Young stars emerge as fresh talent for Lahore’s performing arts
Unforgettable performances in a super-hit musical emotional play The Glee Club give a ray of hope to English theater in Pakistan
Staff Report
LAHORE: Students from the Ravi Campus of The City School emerged as fresh talent for Lahore’s performing arts activities after their unforgettable performances in The Glee Club, a super-hit musical emotional theatrical play that stretched over three-day successively at the Alhamra Arts Council.
After the last show, writer and director Hassan Raza said that The Glee Club centered on a club at a fictional William McKinley High School which competes as a show choir while its disparate members deal with family, race, teen relationships, teamwork, and other social issues.
Like the original, he said that the play focused on students in the club, their relationships as couples, their love of singing and desire for popularity coming into conflict due to their membership in the ‘low-status’ club, and the many challenges of life in high school and as a teenager. “We tried to share a tale of a group of ambitious misfits try to escape harsh realities of high school by joining a club, headed by a passionate transfer student,” he said.
On the occasion, Principal Misbah Qamar and Vice Principal Mahnaz Khan said that their school always tried their level best to give students various chances to show their creativities in front of audiences inside and outside of the institutional premises. “I have regarded theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share a sense of what it is to be a human being,” said Almas Imran, production head of the play.
“For me, events create an environment of fun and vibrancy, resulting in a strong sense of connectivity among communities,” said Sana Asif from the play’s production. Besides Aamir Nawaz as director of Set & Light, Saeed Rehman was the music director, while amazing choreography was done by Shahid Baloch who has already proven his worth in Lahore’s annual plays. “I can say, these young artists did what I expected from them,” said Hassan Raza, the writer and director of the play, who tried his level best to give this production a new life.
Mujtaba Asim Syed said that it was an honour for him to play the role of Finn Hudson, a motivational and an energy booster role which reflects his personality. Shayan Shahzad said that he has good working experience overall as he had a great opportunity to learn new skills such as singing and playing guitar.
Zainab Arshad who was playing Wilma Schuester, and Dua Munir Khan who was playing Santana with her flawless triple threat performance, said that they were very much satisfied while working with a team of genius people. “Through art performance, we can choose to reinvent ourselves and reborn,” said Amna Jahan who performed as Blaine Anderson in the play.
