Prompt Copy Autumn 2016

“Prompt Copy” AUTUMN TERM DRAMA NEWSLETTER It has been a magical term in Drama. We have been transported to Neverland to meet pirates, lost boys and Darlings, to an enchanted midsummer forest with fairies and charms, and to the north pole for festive miracles. I, for one, have thoroughly enjoyed each adventure!

The term began with our annual “An Evening with…” and this year we welcomed Glyn Maxwell, poet and playwright, to join us. There were some student readings and a star-turn from Mr Swanson who revived his role as the Best Man from Glyn’s play of the same name.

Next, the Fourth Form Drama students took part in the Shakespeare Schools Festival, another annual treat, and this year performed ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.

The performance was touching, intelligent, witty and very funny, with each actor fully committing to their role and the ensemble. They delivered their lines with confidence and brought a fresh take to an old classic, in keeping with the modern setting.

The main school show is always the ‘piece de resistance’ of the Autumn term and this year’s offering, ‘Wendy and Peter Pan’, was certainly that. The vibrant and polished production featured a high level of ensemble acting and an array of unforgettable performances from the lead actors. The fighting and flying sequences were well-choreographed and the cast were lucky enough to work with Complicite and Action to the Word. The ingenious set, colourful costumes and clever lighting helped the actors bring the story to life.

The end of term doesn't feel Christmassy until ‘A Lower School Christmas’ and this December, ‘Ho Ho Ho! The Santa Claus Chronicles’, really hit the mark. The Lower School Drama Club enjoyed dressing up as reporters, elves and Christmas shoppers in a funny and well-directed play about Santa’s birthday!

The Fifth Form then took to the stage for the GCSE Devised Performances based on Shakespeare plays. The performances were creative, slick and used a range of drama techniques such as physical theatre and montage. The students created clear characters and proved that Shakespeare’s stories are still modern and relevant to today.

Miss Bruton—Head of Drama

LUCY REDWOOD AS WENDY IN ‘WENDY AND PETER PAN’

INSIDE THIS ISSUE “An Evening with Glyn Maxwell .......................... 2 SSF………………………..3&4 Tech Perspective ............ 5 Third Form Improv…6&7 SSF Student article ........ 8 Stratford-upon-Avon trip ........................................ 9 ‘Wendy & Peter Pan’…………………….10&11 Splendid workshop…….12 L6th Work Experience…………………….13&14 5th Form Devised…14&15 A Lower School Christmas…………………………..16 Berkoff Workshop……...17 Shakespeare lecture…...17 Dates for diary…………..18

“AN EVENING WITH...GLYN MAXWELL” Before the evening I had built up a certain image of Glyn Maxwell. In preparation for the talk, me and my A2 cohort read through the beginning section of one of his shorter plays, Broken Journey, an adaptation of Akutagawa’s In a Grove. After roughly 10 minutes of reading I could see that the play seeped intelligence. Written in blank verse but with distinctly modern dialect, the play made use of broken chronology and alternative perspective, two literary devices that I hardly ever see in my curriculum. This mixture of modern narrative technique and archaic verse type was particularly curious to me.

The reading left an impression on me, and upon further researching the text, and Maxwell, I discovered the sheer breadth of his accomplishment as a writer. An Oxford graduate, a Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize winner, an E.M. Forster Award winner, Olivier award nominee, and this is not even to mention the vast catalogue of his works which include libretto, radio, stage and prose… I could go on and on. To me, Maxwell could be nothing but an exceptionally intelligent individual, based on his decoration alone.

It was surprising, then, how down to earth he ended up being. On the New Place Gallery stage he was with a friend, the aforementioned play was in fact dedicated to Mr Swanson in the beginning pages, a play which Mr Swanson also initially directed at The Barn Theatre in Welwyn

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(where the two first met at a youth group). This man with extraordinary works and ideas speaks to my drama teacher with a degree of friendliness that I might use to talk to Mr Swanson with about Arsenal transfer rumors (and, I should say, I tipped Mr Swanson about the acquisition of Xhaka no later than the night of my senior house drama performance). Glyn Maxwell sits there, a few meters across from me, in a blue checkered flannel shirt and jeans, delivering these brilliant poems and talking of these fascinating ideas with respect to poetry and yet he remains with none of the pretensions that you might expect of an exceedingly clever individual.

A few things stick clearly in my mind when I think back to the evening. Firstly, he describes the experience of having his work viewed by Derek Walcott, a renowned poet from Saint Lucia, as a student of Boston University while Walcott was situated there.

He describes how Walcott said to him to treat where he came from seriously, that place for him being Welwyn. Welwyn isn’t so far, and the idea that these words could have an effect on such a talent as Maxwell had me thinking after the evening about my own town.

