Drama
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Drama is delivered through the English curriculum at The Perse, enabling students to benefit from an integrated approach and flexible timetabling of lessons. In Years 7 to 9, Drama skills and conventions are introduced and explored through small group work and whole-class role play. Improvisation, dramatisation and physical theatre are all techniques which help bring Shakespeare (and other authors) to life and contribute to a more profound experience of both poetry and prose texts. Drama is also available as an additional option in Year 9 - prior to our introduction of the subject at GCSE in 2011/13.
At IGCSE level (English and English Literature) students will offer Drama-based work as part of their Speaking and Listening coursework and Drama skills are further developed through study of both modern drama and a Shakespeare play. At A-level the teaching of challenging texts for English Literature is enlivened and enhanced through practical exercises and and creative improvisation. Students will also write recreatively on a modern Drama text for their AS level coursework.
Through the Enrichment Programme (Performing Arts option) Year 11 and Sixth Form students are able to enter devised or staged work for a local Drama festival and take their plays to local schools and community events.
Students have opportunites throughout the year to visit the theatre, both locally and in London - and touring companies also bring productions into School. Pupils in Year 9 generally attend a workshop at The Globe or the Royal National Theatre and individual students audition and perform in shows around the region - and for films or television. All students are encouraged to participate in the extensive programme of extra-curricular Drama that extends throughout the School year, either in our own purpose-built theatre or at venues from the Arts Theatre and the Mumford in Cambridge to the Edinburgh Festival. Some productions are student-directed, and both staff and students have seen their own work performed in School. We enjoy working with professional theatre practitioners in specialist areas such as dance or stage fighting, and our student technicians are trained and supported by theatre professionals - who also design and supervise lighting for School plays.
Many of our students continue their love of drama at university, whether studying Drama as a single or joint honours degree or as undergraduate performers, directors and producers. Some go on to be theatre professionals and run their own theatre companies.
Recent Productions
These have included:
- The Tempest, The Cherry Orchard, The Burial at Thebes [world amateur premiere of Seamus Heaney's translation of Antigone], As You Like It, Henry IV, Under Milk Wood and Wotcha Will! (Perse Players productions)
- What the Butler Saw, Man of the Moment, Arcadia, Black Comedy, Woyzeck, The Merchant of Venice and The Ash Girl
- (Upper Sixth Plays)
- An Evening of American Drama (Upper Sixth production)
- The Servant to Two Masters, The Country Wife, Forty Years On, The Crucible, Hay Fever, Dangerous Liaisons and Noises Off
- (Lower Sixth Plays)
- Boleyn and Jack the Ripper (Lower Sixth productions written and produced by members of the Year Group)
- Unman, Wittering and Zigo, Journey's End, Three Parables, An Evening of Short Plays and Sketches by Beckett and Pinter, Confusions and The First Sign of Madness (Year 11 Plays)
- Eastward Ho!,The Real Inspector Hound, Twelve Angry Men, The Iceman Cometh, Spoils of War, Macbeth, Duck Variations and Of Mice and Men (Year 10 Plays)
- The Canterbury Tales, Frankenstein, Beowulf, Sherlock Holmes and the Limehouse Horror, Lord of the Flies and The Wind in the Willows (Lower School productions)
- The Lower School Music and Drama Festival
- Boat Memory (world premiere in association with the Royal National Theatre - later transferred to Cambridge Arts Theatre as part of the 'Connections' festival)
- The Burial at Thebes, Black Comedy, Henry IV and The Ash Girl (performances at Venue 45 as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe)
Visiting Productions
The Department has recently hosted visiting productions of:
- Romeo and Juliet (Black Cat Theatre)
- Macbeth (Black Cat Theatre)
- Huis Clos (Sacre Theatre)
- The Rap Canterbury Tales (Baba Brinkman)
- Of Mice and Men (Arty-Fact Theatre)
Workshops
Recent workshops for pupils have included:
- Stage fighting
- Sound and lighting
- Make-up and body art
- Ballroom Dancing
- African Drumming
Drama Colours
Drama Colours are awarded at the end of each term. We encourage suitable pupils to audition for the National Youth Theatre, for stage roles in local professional and amateur productions, and for cinema roles. We encourage pupils to make the most of leadership opportunities available by writing, directing and producing plays.