27 Oct 2014

[IB9 & IB10] "Bang Bang You're Dead" - no boundaries for an important message

Simona Jasaitytė & Živilė Matjušaitytė -


            "Bang, bang you're dead" play was never about the CAS, moreover it had a lot of purposes, not only the product. We all shared the same goal to prepare the play, however, the journey we had connected, improved us as more creative and artistic people, and forced us to look at this play's subject, which is bullying, with much more importance and significance.
The main meaning of the play was clear from the beggining - to spread awareness about the current bullying problems in schools and our environments. Furthermore, creating the play also had the same purposes as the idea of CAS. Meeting and making new peers, experiencing and learning something new to you and getting out of your comfort zone, and creating a product that would somehow influence the people around us in the best possible way. Since we are working together for about a year, most of our goals and purposes have already been achieved. We became great friends with not only each other, however, we met amazing students and teachers in the other school. Majority of us had never experienced or faced drama or acting in general but due to this project, we all improved English language skills, learned basics in acting and how to handle the audience and overcome the fear of stage.
            Everyone in the group of young actors were working hard all semester towards one goal - making the play “Bang bang You’re Dead”as effective as possible. We were always meeting twice a week, to try and polish the text, movements, and emotion, which we were aiming to send to the public. After working on this project for almost half a year, everyone of us were excited to share our piece of work with a wider public. The first performance took place in the Didždvaris Gymnasium on the 29th of May. It was shown to the MYP students of the school. Later, in the evening the play was shown to the closest friends and family of ours in the Šiauliai Art Gallery. This September we were informed by the English teacher A. Chvostova, that she is very interested in helping us to share this play that we were working on for so long with other schools and cities in Lithuania. We immediately started the rehearsals, to prepare for upcoming performances. Then we found out, that we do not need to learn the words again, because we could still remember them after the summer holiday, except from one person, who, because of changed circumstances, had to replace one of our actors. We got involved into the process, and when we were finally feeling confident about our acting, the play was once again performed in Šiauliai Didždvaris Gymnasium, for the first graders, on the 23rd of October. The next day was the first time, we ever performed “Bang You’re Dead” out of our home city Šiauliai. Our English teachers A. Chvostova and T. Sviatkina travelled together with us to Panevėžys Juozas Miltinis Gymnasium. The school was celebrating its birthday, and our performance was a part of its programme. Before the play, the actors and directors were given a warm welcome by the school director. After we had finished the performance, there was a discussion between the students of Juozas Miltinis Gymnasium and us about sensitive youth problems, bullying, violence in schools. We also got some feedback on our acting from the director of this school’s theatre performances, about what he liked, and what could still be improved.
            The trip to Panevėžys was a great experience to each and everyone in our group of people. We gained experience from performing in front of people we do not know, also, made the importance of the message, we are trying to send through the play, more clear for us after the discussion with the students. The feedback from a theatre class director gave important ideas of what could be improved. However, this certainly was not the last time we were performing “Bang Bang You’re Dead”. We still have great intentions ahead of us. With the help of teacher A. Chvostova we will be planning performances. One of ideas is to show this play to all the English teachers in Šiauliai. Another plan is to go to a school in another Lithuanian town, Tauragė. Now the only important thing is avoiding letting these goals to only stay goals. All together we can work, communicate, and spread the message of this play to as much people as possible.

The crew before the play



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