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Drama
The Drama department seeks to offer students throughout the School a wide range of curricular and extra-curricular opportunities: to perform, and to experience from an audience perspective, quality drama and theatre.
All students in Years 7 – 9 are timetabled for one 50 minute lesson of drama a week. This is taught by a specialist teacher in carpeted, blacked-out drama studios equipped with theatre lighting, sound and video projection facilities. The Dramatic curriculum follows a varied pathway through improvisation skills, the construction of devised pieces and the interpretation and staging of scripted works. Separate projects, each lasting between 4 and 8 lessons, are largely based on genres and theatre practitioners of historical and/or cultural significance. For example in Year 7 students visit the theatre to see a pantomime, research the genre and then, in lessons, devise their own ‘mini-pantos’ employing stock characters and associated devices. This is developed in Year 8 by work on stock Commedia dell Arte characters and the use of masks. In turn this leads further into an exploration of Shakespearean text. In Year 9, students look at the work of Bertolt Brecht and the techniques/ideas associated with his Epic Theatre, as well as exploring Greek Tragedy and Melodrama. No matter what the subject focus of a particular project, the individual student and his/her social and personal confidence is always a central concern.
In years 10 and 11 an optional Drama GCSE examination course is offered. The AQA specification allows for a rich and varied experience of drama and theatre. It can be freely interpreted according to the interests and abilities of different cohorts of students and indeed individuals. The range of work covered includes improvisation, devising, scripted performance and theatre design and technology aspects, such as set design, costume, lighting and sound.
In years 12 and 13 there is the opportunity to take Drama and Theatre Studies to A/S and A2 level. We use the Edexcel specification which places emphasis on the practical exploration and creation of dramatic texts, as well as responding to pieces of theatre as an audience member.
Outside of lessons, Drama activities include opportunities to perform in showcases and special events organised for particular year groups, as well as chances to take part in workshops and theatre visits. In addition there is a major all-school production every year. This varies in genre from a spectacular musical to a large scale drama performance. In 2011, to great acclaim, we staged the most major and spectacular musical production ever mounted by Claremont, The King and I, at the Leatherhead Theatre.
