe by John Frederick Lampe (1745)

Prologue

It’s a summer evening about 400 years ago. The pupils and scholars of Gillum’s School are resting. They dream up the idea of creating a play and Puck helps them to stage it, stepping in from time to time to sort things out when they get stuck. He also makes sure there is a part in it for him…

Act One

August 1588. The village children are excited but anxious about the Spanish Armada and they pray for the safety of their families. They sing enviously of the entertainment to be had in London - particularly the theatres.

The Fairies and Goblins come out to sing and dance, but are downcast because Oberon and Titania are quarrelling. Oberon tells Puck to fetch a magic flower whose juice will make Titania fall in love with the first creature she sees when she wakes up.

Oberon overhears an argument between Hermia and Lysanda, two village girls of opposing religious faiths. Lysanda finds a mysterious letter which sounds as though it’s written by a spy and she decides to make use of it for her own cruel purposes. When Puck returns with the flower Oberon commands him to find Lysanda and teach her a lesson. When the Fairies sing Titania to sleep, Oberon streaks her eyes with the magic juice.

It is by now the dead of night, and some village youths arrive to rehearse a play. They don’t get very far because Puck enters and, seeing Bottom in full flight, thinks this must be the nasty person he's looking for. He puts on him an ass’s head. The other youths flee in terror. This commotion wakens Titania who immediately falls for Bottom. He is enchanted to be the object of such attention. They leave together.

The village children rush in with the news that Hermia has been arrested on suspicion of spying and it doesn’t take long for the rumour to spread that Bottom has been transformed by witchcraft. What's going on? they ask.

Hermia enters, on her way to prison, to say her farewells. Oberon realises Puck has got the wrong mortal and sends him packing.

Act Two

The village children sing of the religious troubles that have plagued their country in recent times. Their faith has been subject to the whim of successive monarchs.

Meanwhile, Bottom is being entertained by the Fairies and Goblins whose life is so wonderful, he thinks, that he wants to return with them to Fairyland. This involves a journey across a rainbow bridge while the bells peal out; there are many wonders to be seen on their way.

Suddenly, as a new day dawns, the Prefects stop everyone in their tracks: Oberon releases Titania from the magic spell and Bottom is relieved of his ass-head. He wakes up as if from a dream.

It is the morning of the village fete. The children are surprised by the arrival of a troupe of strolling players who bring the news that the Armada has been defeated. Zachariah is disgruntled by the thought of any celebrations. One of the Players seems to recognize him.

The Players' show is about the Seven Ages of Man. It is old-fashioned and Bottom and his mates feel they could do better.

To finish the story, Puck has one last trick up his sleeve: Queen Elizabeth and her Courtiers arrive on the scene. She is asked to intervene in the case of Hermia, the supposed spy. When the young girl is cross-examined it appears she was found several years ago on a beach following a shipwreck. That boat, The Titania, contained a husband, a wife and two baby daughters. The player, Isabella, reveals herself as the mother, Zachariah as the husband, so the family is reunited and Lysanda and Hermia discover they are sisters. All this in Vernham Dean! What an astonishing turn of events!

The letter that incriminated Hermia is produced and the Queen recognizes the content as her one of her own speeches. Hermia is therefore proved innocent and Lysanda gets away with a ticking off.

Amidst general rejoicing, the youths perform Pyramus and Thisbe. These two lovers were kept apart by a wall. One night they arrange to meet in a moonlit graveyard but Thisbe is scared off by a lion. When Pyramus arrives, Thisbe’s torn veil leads him to conclude the worst. He kills himself and when Thisbe returns she joins him in death.

It is the end of another day; the Fairies and Goblins come out again and join in the fun. Then the villagers go home - and the scholars of Gillum’s School are left with Puck, their muse, to ponder what they’ve created. Perhaps they should send it to Will Shakespeare to see what he could make of it?

