Mulan, An Original Take on the Classic by Talented Branksome Hall Asia Students

Please join us in the main auditorium at 14:30 on Saturday, December 12th for our annual Middle and Senior School production. This year the show has been written and composed by the talented students of Branksome Hall Asia. We are excited to share with you our very own version of the beloved Chinese story about a young woman named Mulan. Tickets are available now at the main reception in the School Center. 

From September to November 2020 I had the great pleasure of supervising a group of 13 students, from Grades 8 to 11, at Branksome Hall Asia, who created an original script for the school’s annual production. Our writing sessions were full of life, fun and productivity, and I was impressed from the start by the students' commitment to, and enthusiasm for, the project.

A general idea had been put to the group for the story, which was to be based on the ancient Chinese, ‘Ballad of Mulan’. The challenge for the writers was not only to create a new and original version of Mulan's story but also to find a way to weave Korean characters with a believable storyline into that narrative, so that we could achieve our objective of a trilingual production. The students cared deeply about the ways that their national cultures, and histories were represented, and we had many searching debates about how we could achieve respectful representations of our characters, represent Chinese and Korean history and culture, and write a whopping good tale. 

Mid-way through the process the writing team met with a professional writer for mentoring, and received many great tips for how to write a captivating script. One recommendation that stood out to me from this conversation involved the suggestion that we, as writers, should, ‘seek to bring good change to the world; (and) challenge what is unjust or unfair’. From the outset the writers sought to find ways through which they could explore and express the theme of gender inequality and female empowerment. It was up to them to decide how they would use the original material to create a story that communicated this theme, and create an overall message to convey to the audience. 

After just seven weeks of writing the team handed the script over to the cast and Directors and were witness to the first opportunity to hear their characters come to life. The production of this script has been an incredible achievement by this talented group of young women. They have successfully created an original script for performance in their school community.  The students have had to work under great pressure, and have been willing to be flexible in response to multiple constraints and ever-changing requirements. The writing team has also needed to be responsive to feedback while remaining calm as their script went through the editing process. They achieved all of this and more, and I hope that they are able now to look back on this period of collaborative creativity with pride and a sense of well-earned accomplishment.

Writers, you have awed me, I salute you all. This commemorative publication is dedicated to each of you, and your creative futures, whatever they may be. May you continue to bring the delights of story-telling and team-work into a world that needs more and more of both. 

Jessica Mór
Teacher leader & advisor for script/marketing