PICTURE FROM SSF Something else which comes to mind are the words that he uttered: “women will save the world”. From the Glyn Maxwell texts I’ve seen, The Best Man and Broken Journey, his male characters are particularly problematic when it comes to women. These five words stuck with me, perhaps because the night before I had done my duty as an American citizen and watched the first NBC presidential debate.

ry. Poetry cannot just about phonetics or connotations; it is a visual medium as well. Having over GCSE and AS years seen Hardy’s The Convergence of the Twain and Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis, the idea of text acknowledging its nature as a printed material has come to fascinate me, and it was interesting to hear Maxell’s thoughts on it here.

Finally, the most illuminating idea that Maxwell put forth in the duration of talk, to me, was the idea of blank space being just as important as the words when it comes to poet-

Idea

This Is

an

That truly Inspires.

Michael Davies—U6th student

On Tuesday 22nd October 2016, St Albans School’s Fourth Form Drama students took part in the Shakespeare Schools Festival with a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The annual festival is a wonderful opportunity for students from across the country to perform in front of a packed auditorium in a professional theatre. The night opened with two wonderful performances from local schools that warmed the audience up with polished and proficient interpretations of Hamlet and Macbeth. They did admirably with such dark and intense material, and by the conclusion of Macbeth the audience were ready for serious comic relief and boy did St Albans School’s boys deliver.

The audience were engaged straight away with the boys’ endearing, honest and detailed production. The combination of witty dialogue and physical comedy from the Mechanicals made it hard not to laugh without tears.

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SHAKESPEARE SCHOOLS FESTIVAL It is fair to say the audience were literally roaring with laughter at the hilariously observed moments of the naïve, but sweet gang of six: Snug, Starveling, Snout, Flute, Bottom, and Quince, performed

by Jem Andrews, Noah Greene Ben Stein, Ronak Parikh, Ollie Harris and Leo Shaw. The production’s excellent attention to detail was evident in the use of varied tones and finely judged exaggerated facial expressions, but no less impressive were the creatively designed props and costume choices. A personal highlight was Snug’s lion mane made from bright orange and yellow workman’s gloves… inspired costume design from teacher/director Mary Bruton.

Embracing the challenge of depicting contrasting worlds, the cast carried the audience through an enchanting journey laced with darkness, love and jealousy. Portraying a conflicting mystical Fairy world and a rigid Athenian world, the actors were able to successfully create convincing and coherent differences. Each characterisation allowed the complexity of Shakespeare’s language to be relatable, with characters such as the straight-talking Egeus played confidently by Rowley Wing and a gangsterlike Theseus portrayed menacingly by Jared Craib, as well as Hippolyta played by Samaad Muzafar.

These delicately observed characters helped to

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clearly depict the two worlds and demonstrated the performers understanding and appreciation of the text. The Fairy world was a wonderfully-balanced display of masculinity and femininity combined through the use of gentle subtle movements by Queen Titania played by Shivam Dahya and her honourable fairies.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream would not be the play it is without the mayhem caused by the trickster Puck, making it a pivotal role in any production. The part was enthusiastically played by Ben Solomons who perfectly captured the mischievous spirit of the character causing hilarious havoc between the lovers Helena, Demetrius, Hermia and Lysander, played brilliantly by Taylor Burdett, Shahrouz Farhadi, Hugh Isnardi and Chris Foster, unsettling the two worlds as they collided. With so much confusion and drama, the mighty Oberon, played with convincing gravitas and authority by James Tudor rightfully restored order back to the two worlds just in the nick of time.

With such a high quality, professional performance it was difficult to believe that some of the actors were performing for the first time in front of an audience and for this they must be highly commended. Not only did they surpass their drama teachers’ expectations, but they were able to tell one of Shakespeare’s most colourful tales true to its original form (all male cast playing female roles) with outstanding levels of maturity and truth.

Their accomplishment was perhaps best summed up by Headmaster Johnathan Gillespie, who turned around as the raucous applause died down and stated, “That was the most I’ve laughed in a long time!”

Miss Olaleye—Drama teacher

MAIN SCHOOL SHOW—TECHNICAL PERSPECTIVE Probably the most interesting aspect of this production, from a technical standpoint at least, was the direction that Mr Swanson and Miss Baxter decided to take the play in when considering the use of technical effects. The main case of this was the flying sequences, where rigging and cables to perform these sequences in the air was not used, mainly due to the logistical nightmare that would have been created in its wake. Instead Mr Swanson and Miss Baxter opted to use choreography and technical effects in order to enhance these key moments from the original tale. The use of the cut-outs of famous London landmarks being raised and lowered by members of the stage crew, namely Charlie Wallace, Leo Wing and Harry Goodwright created the effect of flying extremely well and the use of a star-cloth, also controlled by Leo, and the lights rigged in the hall, programmed by Mr Lewis and operated by myself, created the magical and non-naturalistic elements that made the story so enjoyable for all of us as children.