Act 1

1 Song: Puck & Chorus of Scholars Over hill, over dale

2 Intorduction & Prayer: Villagers It’s the year of Our Lord

3 Scene: London Life There are crowds of people

4 Chorus & Dance of Fairies & Goblins (Oberon & Titania) Over hill, over dale

5 Song: Prefect (& Oberon) I know a bank where the wild thyme blows

6 Lullaby: Fairies & Goblins You spotted snakes

7 Song & Dance: Titania, Bottom & Four Fairies What angel wakes me?

8 Chorus of Villagers Have you heard the news?

9 Hermia & Chorus: Farewell, my world

Act 2

10 Chorus: Song & Dance Life was good

11 Song: Fairies & Goblins

12 Scene: The Rainbow Bridge Come with me

13 Chorus of Players & Villagers Have you heard the news?

14 Dumb show: The Seven Ages of Man

15 Chorus: What an astonishing turn of the tide!

16 Scene: Pyramus & Thisbe

17 Dance

18 Finale: All Now the hungry lion roars

Titania, Fairy Queen

Oberon, Goblin King

Puck, Oberon’s servant

Four Fairies:

Peaseblossom Mustardseed Cobweb Moth

Hermia, a Catholic child

Lysanda, a Protestant child, daughter to Zachariah

Nick Bottom,

an apprentice weaver; Pyramus in the interlude

Peter Quince,

an apprentice carpenter; Prologue in the interlude

Francis Flute,

an apprentice bellows-mender; Thisbe in the interlude

Tom Snout,

an apprentice tinker; Wall in the interlude

Snug,

an apprentice joiner; Lion in the interlude

Robin Starveling,

an apprentice tailor; Moonshine in the interlude

Brother Zachariah,

village priest and schoolmaster

Isabella

a strolling player, disguised as a man, wife of Zachariah

Hermia’s guardian(s)

Pupils and Scholars at Gillum’s School

as themselves and Village Children

Prefects:

who also play

Queen Elizabeth and Courtiers

Fairies & Goblins

A troupe of strolling players

as themselves and

The Seven Ages of Man

Prologue - Infant - Schoolboy - Lover - Soldier - Justice - Pantaloon - Childishness & Oblivion

Headteacher's note

We were lucky enough to receive a Lottery grant and we have therefore been able to work with ‘ a composer in residence’ to create a ‘comic opera’ based on our topic of the Tudors.

Initially children brainstormed ideas for the plot, which Ed gradually wove into a story. Children worked in small groups with Ed, composing music principally on percussion instruments. Ed took these small tunes and they can still be found in the finished pieces of music. He recorded the music on CD and as, for example. The flautists learned a piece, then the flutes would be removed from the CD leaving our flutes to play along with the CD. Other instruments learned in the same way. The musical opportunity and challenge that these children had is astonishing and of course the children rose to the challenge.

A local plumbing firm donated some brass pipes and Ed and Oak class undertook some Design and Technology and constructed huge sets of tubular bells which some children from that class play during the show.

A professional writer came to the school to work with children on writing scripts, a professional opera singer worked on stage presence and empathising with the character when acting, a professional singing teacher came to improve the quality of the performance. A choreographer came to help with positioning and dance – the children have had the opportunity to learn so much. We participated with The Young Shakespeare Company in Midsummer’s Night’s Dream and indeed incorporated several Shakespearian ploys in our play – mistaken identity, a woman dressed as a man and vice versa and, of course, a play within a play. Ed chose a musical version of Pyramus and Thisbe, using the music by John Frederick Lampe, written in 1745.

In history we studied the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Tudor times – a main theme for the play. We looked at clothing to dress our cast.

ICT in almost every form imaginable has been used by the children – using mini discs, helping with the technical equipment, computers in word processing, digital camera work, videoing (and then evaluating and improving), ordinary camera work for recording process along the way and so on.

The children in Beech Class even set up a company - The Dream Team - with jobs for all who wanted to participate! They then had some control and responsibility for the events around them.

A group of children wrote informative letters inviting VIPs to our show – we have a page of replies in our programme.

All this without mentioning the wonderful playing of music, the singing and the acting!

Wow! It seems to have threaded its way into every aspect of school life. There are indeed many more examples – just too many to list here!

