b'THE ELLESMERIAN69and we often had meetings to discuss set, props, and casting weeks before it was due to go on stage. Directing the playWhether it be the difficulty of fitting rehearsals into a very alongside my good friend Josie and the entire cast and crewbusy calendar, having to re-cast at points during the play (!), was certainly a highlight of my time at Ellesmere College.learning lines and getting everyone to remember where they should be and when, we all enjoyed the experience, learnt Gracie Shallcrosslots of things about ourselves and each other, and will ultimately never forget the experience!Woodard HouseTop tips for next years Directors: make the most of your rehearsal time and make sure everyone learns their lines early! Ink and IncapabilityBlackadder the ThirdBut most importantly, you need to work together with a common vision, enthusiasm, and enjoyment! This was my first experience of directing a play and I was excited and nervous about the challenge! My first task was toRhian-Carys Jones put a reliable cast together. I didnt realise how hard this would be at the time. With lots of other College commitments, it wasextremely difficult to get everyone together for rehearsals at the same time and this resulted in me having to alter my plans on a number of occasions.Middle School Play The Blackadder play we had been given was Ink andThe Demon Headmaster Incapability. In brief, Baldrick burns the only copy of a very important dictionary, leaving Blackadder only one weekend toAn enthusiastic cast of over 30 Middle School students took re-write it. Dr Samuel Johnson seeks Prince George\'son the script of The Demon Headmaster. Audiences were entertained over two nights by the students of St. Champions, who decide to take a stand against their strange and secretive Headmaster who has plans to take over the world!Directed by Mr Mark Needham, Middle School students presented the well-known story of the mysterious goings on at St. Champions School. Strange things happen at Lloyd (Jon Irwin) and Harvey Hunter\'s (Mika Fischer) school. When their new foster sister Dinah (Abigail Manford) arrives, she wants to find out why . . . but can she escape the Demon Headmaster (Cal Adlard)? The story follows the strange antics of Lloyd and Harveys school friends (Grace Warren, Monty Henderson, Darcy Ward, Zoe Mabaquio-Lennox, Julia Smith, Emily Curzon, and India Freer-Carmichael) with the entertainment of Eddie Hall (Huw Lloyd) and his glamorous assistant Gloria (James Joynson), until the situation reaches a point where the truth patronage for his new book, A Dictionary of the Englishstarts to come out! Students from Years 9-11 worked hard on Language. The Prince, seeking to amend his reputation as ancreating a suitably mysterious chain of events leading to the utter turnip-head is interested, but Blackadder tries to turndownfall of their hypnotic Headmaster!him against the idea, condemning the dictionary as "the most pointless book since \'How to Learn French\' was translated into French". It soon emerges that Blackadder resents Johnson for apparently ignoring his novel Edmund: A Butler\'s Tale, which, under the pseudonym of Gertrude Perkins, he had secretly sent to Johnson in the hope that he would get it published.I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of directing a play, and the result was better than I had hoped for. I found the experience of working as part of a team important, and learnt that leading a group and directing a play relies heavily on good teamwork, communication, and everyone trying to achieve the same shared vision and goal. Sometimes this was difficult and compromises had to be made, but the key thing was trying to encourage everyone to work together to create something that everybody could be proud of.'