Of course there were other technical effects created in the play, and the ones that should not go uncredited were the use of a haze machine on the Jolly Roger pirate ship, the use of a laser pointer to bring Tinkerbell’s smaller form to life, accurately performed by Hugh Mawer, the expert functioning of the followspots by the aforementioned Hugh Mawer and Alex Strauss-Jones, the perfectly timed use of a pyrotechnic by Mr Lewis and somewhere between 80 and 100 individual lighting cues that I cycled through during the production. Of course none of these would ever have happened on time if it wasn’t for our fantastic Deputy Stage Manager, Shanu Akinsete, whose job it was to cue us all in so that everything happened as smoothly as possible.

OLIVER BEHIND THE LIGHTING DESK THE VIEW FROM BACKSTAGE

As in any production, it wasn’t perfect on every night.

However, whenever a microphone was accidentally hit or a flat at the side of the stage was knocked over, the crew managed to rescue the situation one way or another, in some cases using wonderful ingenuity.

To conclude I would like to thank, on behalf of the stage crew at large, the cast and musicians for being so helpful and accommodating to work with. Above all I would like to thank the trinity of Mr Swanson, Miss Baxter and Mr Lewis who helped to teach us, coordinate us and make the whole experience so enjoyable to work on, the play would never have happened without you!

Oliver Branley—Lower Sixth student

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THIRD FORM POLISHED IMPROVISATION I was very excited to be invited to judge the Third Form Polished Improvisations in an evening of the top nine performances. Each group had been given the task to create a piece of theatre from a range of simple stimuli such as a bunch of flowers, hats, a key, and other trinkets. It may seem like an easy task but it is actually, a very difficult and challenging prospect, and in no way did they disappoint.

Without any sign of nerves the evening was kick started with a piece called ‘That Gangsta Play’. It had all the components of a mafia comedy, including guns, money, a Russian and the longest death scene in a short piece of theatre I’ve ever seen, superbly played out by Ben Reed. Continuing with the comedy theme was the next show, ‘Timmy's Haunted House’. They had a difficult challenge of playing a range of ages but did so very well and used the whole stage to help with this and the tricky plot twists. The captivating performance was performed menacingly and convincingly by the actors.

The evening smoothly went from one strong performance to the next with ‘Backfires’, in which three students tried to dupe their Head Master and inadvertently discovered he was part of a very convincing AC/DC cover band. The highlight was a cracking rendition of one of their hits, brilliantly performed

by Tobi. With the glittery wig packed away, ‘The Boy from Boyle’ was the next show to feature. A

very strong show with some great character performances for example, the chilled out policeman/ bomb disposal expert effortlessly working under pressure. The contrasting lead character – who performed a strong monologue – ensured the show was well- balanced. To end the first act was an aptly named show, ‘Unusual Bank Robbery’. A special mention here has to go to Tom Hitchin who, to save the day, took on a role at late notice, not that the audience noticed because the play went seamlessly.

The quality continued into the second act, opening with a thought-provoking piece, ‘I Can See Right Through You’. The audience were held in suspense as the lead characters trespassed into a dark property, where two shadowy figures prevented them from leaving., only for the audience to discover that these figures had a ‘Morecambe and Wise’ quality about them! To follow that was, ‘Assassin’, a show which involved plot twists, a hilarious car, wellacted characters and the assassination of Donald Trump; what more could you possibly need? This play had some great performances and theatrical techniques with the added bonus of the after thoughts from the deceased. With the evening coming to a close, I have never witnessed so many death scenes in one evening, let alone the array of imaginative deaths.

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‘Kidz Who Kill’ was the last show of the evening, involving another set of great young actors and worryingly, another corrupt police force, adding to the running death toll nicely...

I haven't had such an enjoyable evening at the theatre for a long time; it was filled with everything from laughter and comedy to murder and suspense, all with a glass of wine in the middle. The only downside to the evening was the hardest part, the judging. Only being able to give awards to the top three performances and only one ‘Best Actor’ award came with much difficulty. In third and second place for the evening were ‘Backfires’ and ‘That Gangsta Play’.

