Showcase: Art • Drama • Music
Drama 26
Junior Drama by Theresa Chapman, Drama Specialist Year 6 started off the year with drama work which focussed on the War in Singapore from a child’s perspective. Students were able to make comparisons between lifestyle for British children in Singapore in the 1940’s and their lives today. The students found the topic both engaging and relevant which resulted in some mature and creative exploration work in class. Year 5 were able to enhance their mountains topic work with team building activities and role play based on a mountain rescue on Kota Kinabalu. Students had fun working in the dark with torches and sound effects whilst exploring the story from both the perspective of those lost on the mountain and those involved in the rescue operation. Year 4 have been exploring the topic of pollution through the text ‘The Iron Woman’. Using movement as a starting point, students have begun to explore the impact of pollution as well as using the story to consider the thoughts and feelings of the characters. For the children in Year 3, their first experience of drama in term 1 involved learning about the ensemble skills through a range of fun and exciting games and challenges. Later in the year, they will apply these skills to a new unit of work on the Romans.
Senior Drama - Review of The Ramayana by Daniel Hall, Y12.10 and Chris Silburn, Assistant Head of Drama The Senior School production of ‘The Ramayana’ proved to be a successful fusion of contemporary and traditional cultures from South East Asia. The play explored human values and the concept of obligation and personal duty. The ensemble, actors, musicians and dancers, worked well together to make all three art forms flow into a very entertaining production. The Ensemble spirit within the company was wonderful to see, as for the first time in a school production both the musicians and actors were comprised of Junior and Senior students. This is a credit to the actors and Head of Infant Music, Caroline Francis’ Gamelan group whose atmospheric performance enhanced the production with live sound throughout. A special mention should be made for the mysterious masked monkey and leader of the Kecak, Richie Baxter, Senior Music Specialist. Parent, Seah Slater’s colourful costumes complimented the creative and imaginative makeup provided by Mavis Chang and the Knipface team. Big congratulations must also be made to the professional approach provided by Chris Silburn’s Backstage team and technical crew whose operation of the singularly spectacular lighting, sound and set provided the background for and held the production together. All of this was made possible by the exceptionally hard work of director/writer Hilary Jenner, Head of Drama, who created this spectacular show in a mere five weeks of rehearsal.