Drama and Theatre
Up up and Away, break a leg it’s Opening Night tonight! Wishing all the amazing cast and crew all the best for a fantastic run.
If you’ve not got a ticket yet, grab one, there are some seats available here.
Here is a sneak peek from rehearsals at the Zenith this week:
Year 9 Children’s Theatre Performance
This week our year 9 students had the incredible opportunity to perform group-devised pieces for audiences from Redlands House and Kindergarten. This opportunity formed the assessment for their unit on Pantomime and Children’s Theatre. This is the first year we’ve been able to invite audiences from the Junior School to the drama studio and the experience was incredibly positive for all involved. Even I was shocked by the infectious enthusiasm of our audience, which served to lift and propel the Year 9 students to perform at the best of their ability. I hope it was as beneficial an experience for the little ones too. Below you’ll find a brief recap from two students who performed on Monday, as half of the cohort is performing as Note Day gets released on Friday.
I’d like to thank Georgina Knox from the Junior School and Chemane Huon from Redlands House for their invaluable assistance in organizing this opportunity. Additionally, we had a number of other staff and parent volunteers help shepherd and supervise students, which made the entire experience run much more smoothly – thank you to all of those who helped. Finally, the support of Kathryn Smith and Sam Hawkins in the drama department was critical in ensuring the success of the event, but the lion’s share of the organisational work was done by Sam Novis, who has just left the school to pursue other opportunities overseas. Thank you to you all for taking such a big part in creating a new and exciting chance for our students to engage with the wider school community. We hope to do it again next year!
Lincoln Gidney
Drama and Theatre Teacher
Student Reflections
Performing for preschool kids as part of our Year 9 assessment was both exciting and challenging. Our task was to create a 10-minute play to engage an audience of kids from Redlands House.
We prepared for this assessment by studying pantomime techniques and incorporating these techniques into a play. Our group constructed, rehearsed and performed our own adaption of Cinderella. With many hours across two terms going into this assessment, it was incredibly exciting to see the children’s reactions to our play. The performance was so fun as the children’s enthusiastic reactions and genuine engagement made all our rehearsals and practice well worth it.
India Dutton, Year 9 Drama Student
This assessment was a mix of exciting and thrilling as I got to experience one of the most complex and over-the-top assessments in drama so far. This assessment was to create and perform an original piece of children’s theatre, that we got the chance to perform in front of audiences from Kindergarten and Redland House.
We had many ups and downs when rehearsing and writing our piece, but when we performed for them we all found it to be so much fun performing for a younger audience. They enjoyed it so much and as we were doing a pantomime piece they were entertained and joined in on the fun. It was amazing to see them respond so fast and have so much energy and enthusiasm for the show. I was not expecting how much they brought their energy, shouting out and laughing along with our over-the-top performance.
Eva Blundell, Year 9 Drama Student