The School Show

School-show


Oil on Gesso Panel

48 x 34 inches (122 x 87 cm)


Left to right (approximately)

Natalie O’Shea, Declan O’Connor, Ian Fennell, Ciara Nolan, Adrian Kelly, Peter Thompson, David Hatton, Sam Corcoran (male lead), Shannon Nolan (female lead), Danny Nolan, Paulina Vidiksis (painters)


Band: Maeve Lyons, Michael Stapleton, Oisín Comerford, Jason Fagan, Stephen O’Callaghan, Roisín Doran, Aoife Kavanagh, Ciara Dowling


For a few weeks in September and October the school hall was constantly busy. Sets were built, choruses rehearsed and those few not directly involved studied. Being a bit of a Muso I was very impressed that they had a live band for the production, especially for the fairly tricky music of West Side Story. I tried to paint this from life at the show itself but the stage lights were only up for a few days and in the end this is a composite of photos, drawings and oil sketches. However as a result it collapses a whole month of activity into one image, although this is a fair approximation of the school hall in October, with people painting and building sets, the cast rehearsing, the director directing and the band playing on.   


All text and images © Blaise Smith 2020