Drama

In Year 7, students are introduced to drama and theatre. They learn the origins of theatre from storytelling to Greek theatre and commedia dell’arte. Students develop the essential vocal and physical skills they need throughout Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4. Using the play Blood Brothers, students study texts and build rehearsal techniques to create and develop characters. They explore accent and dialect, building confidence and self-awareness to perform in front of their peers. They learn to work with other students to create performances and improvisations. Students also explore the National Theatre’s live version of Peter Pan and consider how this has been successfully adapted from a book to a film to a play. They go on to create their own script and performance. 

In Year 8, students take their knowledge of vocal and physical skills and develop them in a new context whilst working creatively in three contrasting styles of theatre: physical, naturalistic and epic theatre. Students begin to explore more complex theatrical concepts and techniques including canon and unison, breaking the fourth wall and vocal intonation. Students describe and explain their vocal and physical choices for characters and what emotions and effects these portray to the audience.

Students explore vocational opportunities in drama whilst staging a set text DNA by Dennis Kelly, looking at both acting and design. They use their collaborative skills, performance, building on rehearsal skills and techniques from Year 7 and Year 8 to interpret the script and characters. Students then have the opportunity to adapt one of William Shakespeare’s plays and begin to look at devising a piece of theatre, combining a modern context with centuries-old language. As a culmination to their learning in key stage three, students produce a devised piece of theatre from given stimuli for a live audience, drawing together concepts and skills from across the full curriculum.