Kota Kinabalu: A well-scripted adaptation of a true story revolving around the pitfalls of being engrossed with video games at the expense of studies helped the English drama team from SM La Salle clinch the national title at the Inter-school Drama 2012 competition, Tuesday. The team comprising 15 members was in high spirits after learning that they beat 14 other teams from throughout Malaysia to clinch the top spot.
SMK Batu Lintang of Kuching emerged first runner up and SMK Taman Sea, Petaling Jaya, won third placing.
SM All Saints won it in 2007.
SM La Salle Principal Julia Willie Jock said she was very proud of her students and she felt their success came from teamwork and lots of support from the teachers, alumni and the parents.
"The boys themselves are talented but having talent is not enough.
They have to work hard and practise hard and they were very disciplined.
I feel it is great that we brought glory not only to La Salle but also Sabah," she said.
The school's drama coach Veronica Somasundram said it was a tough fight as the quality of English shown by all the participating teams was very high.
"Competitions like these have indeed helped improve the standard of English in every State. In terms of English and language and acting it is a wonderful way to promote the English language. All the schools showed a remarkable quality in terms of content, dramatising and language clarity.
"We were not really sure we would win because the other teams were also very good but we were really confident we had a good story this time.
We were quite happy that SM La Salle won first place this time round, we were only second and third in previous competitions," she said.
Their story was about incidents that occurred in the past which is retold by two protagonists, Danny and Brandon.
Danny is trapped in getting his kicks from strategy video games which lures and robs him of a bright future. As an adolescent, he is addicted to video games and does not care for anything else.
He soon faces controversial events including losing his father and a scholarship, and lives a life of lies and deceit, ending up being a worthless person.
Living in denial, he starts blaming the strategy games for his failure.
Danny fails to realise that to achieve success, priorities or choice in life matters.
A twist of fate bestows him a chance meeting with Brandon, his friend from high school days, who gives Danny a chance to redeem his life.
Brandon, a successful lawyer, then helps Danny get his life together again.
Veronica said the idea for the script was initially provided by teachers and adapted later by the whole team to suit how they felt about video games as teenagers.
"The idea was based on a true story where the son of a friend of mine lost a scholarship because he did not go for the interview as he was busy playing a game called Defence of the Ancients (DOTA).
"So they (students) took that story and changed it to how they felt it should be. It was basically all of us pouring our hearts into the script and it also took them about a whole year to perfect the play."
The winning team members comprised Rioan Jasmin Ampuria, Ian Zhiyang Then, James Laurence Sharkey, Rembert Michael, Vikneshilan Isaac Ganesh, Andreas Abhaya James, Adrian Landy Landi Iioyd, Simon Puney Kiob, Glenn Jienol ,Brendon Victor Obit, Kelvin Yong Pui Sz, Keith Elisha Lee, Nicholas Justinus, David John Sandanasamy and Jay Lampog and coached by teachers Veronica Somasundram, Cheryl Adriano and Yvonne Chong Siaw Han.
They took the opportunity to express gratitude to the students parents for their support for allowing them to take part in the play especially with the SPM examinations just being a week away.
State Education Director Datuk Dr Muhiddin Yusin said the competition is a big programme that receives the support of the Education Ministry that benefits secondary students in the country.
"The current level of involvement and achievement here is something that we need to be proud of as it contributes to the national co-curriculum marks."
He said in order to allow students to master English more activities need to be carried out in and out of the classroom.
"The English drama competition is one such language co-curriculum activity that is carried out outside the classroom that can have a double impact.
"The competition can increase the level of English mastery through communication and speech on the stage.
It allows an avenue for students to practise their language skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking in English with the correct pronunciation where it can also develop the students' critical and creative skills to present the best idea in the use of English and at the same time appreciate the aesthetic value of English."
