The Little Shop of Horrors
We lost Emily at the very start of the summer holidays. Just a few weeks before, we’d had some small rehearsals for Little Shop of Horrors. She was going to play the part of Ronnette, alongside some of our other friends. One day, Emily came into school after reading the entire script the night before. She already remembered so many of her lines and she started to recite stage directions, she was most excited about the romantic scenes between Seymour and Audrey. Knowing how excited Emily was about the school play made some of the later rehearsals hard, but they were also so significant because we knew who was motivating us all to keep going.
As the Show nights got closer, it was harder to imagine performing without her. Memories kept flooding back of previous performances, like inside jokes that we made backstage, or ordering take-out before concerts and shows. Although Emily wasn’t there in person, I knew that she’d be performing alongside me because it was so easy to remember her singing the songs and to imagine her knowing not only her lines by heart but everyone else’s as well. I can’t put into words how glad I am that I still decided to participate in the play, rehearsal days were the highlights of my week, there wasn’t one where I didn’t smile or laugh. I made so many friends and every single cast and crew member would’ve had a small part of them that dedicated their work to Emily.
I’d taken part in quite a few recordings for BSN sessions before the LSoH CDs. Recording for them has always been something that I’ve enjoyed and something that I’ve always been really grateful for. After the final show, Ms. Ball told us we would be recording the soundtrack, this was very special because the money from the CDs went towards Emily’s go fund me page. All of us were excited about this because it meant the family that we’d formed over just fourteen weeks got to do what we loved and stayed together for just a little bit longer. The CDs helped keep Emily in people’s hearts but they also made a contribution to the environment and they brought communities together through drama. In total, BSN sessions raised €1,182. Emily would be so proud.
-Ella
