Dear Mr. Yuen,
The school’s 10th anniversary is coming and the Drama Club is honored to be a part of the grand celebration. As the Chairperson of the Drama Club, I am pleased to propose to you the performance of the play, Les Miserables.
Based on the 1862 novel by the French poet and novelist, Victor Hugo, the musical Les Miserables was born in 1980, created by the genius mind of Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boubill. The story was set in 19th century France, when the wind of revolution was sweeping across Europe. It illustrated the life of a French peasant, Jean Vaijean and his quest for redemption after being jailed for 19 years only because he stole a loaf of bread for his sister’s starving child. Eventually he broke his parole and decided to start a new life after a kind bishop inspired him by a tremendous act of mercy. While being relentlessly tracked down by a police inspector Javert, he tried to give his best to others, which was what the bishop had shown him. After the outbreak of the June Rebellion, Valjean stood beside the young idealists who started the revolution and finally realized the true meaning of life.
The popularity of Les Miserables escalated when the musical was adapted to be made into a movie with the same name in 2012. Under the favourable trend, the reason for our choice is based on our club’s, our school’s and our audience’s perspective.
First, the choice of Les Miserables can be an adorable display of the Drama Club’s progress in performing plays. The Drama Club was set up 10 years ago, alongside the school’s establishment. Ten years later, thanks to the club members’ and teachers’ effort, we have finally made a little name for ourselves when we won the second place in the Hong Kong School Drama Festival last year. Through performing Les Miserables, our actors not only would have to make use of their gestures, emotions and the scripts, but they would also need to tell the story through songs. For instance, songs like “I dreamt a dream” and “Who am I” really require actors to stretch their ability in terms of vocal music. Thus, the choice can provide our young cast with a platform to show off their talents and the progress of our club.
From the school’s perspective, Les Miserables is a fine choice due to two different reasons. To start with, the choice promotes cooperation between different school teams. As a musical, not only does it involve the Drama Club, but also other parties like the choir and the orchestra. Hence, a proper performance requires close cooperation between different parties no matter whether it is during pre-production, script-writing or rehearsal. As a result, the choice creates a rare chance for different school teams to cooperate and they can grab this chance to improve themselves. In addition, the messages being conveyed by Les Miserables are all about love, peace, and unity, which can act as a special glue to seal the small but noticeable gap created by the recent argument over universal suffrage at our school. The power of music and drama is way beyond normal strong words. Hopefully, with the performance underway, the choice can help to bring back the harmonious campus spirit.
Apart from the club’s and the school’s perspective, Les Miserables is also an excellent choice for our audience including our students, teachers, parents, alumni and some precious guests from outside the school. As mentioned before, the film Les Miserables was a huge success and it had caught the attention of the majority in the city and surely that of our audience. Compared with the movie, being shown on a heartless screen and through a set of lifeless speakers, the musical performance is a totally different story. The play is performed live. The emotions are real. The atmosphere is tense. Such an occasion enables our audience to have a distinct audio and visual fulfillment which they cannot obtain from a screen and a set of speakers, not to mention the fact that regular performance of the musical simply does not exist in Hong Kong.
From now till the grand celebration, we still have more than nine months of time ahead. This is barely enough for the club and other parties to organize, prepare and rehearse the show. I would be grateful if my proposal is approved. Also, the club will try its best to play beyond the limits once the choice is approved.
Yours sincerely,
Charles Wong
Charles Wong
Chairperson of the Drama Club