The show not mentioned yet came

in first and it was called, ‘Arty the Assassin’, with its comical performances and clever script work, not to mention the American blonde twins and their mis-identity, the longest chase scene with a Zimmer frame and all round great performances. The best actor of the evening had to go to Tobi for his great charactisation of the iron headmaster with a love of rock. The difficulty judging came down to the amount of talent and professionalism oozing from these actors, but it left me satisfied knowing that there are students who obviously have a huge passion for theatre, something which the school should be exceptionally proud of.

Michael Andrews—adjudicator

COMPLICITE WORKSHOP On the 1st of October, the cast and directors of the main school show, Wendy and Peter Pan, arrived at New Place for a workshop on physical theatre with Complicite, a renowned British theatre company. The morning started of with a game similar to both ‘it’ and stick in the mud, in which one person running away from the catcher must link up with one of the many chains of three people. As the chain can only be three people long maximum, the person at the end is forced off, to be chased by the catcher. After getting to grips with the rules of the game, everyone had great and hectic fun, and we ended up incorporating aspects of the game into the play.

COMING SOON… NEW DRAMA DEPARTMENT PUBLICATION… “THEATREVIEW” Watch this space for a new and exciting student-led publication reviewing live theatre performances seen by students and staff throughout the year.

It will be published twice a year, with the first publication being released in February.

Ed Holtom, drama prefect and editor, is busy compiling reviews and already has a long list of exciting shows which will feature as articles. To name a few: 

PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS



LUNCH AND THE BOW OF ULYSSES



THE ROVER



KING LEAR

We then engaged in numerous exercises about co-ordination, raging from simple body movements to complex arm patterns. Not everyone could manage it but everyone gave it a go and had fun while doing so. Following these warmups was the first group activity, involving groups of around five. After learning the basic movements our groups were given a very short space of time in which to link the movements into a stylised series of seven. All the groups managed to turn the small and simple movements into an incredible looking sequence, with each exhibiting new and unique patterns.

Robin Sargeson—Fifth Form student

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SHAKESPEARE SCHOOLS FESTIVAL STUDENT PERSPECTIVE BEN SOLOMONS—PUCK IN ‘A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM’

Under the guidance of Miss Bruton, 16 GCSE drama students performed an abridged version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the local Abbey Theatre, as part of the Shakespeare Schools Festival, an event which sees students over the country perform the works of William Shakespeare. The lead up to the play was surprisingly short, with a two hour rehearsal each week totalling just eighteen hours of work to stage the play, completely from scratch. The rehearsals were tough, tiring, exhilarating, and productive, and decisions made by each individual cast member in addition to Miss Bruton turned the play into a true comedy, demonstrated by the frequent laughter of the audience. As a performer, the entire experience was not only extremely educational, but also enjoyable and something to look back on.

Rehearsals which took place on a Wednesday after school, drama priority night, were something to look forward to, an opportunity to improve one's acting and learn different dramatic techniques and skills, in addition to improving our performance.

Line learning was not a problem, with everyone knowing lines when required to, and constant notemaking in the scripts meant that the play was intricately woven to include many layers of subtle comedy and underlying meaning. The play taught us to come together as a team and work together in order to make the play shine. A cast workshop was run halfway through the term, and we all learned multiple physical and vocal warm up techniques and important performing skills, as well as having the

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opportunity to perform a scene in front of another school to have feedback. The afternoon was extremely educational, and not long afterwards the play began to take shape in its first full run.

The last two weeks before a production are always extremely hectic, and yet A Midsummer Night’s Dream was really beginning to come together. Being in the hall for a rehearsal taught all of the cast the importance of projection and timing entrances and exits so as never to leave the stage empty, with the tight time limit of the play being only thirty minutes. The hall also provided the perfect opportunity to practice on the size of stage that the Abbey Theatre has, and small bits of staging were reworked. The dress rehearsal on the final Wednesday rehearsal was met with great enjoyment and amazements as the costumes all came together, and Miss Bruton’s additions were incredible, notably the masks for the fairies. A run with lighting and sound that was open to teachers the day before the play was received positively, and with the last few notes in mind, it was time for the play.

A technical and dress rehearsal run on the morning went well and before long, it was time for the show.

We sat back and enjoyed an exceptional performance of Hamlet from Grove Junior School, and a scary Macbeth from King’s Langley School. Our show was well received by the audience, earning constant laughter, and all running to plan (more or less!) and ending the evening on a high. Overall the entire experience was not only valuable to us as pupils, but also enjoyable and exciting, and whilst our acting skills were greatly improved, more so was our teamwork.

Ben Solomons

SIXTH FORM TRIP TO STRATFORD-UPON-AVON A group of Sixth Form Drama and English students were fortunate enough to be taken on a truly culturally-immersive trip to the home of Shakespeare this September. Having arrived in Stratford after a two-hour trip, the students were allowed to walk around, soaking in the atmosphere of the market and the town in general.

