The Curriculum: Drama

What is Drama?

“the right to fail”

“the duty to experiment”

It's always about trying to marry individual exceptional talent with harmonious collective endeavour. It's about being a part of something bigger than any of us. That's a thing society finds very hard these days. There is a huge cult of the individual at the moment.

The great thing about theatre is that it reminds us that when we get together we achieve more than when we try to do it on our own.

Michael Boyd (Head of the Royal Shakespeare Company)

Class Drama

The role of an empathetic adult who plays alongside a young child with a learning agenda has long been universally valued and understood. Whole class drama offers a well structured and infinitely flexible development of this natural, humanistic, child-focused learning and teaching approach, with the teacher as a facilitator, enabler, co-participant, support and guide for personalised learning. Working in an imaginative framework deepens empathy, develops creative thinking and the need to absorb information.

UIII

There is one double lesson of Class Drama a week and the aim is to help pupils integrate happily and have fun with their peers.

The course will begin with the emphasis on stereotypes and a definition of what they are, how to create them and how to avoid them. It then moves onto how to create truthful characters through physical and vocal means.

In the second half of the Autumn Term the work will be centred around a piece that can be shown in the Upper III Christmas Entertainment that is performed in front of family, friends and staff.

The girls explore Ancient Greek Theatre and Melodrama as well as learning how to wear and perform in Masks.

LIV

There is one double lesson of Class Drama a week and the aim is to help pupils integrate happily and have fun with their peers.

The course starts with learning about the Explorative Strategy of Still Image/Freeze Frame/Tableau and how meaning can be created, both literally and symbolically, and conveyed through the use of this Strategy. Pupils are introduced to the notion of ‘text' [in its broadest sense] as a stimulus using pictures and objects to create group work and an individual Monologues.

LIV ends with the girls learning about the Japanese Theatre form of Kabuki; designing and applying their own Kabuki make-up and staging a traditional Kabuki story.

UIV

There is one single lesson of Class Drama a week and girls consolidate the skills they have learnt thus far in preparation for their House plays in LV.

Pupils look at short stories – their Shape, Form and Structure and how to lift ideas from the page to the stage. They go on to adapt and write their own script. They also read a set novel and go to see a production of this at The National Theatre, London. Past productions have included: His Dark Materials, Coram Boy, War Horse and Nation.

GCSE

This follows the Edexcel specification for Drama.

Content of the course:

In the first term pupils undergo a Programme of Study that feeds into later assessment work on Units 1 and 2. Girls will learn about:

·Explorative Strategies, such as Hot-Seating, Still Image and Thought Tracking; and In-Role Writing

·Elements of Drama, for example Theatre Forms, Climax and Anti-climax, Characterisation and Symbols;

·Drama Mediums, such as the use of costume, mask, make-up, props, sound, space and levels;

·Stimuli such as photographs, videos, newspapers, articles and music. These must come from a variety of Social, Cultural and Historical backgrounds.

By the end of LV, girls will have completed assessment for Unit 2:

In the Spring Term this consists of seeing two live theatre shows and writing two essays of 2,000 words each.

In the Summer term, pupils undertake a drama exploration workshop lasting approximately six hours. The sessions explore a play text selected by the teacher. In addition, each pupil produces a written Documentary Response of 1,000 words, which documents her understanding of the complete work.

In UV, the girls will have completed assessment for Unit 1 and Unit 3:

In the Autumn term, pupils undertake a drama exploration workshop lasting approximately six hours. The sessions explore a theme/issue/topic selected by the teacher. In addition, each pupil produces a written Documentary Response of 2,000 words, which documents her understanding of the complete work.

In the Spring term, pupils prepare either an original piece of devised drama or a published play for performance to an external examiner.

In the Summer term, girls perform their show and are individually assessed on the way they use their acting skills to communicate their interpretation of a role to an audience.