By Mrs Moore, Director of Drama

There has been a great deal going on in the Drama Department this half term. Year 11 GCSE Drama girls have worked incredibly hard with Ms Craggs, to rehearse and perform key scenes from Arthur Miller’s The Crucible: the classic parable of the dangers of mass hysteria which draws chilling parallels between the Salem witch-hunt of 1692 and the McCarthyism which gripped America in the 1950’s. The Crucible Showcase is in the process of being filmed and edited and will be shared with the school after half term. It promises to be electrifying!

We are well underway now with rehearsals for a scaled down Senior Production of Lorca’s raw and tragic, The House of Bernarda Alba in a modern translation by Rona Monroe. The production has been working with Year 13, 12 and a multi-media chorus of Year 11 students. The talented cast have been working incredibly hard over the past half term and are now primed for two matinee performances to Years 10 and Year 11, respectively on the 18th and 19th of November and a live online streamed performance of the play on 20th November for Year 12 and Year 13 and the wider school community (details of how to join the production live to follow!). The production has benefited from the outstanding movement and direction skills of professional choreographer Lee Crowley, who has been working with the ensemble cast to develop the physical expression of the central themes of oppression and grief at the heart of the play using physicalised ensemble transitions inspired by Pina Bausch and Frantic Assembly.

Theatre Director, Ben Harrison, Co-Artistic Director of Grid Iron, one of Scotland’s most successful theatre companies, led a fascinating online lecture with Year 13 & 12 A Level Drama and Theatre girls as well as our Year 11 GCSE girls on site-based and immersive theatre, covering the principles of site work and inspired the current theatrical makings of both the Devised Year 13 exam performance pieces and Reinterpretation Year 12 exam performance pieces.

In other Drama Department news; our amazing Year 13 Drama Reps have been leading Year 7 Drama club on Thursday lunchtimes, developing their budding theatrical skills, and Ms Smith continues to run the incredible Backstage Pass Club at lunchtimes (from Year 7 upwards) giving the girls detailed and consummate training in theatre arts including lighting, sound and costume.