After a couple of hours, we then checked into our hotel before heading to a Royal Shakespeare Company Workshop on King Lear, where staff and students alike experienced first-hand what it is like to prepare and perform in a Shakespeare play. The workshop included the reciting of some of the most famous lines of the play, and creating a soundscape. It was an educational experience for both Drama and English students as it helped with understanding and unlocking the true difficulty of trying to perform a Shakespearean play. After a couple of hours at the Workshop it was time for a quick dinner before going to see ‘The Rover’ at the Swan Theatre, before heading back to the hotel for a well-deserved rest.

The following morning, it was a somewhat early start to have breakfast and get ready before heading back to the theatre, to sit and listen to ‘Unwrapped: King Lear’. Here, actors from the King Lear production and the assistant director took questions from the audience and talked about their experience of rehearsing Shakespeare’s longest play. It was a helpful tool for not only the English students studying the play as part of their A2, but also for the Drama students who were offered a true insight into how professionals go about their work. After about an hour, we were again allowed to walk around the town and explore it for one last time, before heading back to the hotel and getting ready for the ‘King Lear’ performance in the evening.

The two days spent in Stratford were fun and insightful for the students and staff, and there is no doubt that the different experiences offered a new train of thought about how Shakespearean plays are both rehearsed and performed.

Spencer Rance—Upper Sixth student

LOWER SIXTH DRAMA WORK EXPERIENCE— LUCY During the week of the 24th October, I worked with a charity called Scene & Heard that aims to improve the prospects of the children of Somers Town, and provide them with a positive platform and fun environment. The young people aged 12-14 had been participating in the “one-on-one” course, which is performance-based. Each child has a short play written for them, inspired by an interview with the playwright themselves. Each young person then goes on to work alongside a professional actor and director, and as a unit they bring the plays to life. A performance is about 7 minutes long, and all the characters are either inanimate objects or animals, making the pieces all the more wacky and interesting.

It was the performance week, with shows on Thursday and Friday night, and Saturday afternoon, so I helped to get everything together for the performances and also throughout the performance in the New Diorama Theatre in London. A big part of my role in the company was to

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LOWER SIXTH DRAMA WORK EXPERIENCE CONTD. stay around the children and check they were content. Since performing can be very nerve-wracking, I was there to check that everyone was always feeling happy and comfortable.

Throughout the days before the performances, I also participated in theatrical warm-ups and games to get the young people and actors ready to perform and to get the energy levels up.

A part of my experience that was particularly interesting and helpful for me was simply getting to talk to the actors themselves about their experiences in the acting industry, and what they have found challenging or enjoyable, as well as some of their favourite performances they have been a part of. The week I spent with the company of Scene & Heard was so enjoyable and I was very lucky to work alongside such talented actors, directors, organisers, as well as incredible children.

MAIN SCHOOL SHOW 2016

December 2016 saw pupils at St Albans School skilfully staging Ella Hickson’s Wendy and Peter Pan to highly appreciative audiences who thoroughly enjoyed this modern adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s much loved story. This charming retelling of the tale of the boy who never grows up shifts the focus from Peter to Wendy (Lucy Redwood) who, rather than “playing mother”, takes centre stage and it is her perspective which directs the action of the play.

In this feminist reworking of the story, she is not a bossy nanny but rather a brave, swashbuckling heroine who, in search for her dead brother Tom (Romy Kelleher), for whose death she feels partially re-

Lucy Redwood

sponsible, braves and defeats Hook, his crew and the stereotypes of her day as she journeys to selfawareness, acceptance and happiness.

Wendy is not the only character Hickson reimagines. An effeminate Smee (Michael Daives) is in love with Hook (Oliver Hurst). Tinkerbell is recast as the cockney, street-wise “Tink” (Phoebe Wilkinson) whose gobby hostility to Wendy eventually melts as they and Tiger Lily (Eleanor Wright) become an allfemale trio of musketeers who efficiently dispatch the malevolent Hook to meet the crocodile (Henry Avery). Mrs Darling (Ella Walters) too is no longer a picture of Edwardian domesticity and submission but rather a frustrated wife, seeking greater independence from the constraints of married life and expectations of her husband (Josh Refson) as she too battles to come to terms with her grief following the death of her son.

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Lest the above suggest an attempt to write Peter (Ed Holtom) out of his own story, let me assure you this is definitely not the case. He swaggers and blusters, fights Hook and kisses Wendy. His loyal crew of lost boys have plenty of fun as does John (James Holland) who relishes the prospect of battle from the outset. Michael (Niles Webb) and Martin the Cabin Boy (Zac Mills) meanwhile provide comic magic as they stutter and splutter their way to assertiveness for the final showdown with the appropriately predominantly female pirate crew.

