Building confidence & raise self-esteem through musical production

Musical production is one of the real joys in life, and students can benefit from a variety of activities. The sheer delight of children’s singing and playing, listening to fine music, dancing, playing a musical instrument, and enjoying music as a family is a reward in itself. Whichever role the students are involved in, be it main roles in the production or backstage crew members, the experience offers tremendous benefits academically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. The production of a musical provides so many varied activities that every student can be assured of succeeding in at least one – and often more than one, regardless of his or her mental ability. This paper attempts to understand: 1. How students felt about being part of this major production. 2. How it has effected their perception about themselves. 3. Whether the Normal Technical Students are just as reliable. Introduction Ahamd Ibrahim Secondary School produced an adapted version of Rogers and Hammerstein, an all time favourite musical “Oklahoma”. It was staged at the Victoria Theatre on 7 and 8 July 2000. Drama has been the school tradition. In 1994 the school attempted the first musical “South Pacific”. It was not till 1998 that the school put up another musical “The King And I” in Victoria Theatre. More than 80 percent of the cast were from the Normal Technical Stream. At the same time, it was our first attempt to involve mainly the Normal Technical Students to choreography the dances. Objectives of the musical 1. To raise funds for the 16 visually impaired students in Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary school. These students need story books in Braille, which are costly. They need special IT equipment to help them in their work. 2. To stimulate greater interest in aesthetics among all the students 3. To maximize their creative potential. 4. To develop their self-confidence, especially among the Normal Technical students.