Abingdon News No.56

www.abingdon.org.uk 17 Troubled Waters I was there OA works with BBC Congratulations to OA and AFU alumnus George Cowie and his company Superfolk Films on producing more than 60 short films in collaboration with the BBC for a series called I Was There , in which George and his team recorded interviews with survivors of World War Two. The Upper Sixth are excited to be working on a production of Andrew Bovell’s “Things I Know To Be True”, which will be performed in February. AFU new film screenings “It’s film, Jim, but not as we know it”. That echo of a Star Trek catchphrase seemed as apt a sentiment as any at the launch of the AFU’s first ever online screening. It was a markedly different atmosphere from the usual AFU annual screening that fills the Amey Theatre with a lively and appreciative audience. The online event brought together five debut screenings: Alexander Lees’ passionate Love Letter to The Watermll , Oli Clark’s Troubled Waters , Harry Litchfield’s Mama Uganda , Alex Heffernan’s Upriver , and Oliver Millbourn’s Numpie . The screening concluded with the presentation of one of two awards in memory of the AFU’s legendary co-founder, OA and renowned documentarist Michael Grigsby. The “Spirit of Grigsby” Award, which recognizes one or more filmmakers who have shown the kind of precocious talent Grigsby himself demonstrated as a boy at Abingdon, was presented jointly to Alex Heffernan and Oliver Millbourn. This term, fourth year pupils enjoyed the new Other Half drama club, Page To Stage which looks at the theatre making process. The club gives boys the opportunity to work as actors, directors and designers creating live performance. Students were busy directing each other in Shakespearean duologues which were recorded to show to parents. Fifth year actors entertained audiences from the comfort of their own homes with an online screening of Owen Sheers’ Pink Mist, a verse-drama about three young soldiers from Bristol who are deployed to Afghanistan. Within a short space of time they return to the women in their lives (a mother, a wife, a girlfriend), all of whom must now share the psychological and physical aftershocks of their service. The cast worked hard since September to bring the world of the play to life and the commitment they showed to the physical and vocal demands of this lyrical verse drama was truly impressive. Love Letter to The Watermill Upriver Numpie Mama Uganda Pink Mist Abingdon Drama and AFU Senior Drama