The proscenium arch of the New Hall does not lend itself naturally to Neverland, but the imaginative use of a thrust stage and multi-level multi-purpose scaffolding, softened with fabric and lighting, effectively and playfully created a space which doubled as the Darling House, the pirate ship and the lost boys’ hideout whilst at the same time attempting to evoke the London skyline.

It is perhaps unfair to single out any particular actor for their performance, but special mention needs to be made of Oliver Hurst’s debut on the St Albans stage as Hook. His physicality, timing and the Machiavellian way in which he interpreted the archetypal villain of childhood was a tour de force. Acknowledgment must also be given to the show’s directors Rebecca Baxter and Danny Swanson for choosing and so ably directing this new and delightful play.

The chamber ensemble, subtly directed from the piano by Tom Dilley, also contributed much to the enjoyment of the evening and the creation of a magical atmosphere which prompted the audience to imagine and dream.

Greg Hacksley—Head of Sixth Form

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FIFTH FORM DEVISING WORKSHOP

On 20th November, twenty- two Fifth Form Drama students took part in a characterisation workshop run by Splendid Productions. We began by playing a game of Ninja, in which one had to take turns in attempting to strike their partner on the hand, in one clean motion whilst shouting ninja. This was a good warm up exercise because it got us up and moving and focused on exaggeration of body language as well as getting the vocal chords ready.

Then we brainstormed the main emotions a person can feel. These are anger, happiness, sadness, surprise, fear and disgust. This was a good recap on how to form characters’ personalities. These foundation emotions are the base to making a strong character with recognisable traits for the audience.

To understand how to show the six key emotions we played stereotypes: an angry old man, a posh upper-class woman, a happy fat man and a working class woman. Playing these very different characters required focus and a range of acting skills. For example, as an angry old man, we had to hunch our back and shoulders, walk slowly with a wide stance and talk with a husky and low pitched voice. This helped us gain an understanding of how to form a character, which is important in devised drama. To further improve the quality of our stereotypes we introduced costume and different situations. This meant we had to act accordingly to the surrounding environment whilst remaining as our characters.

For example, as a fat man seeing a piece of cake I moved quicker and with excitement before eating it impolitely.

Afterwards we took part in an activity called “fairy godmother” which focused on physical theatre. In this activity we were an environment and had to react to the actions of a fairy god mother (another student) within our setting. This looked at both es-

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tablishing clear physical theatre along with improvisation, which is a part of devising. After this we completed an activity which looked at characterisation in more depth. This was a verbal activity which picked out opposites and contrasts of a character.

For example, we looked at Donald Trump who is both a clever man but a lunatic! This activity was useful to look at how one can develop an in-depth character. It looks at going past the stereotypes and giving the character another contrasting side, which will give them more empathy and make them more engaging for the audience.

We then looked at status and different ways to display it within a scene. The first exercise was called “Columbian Hypnosis”. This was a partner activity in which one person holds their hand flat above the head of their partner. Then they’d make small alterations to the direction and positioning of their fingers and hand. Simultaneously the other partner would react by following the direction of their partner’s hand. This was meant to clearly demonstrate status and power because one person is controlling the other with little effort. Additionally, we used physical theatre and non- naturalistic techniques to show status with physical drills such as push and pull, table top, throwing, lean and fall. The push and pull as well as the lean and fall indicate trust and comradeship between characters whereas the table top and throwing assert status.

The workshop was extremely useful in helping us to understand how to create strong characters with realistic personalities so the audience can engage with them. Moreover, the physical exercises showed different ways to make a scene powerful without using speech. Overall the day was a huge success as everybody found it thoroughly enjoyable and took away valuable ideas to use in their own drama pieces.

Noah Arthur-Tinworth

LOWER SIXTH DRAMA WORK EXPERIENCE—EMILY From the 17th October to the 21st October I was at Trestle Theatre Arts Base for work experience. The building consists of a mask making studio, theatre, cafe, dance studio, office and apex studio. During my time I was able to see the backstage side of theatres. One thing I partook in was organising the theatre's wardrobe with my supervisor Karene. This time was especially valuable as I had the opportunity to ask Karene about her route into drama, studying English and Theatre Studies at Portsmouth University, and what tips she could suggest for someone like me considering a career in drama.

I also spent time in their dance studio, helping Louise and Kathryn. Louisa runs ‘Best Beans’ drama classes for children aged 3 months to 3 years so I gained experience of children's first steps into drama. On the Thursday I had the opportunity to go into the mask making studio and was shown all the masks they make and all the places they have delivered to around the world, being one of the main mask makers. I was shown the process and had the opportunity to make my own mask using their technique and style.

