Drama

Romeo and Juliet

The school production is a highly anticipated part of the school year. This year NHEHS took on the world renowned play, Romeo and Juliet, which left audiences mesmerised at the standard of acting that was displayed. Pupils from Year 9 to 13 dedicated their first 3 months of the academic year to rigorous rehearsals and learning a lot of lines. The result was fantastic and the show sold out 3 nights in a row. The drama department have continued to set the bar extremely high for the school productions and this has made us all very excited about the next school production.

A few words from the cast and crew:

This was my fourth year of stage managing at NHEHS, and what a great show to end on! As Stage Manager, it gets pretty chaotic trying to organise both the actors and the techs, but there’s no job I’d rather do. It’s an excuse to make a good spreadsheet (necessary when ordering 35 pizzas) at the same time as being part of the creative process of a show. And despite having approximately no artistic talent myself, it’s been great to support those who do. Being part of the tech team means sometimes not having your contributions made visible, but it’s satisfying to be able to know that the show couldn’t have happened without you

Stage Manager, Elizabeth Down, Year 13 All of the girls, no matter what year, have completely submerged themselves into this world of Romeo and Juliet. Whether it be in set, props, lighting, stage management and all the other departments, this show really would not be the same without the dedication of all. I am so incredibly grateful to have been given the opportunity to play Romeo. With it being Ms Whitmarsh’s last play, I hope that I did her proud in my final performance.

Romeo, Sascha Ootam Year 13

This year I took on the daunting, but nonetheless incredibly enjoyable, role of Head of Props. Having participated in the play for two years already, I was very excited to take on a more challenging position. Even though it has not been the easiest role to take up, I have experienced a feeling of satisfaction when all tasks, no matter how long they may take, have been completed. Our greatest challenge was presented when we made around forty masks, each with individual designs, and after many hours of decorating , we were very pleased with the outcome. I absolutely loved working on this production of Romeo and Juliet, and this show would not be able to function without the rest of the team. It has been incredibly fun, as the school show always is, and we are all so proud of the end result.

Head of Props, Miranda Simmons, Year 12

Minerva

The Woman in Black

In Years 7, 8 and 9 pupils are invited to join their very own theatre company, which meets each week to explore Drama through games and development of techniques. The highlight of the year is the final summer performance, in which each company puts on a show for visitors in our specialist Drama Studio. In 2019, pupils performed three plays: The Snow Queen, His Dark Materials and The Woman in Black.

Minerva 7: The Snow Queen

The Year 7 company, Minerva 7, showcased The Snow Queen. The tale, adapted from Hans Christian Anderson’s famous fairytale, explores Gerda’s quest to save her childhood friend Kai from the Snow Queen, who has turned his heart to ice. This story of good and evil was set to a backdrop of a Danish Winter Wondeland.

Minerva 8: His Dark Materials

Minerva 8, the Year 8 Drama Company, presented an adaption of Philip Pullman’s classic fantasy triology, His Dark Materials. In this epic tale, the young and adventerous Lyra fights to save her childhood friend after he his kidnapped by The Gobblers. Embarking on an fantastic journey, she meets armoured bears, magical instruments and faces up to grand questions of truth, religion and morality.

Minerva 9: The Woman in Black

Year 9 company Minerva 9 presented a chilling version of Susan Hill’s Woman in Black, in which a young solicitor seeks to find the truth behind the haunting of the remote and eerie Eel Marsh House In Year 9, we participated in the highly popular drama club, ‘Minerva 9’. This enhanced our skills in drama and was a great way socialise. At the beginning of the year, we did numerous activities which were able to prepare us for our final show which we were to perform in the summer term. The play we performed was ‘The Woman in Black’. This is quite a haunting play and we were excited to work on it over the year.

The show was very tough and challenging however, knowing we were going to perform it in front of an audience motivated us to keep going and create an amazing show that we were proud to perform. After all the rehearsals we finally got to present our performance in front of an audience including teachers, students and our parents. This was a great experience and the show went well on the night.

Minerva 9 was an amazing opportunity as we learnt many new acting techniques and we had a chance to showcase our skills. Most importantly we had lots of fun and it has made us keen to get involved in more drama productions in school. We would definitely recommend anybody who enjoys acting and working as part of a close team to get involved in Minerva!

Melissa Campbell and Aditi Aryal, Year 9

A Level Drama

An important part of the A Level Drama course is the creation of a devised piece of Drama created by the pupils. This year, Y13 Drama students took inspiration from the theme of protest, using an extract from Jim Cartwright’s Road. The piece, which adopted the style of Joan Littlewood, aimed tto highlight issues women face in the workplace.

The role of Claire Peter was played by Lola Barack, Laura Shaun by Ava Johnston and the character of Molly Michael by Sascha Ootam.