Just before the Easter holidays, our year 13 A-Level drama students performed Sarah Kane’s 4:48 Psychosis, a very challenging piece for their scripted exam. Their interpretation included some very creative and intense projection, sound and light decisions, as well as some verbatim following primary research for their piece.

Year 13 also went to see Jerusalem at the Apollo Theatre in the West End, accompanied by a very excited Miss Whitfield! We were incredibly lucky to secure tickets for them at the sell-out show. Miss Whitfield has written some words about the show below:

The Y13 Drama students and I could not contain our excitement when the Apollo Theatre announced that the A Level set play Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth was coming back to the West End after 10 years. Having performed the play themselves in lessons and analysing it extensively, the students were so pleased to be able to see those characters come alive on a London stage, performed by the likes of Mark Rylance and Mackenzie Crook. The show played across three acts, as we reconvened at each interval to discuss the drama of the plot and the soaring performances that the students will be able to write about in their upcoming A Level exam. It has been incredibly satisfying to be able to bring the Drama students along to a show we never thought we’d be able to see when they first started studying it, and was a fantastic (and emotional!) way to end their time in the Drama department at SWPS.

Ms White kicked off the next Junior Drama competition with an assembly to year 12. JD is a wonderful event for the whole of Year 8 and will raise money for the house charities.  Script writing will take place in June with performances in October.

Our new LAMDA teacher Connie Hyde came into school to visit us last week. It was a lovely way for the students to get to know her and find out a bit more about LAMDA. Connie has a wealth of professional acting experience as well as being a qualified LAMDA teacher. She is incredibly excited to officially start with us after half term.  If anyone would like to find out more about how to sign up for lessons speak to Ms White or see the information on the school website.

And finally…

Following the success of our last production Annie, we have been excitedly planning for our next. Next year, we will be doing something different in order to showcase the various talents we have here at SWPS.

We are very excited to announce that, scheduled for January 2023 (TBC), our senior production will be a Shakespeare double bill of Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing, with a modern SWPS twist of course! These won’t be as long as the full versions but we certainly are excited to get going with auditions, casting and rehearsals!

We will be announcing audition dates very soon so keep an eye out if you are interested and in years 9 to 12!