My time at Trestle was very valuable as I saw the different aspects of how a theatre is run and what different people do in their jobs in a theatre. My time mask making was invaluable as in my AS Drama I am studying a piece called 'A Servant to Two Masters' which is a piece of commedia dell'arte which incorporates the types of mask I saw and made in the workshop. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Trestle and would recommend it to anyone interested in gaining an insight into how theatres are run.

Emily Edmond

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LOWER SIXTH WORK EXPERIENCE—ROMY During the week of the 17th of October, I had the opportunity to work with the theatre company ‘Tip of the Iceberg’ who are a company that focus on putting plays together with an educational purpose.

Their performances are shown at schools and they also provide teachers with the necessary resources to apply what students learn from the plays to a series of classroom activities and discussions. I had the opportunity to be part of the last two days of rehearsals for a play called ‘The Cost of a Player’, which was written by one of the two actors. The play was about two young footballers trying to make it in the industry, but both are affected by home-life and mental health issues. It was interesting to see a play improve as the days went on, as well as being able to help give some ideas from the point-of-view of a teenager, to develop their characters more.

I also had the chance to ask the writer of the play questions about his inspiration for writing it, and how long the writing period took. As there were only two actors and the director, the rehearsals were intense but they gave me an insight into

different methods directors use. The play was written in partnership with the FA, and was being performed in several locations around the UK to young footballers. On the third day, I travelled down to Bournemouth with the two actors and the director to help set up the stage, watch the performance and participate and help out with the following workshop. It was great to see how involved the children were, and how they had discussions with all the members of the team on topics such as mental health. For the next two days I was able to write a workshop with the help of my supervisor about young people and addiction. I read many articles on the topic and gathered information I could use.

From this, I created a PowerPoint with a quiz that could be sent to schools who will watch the play the workshop is linked to.

The overall experience helped me appreciate all elements of theatre, from the writing process, all the way to performance. My level of knowledge has improved dramatically, and the experience has solidified my aspiration to pursue acting as a career.

Romy Kelleher

FIFTH FORM DEVISED EXAM The GCSE Shakespeare performances were delightfully quirky and imaginative and provided the audience with fresh takes on familiar tales.

The night opened with Macbeth cleverly transposing the action to a drug dealing hierarchy in a modern school. Jack Stewart showed the innocent Macbeth slowly becoming corrupted as greed and power took hold. George Hawkins gave a natural performance as the reluctant drug dealer forced in to this seedy underworld through circumstance. I thought that the idea of the Witches appearance being part of a hallucinogenic magic mushroom trip was particularly inspired. Timi Erinle was convincing as a threatening and brooding Duncan. It was a cleverly plotted script with witty, sharply delivered dialogue. A pity that’s some of the original Shakespeare sections came across as a little under rehearsed at times. The ending was as sharp as the polished opening with a strong twist that kept the audience hooked.

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Twelfth Night featured bold, clear performances that picked out the essential characteristics from the roles in the original play. Ollie Larsson as typical ‘posh boy’ Rupert, demonstrated excellent observational humour and found the voice and mannerisms to bring this arrogant buffoon to life. All the actors knew their roles through and through and consequently they never grated as some caricatures can. Roan delivered his original dialogue spontaneously as Malvolio and clearly captured the haughty partypooper. The physical theatre section featuring Malvolio getting ready to meet Pippa was well choreographed. This was a witty, meticulous modernisation featuring Facebook and selfies. Sam Jobson excelled as Feste when pretending to be Sir Topaz to drive Malvolio madder still. They caught the mood swings from banter to bullying and took the audience along with them. Murray McClafferty sensitively developed a role that was caught between wanting to join in with the lads and feeling sorry for the malevolent revenge that they all enjoyed at Malvolio’s expense.

Julius Caesar opened strongly with a well-defined sequence. The pressures effecting an ailing company were well built up. As the play progressed there was a little uncertainty over the running order and transitions could have been smoother. Tom Walters delivered his dialogue with confidence and variety. The monologues from Felix Sutcliffe and Ryan Martin were well scripted and powerfully delivered and this was followed up with a subtly delivered scene between Cassius and Brutus. So many good ideas but the production felt like it had all come together just in the nick of time and was not quite ‘run in’.

