Gateway Thespians Zoom to New Heights
As the year 2020 concluded, it brought yet another pleasant surprise, for the members of the Drama Clubs of Gateway College Colombo, Gateway College Dehiwala and Gateway College Kandy, despite the difficulties associated with the pandemic that continues to afflict the lives of the global populace.
Rukshala
The opportunity to end the year 2020 on a high note presented itself when The Drama Society of Trinity College Kandy hosted “Star Wars to Shakespeare”, a festival of performances of extracts from musical theatre productions, stage plays, movies, television series and original skits, held on the 17th and 18th of December 2020. This event which witnessed the participation of several leading State, Private and International schools in the countrywas an exciting novelty as it was a competition of dramatic performances delivered on the popular digital platform of Zoom.The Gateway College Colombo Team secured the Festival Championship with an average overall score of 77.67%, while Gateway College Dehiwala and Gateway College Kandy followed them closely with their own accomplishments.
Adheeb
Students who represented the three Gateway Colleges as cast and crew in the performance categories of ‘Shakespeare Play Extracts’, ‘Modern Play Extracts’, ‘Movie & Television Series Extracts’, ‘Original Skits’as well as ‘Musical Theatre Extracts’ at the ‘Star Wars to Shakespeare’ Drama Festival, rose to the challenge of presenting novel interpretations of existing texts on Zoom, an online platform built primarily to support video conferencing rather than theatrical performances, reaping the following joyous returns on their investments of talent, skill and commitment to excellence.
Rukshala Wijesingha who portrayed the role of Katherina and Adheeb Hashim who portrayed the role of Petruchio in an extract from the “The Taming of The Shrew” emerged victorious in the duet segment of the Shakespeare Extracts category of the festival. Menura de Silva in the role of Tom and Adheeb Hashim in the role of Doug,performed an extract from “Keeping Tom Nice” by Lucy Gannon and won the duet segment of the Modern Drama Extracts category.Actors, Menura de Silva who portrayed the role of Joker and Rohan Dias who portrayed the role of Murray Franklin in an iconic scene from the movie “Joker” were the winners of the duet segment of the Movie & Television Series Extracts category.Adheeb Hashim was placed 3rdin the solo segment of the Movie & Television Series Extracts Category for his portrayal of the role of Petruchio in a scene from Franco Zeffirelli’s 1967 Film “The Taming of The Shrew”. All actors who represented Gateway College Colombo at the festival were supported by Sihas Kumarasinghe in the role of crew member who contributed to the winning performances through innovative filming techniques.It was the combined efforts of all the students who represented Gateway College Colombo at this festival that resulted in their achievement of the most coveted prize of the event, ‘Championof the “Star Wars to Shakespeare” Online Drama Festival’, signifying a turn of the tides of fortune for the Drama Club of Gateway College Colombo.
Of the representatives of Gateway College Dehiwala, Imra Rizvi and Jenna Newman were placed 3rd in the duet segment of the Shakespeare Extracts category. Aneeq Shakoor, Amaan Shakoor and Kaif Shafraz were placed 3rd in the Original Skits Category while Haana Vijithkumar was placed 3rd in the solo segment for junior performers in the Musical Theatre Extracts Category.
Gateway College Kandy representatives Sarah Zahid and Dillen Wijesooriya made their own mark and added to the glories which the Gateway Group enjoyed at the festival by being placed 2ndin the duet segment of the Movie & Television Series Extracts Category.
Menura & Rohan