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Drama
What will your child study?
All members of Year 9 cover Drama modules as an integral aspect of their timetabled English lessons. Drama texts covered in Year 9 include:
- Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)
- The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde)
Year 9
In Year 9, Drama is also offered as a subject option. The course builds on Drama skills acquired in earlier years and also offers an introduction to the subject for those who are new to it. Activities complement those carried out as part of the Year 9 English curriculum. The approach is a practical and enjoyable one, with the emphasis on learning through doing – but we are also keen to present a rigorous programme of activities which will enable pupils to follow the GCSE course in Years 10 and 11. Pupils will improve their Drama skills by preparing existing texts for performance and by creating their own work. The course will explore how a published text is animated and brought to life for an audience and also examine the key principles of devising a piece of Drama from stimulus materials. There will be opportunities for whole-class work as well as pair and small-group exploration. There will also be opportunities to work in the roles of designer, deviser and director – as well as the chance to find out more about technical aspects of theatre performance (making the most of the extensive facilities available in the Lecture Theatre and elsewhere). The course will include both an element of public performance and visits to professional performances in Cambridge and London.
Three interrelated activities characterise our approach to Drama in Year 9:
- Performance – pupils will develop the skills and knowledge in order to devise thematic work; evaluate and refine acting performance; improvise and devise Drama; the function of theatre in education and elements of physical theatre. Pupils will learn about dramatic styles and their historical contexts. Reflection on both emotional and intellectual reactions to the Drama (including written response) will also be incorporated and developed as pupils gain a knowledge and understanding of how Drama is created;
- Design – pupils will be introduced to the creative aspects of set and staging design; costume; make-up; properties; masks and puppets;
- Technical – pupils will be made aware of the use of theatre technology such as lighting, sound and stage management and the ways in which this contributes to the creation of a piece of effective Drama.
Texts covered in Year 9 may include:
- Blood Brothers by Willy Russell
- Educating Rita by Willy Russell
- The History Boys by Alan Bennett
- Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
- The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
- Blue Remembered Hills by Dennis Potter
- Oh! What a Lovely War
- The Crucible/Death of a Salesman/All my Sons/A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller
- The Pied Piper/Rats! (various play scripts)
- Anne Frank (various play scripts)
- Gosforth’s Fete by Alan Ayckbourn
- Noises Off by Michael Frayn
GCSE Drama
Drama was offered as a popular GCSE option for the first time in 2011. The course will build on Drama skills acquired in earlier years as part of the English course and specifically develop knowledge attained on the Year 9 Drama option course. Pupils will study drama from both a practical and academic perspective with the course split into two sections: practical assessment and a written exam paper. Both parts of the course are designed to be taught simultaneously and written work draws on the activities pupils will experience during practical assessment.
The GCSE specification is flexible to the dynamics and abilities of the group allowing a choice of practical options from assessment in lighting and sound all the way through to costume and make-up and of course acting, devising and improvisation skills. This builds on the three critical areas of the Year 9 option course: Performance, Design and Technical. At GCSE pupils are able to specialise in the area in which they are most proficient. There is also the flexibility for paired and small group work through to whole class activities.
Key to the course is the study of scripted plays and pupils will be required to explore a wide variety of literature within school, including interpretation, characterisation and social and historical context. Pupils will then experience live productions and workshops in a theatre setting. Evaluation of the success of a public performance, using analytical and subject specific language, is a critical part of the course, and such skills will also be applied to each pupil’s own work as self-evaluation is a critical part of the course.
The GCSE course at The Perse also requires pupils to study selected theatre practitioners in conjunction with plays. While not a specific requirement at GCSE, the knowledge will encourage pupils to consider literature in a broader social/historical/political setting, as well as leaving them far better prepared for the rigorous demands of A-Level Drama and Theatre Studies.
We follow the AQA GCSE specification for Drama.
Useful websites
www.shakespeares-globe.org/globeeducation/
www.rsc.org.uk/education/secondary/
www.rsc.org.uk/explore/behind-the-scenes/
