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21 March 2019
Bedford Girls’ School (BGS) once again enjoyed an incredible week of success at the recent Bedford Festival of Music, Speech and Drama.
Held at Bedford Corn Exchange, BGS entered a wealth of girls into numerous Music and Speech and Drama categories, ranging from full choirs to solo singing and orchestras to oboes. Programmes included verse-speaking, mime, Shakespeare and more.
The Bedfordshire Festival is well regarded in the region, having been founded in 1921, and providing a showcase for talent in the amateur performing arts in the county.
There was plenty of talent on show from BGS, with 175 girls entering 75 Speech and Drama classes, with the girls awarded a total of 47 1sts, 56 2nds and 47 3rds. Music achieved two 1sts, six 2nds and five 3rds. In addition to the achievements throughout the week, a selection of leading performers were invited to the showpiece Gala Concert on Saturday evening.
Audiences were wowed by the beautiful and dramatic performances from BGS students. Lower Sixth students Olivia Benjamin and Sophie Parry competed for the Bedford Borough Challenge Cup, in the Solo Verse Category. Olivia performed a Shakespeare solo from Much Ado About Nothing, whilst Sophie performed a solo verse speaking called The Nightjar by Sir Henry Newbolt.
Talented Year 8 flautist, Lucy Barrett performed Mozart’s 1st Movement, Flute Concerto in D.
Manpriya Sira in Year 4 was one of three youngsters to be selected for the Jane Whitbread Cup for Junior Speech and Drama performance. She brought the house down with her amusing performance of Bullrod the Bulldog.
Mrs Vivienne Redford, Head of Speech and Drama at BGS, said: “The girls performed with great enthusiasm and in the true festival spirit, not to necessarily win but to celebrate and share their work with each other and for an audience.”