It involves every child in the school (we have 107) as well as every member of staff! Children have gained so much in terms of self-confidence as well as learning real skills. Our heartfelt thanks to all involved.

All these children are aged between 4 and 11!

Composer’s note
Original cast

Composer's note

This project started like several others that I helped to create – with a blank sheet. When I worked for the Royal Opera’s Education Department I soon learned that in a busy school environment visiting artists have to do their best to integrate with what’s going on. Besides, music and drama are fantastic ways of bringing together various strands in the curriculum. The proviso is, of course, that the children have a large hand in creating it!

When I discovered that The Tudors was the KS2 topic for last term I knew that's what our play had to be about. There were many aspects that interested the children but when I heard that they were studying A Midsummer Night's Dream in English I felt we need look no further for the core of our play. We pretended that we - Gillum's School - wrote our play first and that Shakespeare cheekily copied bits of it subsequently. Out went the four lovers and in came a plot of intrigue surrounding girls of different religions. The threat of the Armada would provide the historical background. Shakespeare's fairies would be fine for the infants' classes - they dance around the forest at night, four year-olds singing Shakespeare's unaltered text! All this set within the context of an Elizabethan school (a drama school!) which is led by half-a-dozen bossy Prefects who seem to be inventing the plot as they go along. So all the juniors play the pupils of the school, turning their hands to different tasks with almost every song or scene.

We added a big musical climax when Titania takes Bottom to within sight of Fairyland - only to be stopped by those bossy Prefects again. After this, there was no danger of the children's efforts being upstaged by the Vernham Dean Theatre Group, so we have a contest of plays-within-a-play: the adults play a troupe of visiting players whose talents may be suspect but whose style is definitely behind the times. The Prefects, now dressed up as the Court of Elizabeth I itself, summon the six boys to perform their comedy of Pyramus and Thisbe. At this point in the show I was to deal the trump card: those six lads would have to perform a genuine Handelian opera complete with the most difficult vocal displays - but also the most lovely tunes.

(John Frederick Lampe came over from Saxony to work in London. His mock-opera Pyramus and Thisbe was first performed at Covent Garden in 1745. It is a setting of Shakespeare's text from the end of A Midsummer Night's Dream and a spoof of the world of grand opera at that time.)

Apart from Pyramus and Thisbe the children's ideas permeate every song in the piece, in the text or the music, or both. Each member of Oak Class (Years 3 & 4), for example, contributed a simple tune made up on percussion. I laid those tunes down as a painter might start by sketching a landscape. Early in the play I wanted a song that the villagers would sing which would tell of people's lives in London, with the theatre and so on. Annie Pearson, a playwright who has had work performed at the Salisbury Playhouse, came over one day to work on bits like that. A group of writers had an hour to come up with ideas, poring over history books, and jotting down their thoughts. We went up to the pub for lunch and by the time it had arrived had sorted all the children's ideas into a structure suitable for a song. That evening, I laid these words over the background that I'd put down previously, arranging and fitting the text to counter melodies. Such was the pace that we were working at - and such are the capabilities of new technology - that the next afternoon we rehearsed that song.

Kate Cook helped to devise Life was good in olden days: the children wanted a street game that would be sad at the same time since it was meant to be about religious troubles. Some flutes had come up with a melody with what they thought was a 'wrong note'. The tune for that song now contains an array of wonderful 'wrong notes'.

Years 1 & 2 had to consider what it was like to be a fairy – or goblin. What did they do all day in Fairyland? The fairies they had read about – how did they behave?

And so it went on. The finished musical product is performed to a ‘backing track’ on mini-disc, which is in itself quite a feat, requiring as it does much accurate time-keeping on behalf of the musicians. But technology helps to bring the performers into a new sound-world, one which otherwise would be quite outside the reach of a community venture. And so it went on.

The result of everyone's efforts is The Dream That Hath No Bottom, a complete comic opera written with and for Vernham Dean and its School. It's dedicated to Pat Horne who has guided the whole project from start to finish.

The Dream That Hath No Bottom

a comedy with words and music by

Edward Lambert

the pupils of

Vernham Dean Gillum’s School, Hampshire