Lillian Private Academy for Women ([personal profile] garden_of_maidens) wrote in [community profile] lillian_academy2016-11-05 06:51 pm

A Play to Remember

"Gokigenyou."

"Gokigenyou."

The clear morning greeting travels through the serene, blue sky.

Today, once again, the maidens that gather in the Virgin Mary's garden smile purely to one another as they pass under the tall gateway.
Wrapping their innocent bodies and souls is a deep-coloured school uniform.

Walking slowly as to not disturb the plaits in their skirts, so as to not toss their white sailor scarves into disarray... such is the standard of modesty here. Running because one is in danger of missing class, for instance, is too undignified a sight for students to wish upon themselves here.

Lillian Private Academy for Women.

Founded in Meiji 34, this academy was originally intended for the young women of nobility, and is now a Catholic academy of prestigious tradition. Placed in downtown Tokyo, where you can still see traces of Musashi Field's greenery, it is protected by God, a garden where maidens can receive tutelage from pre-school to university.

Time passes, and even now, in Heisei, three era-names past Meiji, it is a valuable academy, where nurtured ladies raised in greenhouses are shipped out in carefully packaged boxes after 18 years of schooling - an arrangement that continues to survive.

"Two houses, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene..."

An important time is upon the school. Once per year, a festival, just after the opening of the school year, in which the Yamayurikai sponsors a play. In normal circumstances, the lead male role would go to one of the students from Hanadera Boys' Academy, just on the other side of the hill from Lillian Academy - the Student Council president or Drama Club president. It's a time-honored tradition meant to solidify the solidarity and camaraderie between the two schools. It seems, however, as the time draws close for the play to begin...

A lone girl walks feverishly from the Drama Club room to the Rose Mansion, daring to disrupt the pleats on her skirt for the urgent news she bears. Not long after, one of the Yamayurikai joins her back to the Drama Club room, both striding with poise and purpose. It isn't long before the rumor breaks to the rest of the school, hungry for news...

... Neither the representative from Hanadera, nor his understudy, will be able to attend the play.

But the show?

The show must go on.

"Romeo, Romeo, where art thou, Romeo?"

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[[Round 2 begins now. Capulet or Montague, Romeo or Juliet, the show must go on! Whether it be the drama leading up to the play, the night of the play itself, or the aftermath, in which case typically some members of the band get together to play and the whole school gathers around a bonfire to celebrate the performance as a sort of cast after-party - the next stage begins now!]]
long_live_the_queen: (lookin kinda smug there)

Kaede | First Year

[personal profile] long_live_the_queen 2016-11-07 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)
A. Pre-drama

[Kaede had a responsibility to help with the sets themselves, often whenever she had enough of people. This time, she was helping to pretty up the wooden scaffolding Juliet was supposed to stand on. Potted plants and painted wood were all very nice, but the banners and flags had been finished today as well, and needed putting up.

She slouched over the balcony, and reached for the end of one of the painted banners folded on the sort-of-distant ground.
]

Hand me that.

B. Pre- or During-drama

[Of course Kaede was one of the innumerable nameless extras wearing different hats for different moments of staged violence. Her...enthusiasm tended to carry her throughout an exhausting number of rehearsals and scenes, but even Kaede got tired eventually and started making mistakes.

Like this time, when she put her foot down in just the right way to make her ankle collapse in protest. She wasn't hurt, but she was careening straight at someone.

At least Kaede was scrawny, if armed with a foam sword.
]