[Y6] School Production <Time After Time>

Hyun had been excited about it since last month. Almost every time we sat down for dinner, she would tell us again about the “Production,” a performance that all the Year 5 and 6 students at school were preparing together.

"The teachers made a huge time machine! Our class got 2026 — the present. One boy in our class is going to wear something completely different and dance in the middle by himself. My friend is a main dancer too, so she gets to dance through our whole performance! I’m doing the part at the back where I play with my friend."

Her excitement seemed to grow by the day. As the gaps between rehearsals grew shorter and the rehearsals themselves grew longer, she remained delighted by the whole thing, even without having a big role. When the performance was finally only a week away, she spent days coordinating an outfit with her friends. In the end, they had settled on something as simple as a white T-shirt and track pants, but Hyun still ended up borrowing some of Min’s clothes as she got ready for the show.

There were three performances: Tuesday lunchtime, and Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Thursday was the kids’ piano lesson day, and I had placement on Tuesday, so we booked tickets for Wednesday evening.

At five on Wednesday afternoon, we all headed to school early to drop off our performer. We queued up, had our QR codes checked at the door, and bought some simple snacks, water, and a programme. The stage was far more elaborate than I had expected. After a brief introduction from the teacher, the curtain opened, and four students in the leading roles for the first half kicked off the show with an impressive ease and cheekiness.

When it comes to children’s performances in New Zealand, you cannot really expect the same tightly rehearsed, polished, almost grown-up kind of performance you might see in Korea. What you get instead is something much more raw, childlike, free and funky. In the steps that did not quite match, the shy faces, and the bodies still trying so hard to keep up, I could almost see all the effort and sweat the children had poured into getting themselves onto that stage — and hear the laughter that must have filled the spaces in between.

Each class had less than ten minutes on stage, but every child in the class took part, performing to three different songs. Choosing the genres and songs to represent each era, coordinating costumes, preparing props, creating choreography and rehearsing it all must have been no small task. Even with the ten-minute intermission taken out, the show ran for nearly two full hours. The performers threw themselves into acting and dancing, while the audience cheered, clapped and enjoyed every bit of it. Like a little festival of our own.

My child was beaming with happiness throughout her brief time on stage.

When the performance ended and we came back upstairs, the classrooms were full of the cheerful noise of children playing as they waited for their parents. There was something exciting about being at school so late at night, something we hardly ever get to experience. At a time when they would normally have finished dinner at home with their families, they were instead sitting together with friends in brightly lit classrooms, enjoying the unfamiliar thrill of it all.

As my children walked up the dark hill, I thought that perhaps they, too, would remember this as a beautiful night — as beautiful as the distant field of stars above their heads.