The world is a stage!

And we all are performers and our lives are the script. We all play our part to the fullest. However, this evening, we performed our mega play by staging William Shakespeare`s "A Midsummer Night`s Dream"………

After a full dress rehearsal the previous evening on the cricket pitch near dusk, we are all charged up and raring to go. And today was the mega day, especially for some like me, who had never ever participated or performed on stage like this. The full cast and crew were in their places by 6 p.m. and the changing room was bustling with excitement, anxiety, revelry and a whole lot of banter. When many guys dress up as girls, the twisted conversations leave little room for the imagination. As each actress / actor got ready, out s/he went in the safe hands of the make up artists. The stage was set with the "sight screens" from cricket grounds being used to hide the case away.

Once Prof. David Myddelton completed his valedictory speech, the lights faded away and music started playing. It was time. The audience was provided with handouts on the cast and the story of the play before hand.

An hour and fifteen minutes later, the standing ovation was terrific. Whether it was Titania (Becky) and Oberon (Jean-Pierre), Hermia (Tom) and Lysander (Amol) or Puck (Neale) and Nick Bottom (Ian) - each of us received a thunderous applause from the audience strength of over a 100. Of course, there were loads of funny moments during the play - Neale`s son calling for him when he saw his daddy on stage, or Tom dressed as Hermia losing his (sorry "her") wig.

As the Director of School - Michael Osbaldeston - wrote in his invite to everyone, this is the first time any MBA batch has done such an act, literally. Tomorrow is the last day of our MBA in terms of any courses. As we continue to stage some more performances in the "Farewell to MBA", we all hope that the future Cranfield MBA batches will continue to create unprecedented records and keep reinforcing the stamp of the quality of managers that Cranfield produces.