The Tempest was very confident and well-rehearsed from the very start. Caliban’s put-upon existence was well established. This script was carefully plotted with well-drawn characters including a menacing Alonso from Nick Park. There was real tension in the relationship between Ariel and Prospero with Aaron Graft’s cheeky Ariel making Robin Sargeson as Prospero lose patience with his protégé. It was an excellent idea to change the disaster from a shipwreck in to a car crash and this slow motion section was highly effective. I enjoyed the fact that the Isle was now re-cast as a pub; in this production it made complete sense. Cameron Furley was highly believable as Antonio in a very strong scene where he was threatening a sleeping Alonso. Kwame Ofori delivered an excellent speech as Caliban finding the pent up anger brewing beneath the surface. There was excellent use of physical comedy in the scene set in the bedroom and toilet which added appropriate comic relief to the building tension. A clear, imaginative and polished production that was very well realised.

A highly enjoyable set of shows that deserve a strong set of marks for the actors, directors and writers (not to mention the teachers) who had worked so hard to bring them to life.

Danny Swanson—Head of Lower School and Drama teacher

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A LOWER SCHOOL CHRISTMAS HO! HO! HO! THE SANTA CLAUS CHRONICLES

This year our Lower School Drama Club moved back to a more traditional Christmas theme, performing ‘Ho! Ho! Ho! The Santa Claus Chronicles’. Directed by Rebecca Olaleye, with a large ensemble and stage helpers, we were treated to a festive tale from the North Pole.

The play started with a myriad of press reporters crowded together for a news conference at Santa HQ in the North Pole, with Santa’s PA (Edward Gray), fielding a whole host of questions from the journalists, from ‘how does Santa know who has been good or bad’, to revealing that Santa’s favourite food is Spam!

We then moved on to the elves, mentored by ‘Sarge’, played fantastically by Oliver Lytton, who as well as looking after the reindeer, also look after the gift suggestion hotline. It transpires that Mrs Claus is missing, and the elves have been too busy to notice where she has gone. Then, Gladys Snowing, Editor of Snow News, portrayed in a parody full of snow puns by Imran Denton, (and laughs and groans from the audience), announces her headlines for the day, yet she is also seemingly clueless about the whereabouts of Mrs Claus.

Whilst the Host (James Eagles) interviews people on the streets, suddenly Mrs Claus arrives, played by Bob Guy in pure panto style, dressed in a full red dress and enormous red hat with an overcoat. She is then interviewed and asks everyone to be discreet about her whereabouts, before revealing she is only busy one day a year and hangs around the house too much! We then visit the headquarters of the North Pole Hotline, behind the scenes of Santa’s operation, where despairing husbands call for last minute gifts for their wives! This was a very funny scene with Cleo (Dervish Hilmi) and Fiona (Liam Selwyn).

Then we came to the big surprise, we discover it is Santa’s birthday and Mrs Claus surprises him with a huge birthday cake, a full cast ensemble moment on stage. On being asked what his birthday wish is, Santa says ‘ I wish the same every year, to have a very merry Christmas’, and, with the snow machine covering the stage, the whole ensemble finished the play with a rousing rendition of ‘We wish you a merry Christmas.’

Well done to everyone in the cast, and the technicians who operated the sound effects they sourced themselves and operated the lighting desk (Oliver Smith), and to Miss Olaleye on her first production here. Everyone who attended had a thoroughly light hearted and entertaining 40 minutes. Roll on Junior House Drama and the Lower School summer production!

Guy Lewis—Drama Technician

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AS DRAMA BERKOFF WORKSHOP On Monday 12th December, the Lower Sixth Drama class took part in a two hour Berkoff workshop, led by a professional practitioner called Annie Sutton who trained at Lecoq.

Steven Berkoff is an English practitioner, whose career began in 1965, and he still works today. His controversial yet popular style is very exaggerated and physical, and is often shocking and eye opening to an audience.

During lessons, we are currently working on an extract from King Lear

by William Shakespeare, and performing it in the style of Berkoff.

Therefore, Annie designed the exercises to link to the key themes of the play, (such as power and trust), as well as character building.

One exercise that we found particularly useful was what Annie called “my precious”. This consisted of one person holding the power, which was represented by a water bottle, and, with one person carrying it, everyone else would move close behind them as a unit. As we followed the water bottle wherever it was taken, the group moved, as if a single person, whilst staring at the bottle intently.

The power was then passed between people, so we took it in turns to lead the unit around the room, alternating between slow and quick as well as high and low. This method of physicalizing power creates an effective technique to then input into our extract, since it is very visually interesting as well as clear.

Berkoff also does lots of vocal work, particularly putting emphasis on certain words. To work with this element of his style, we each took a word from a sentence in the play that we liked, chose a punchy way of saying it (e.g. loud and fast) and added an action to it. We then put the word back into the sentence, but kept the action and deliverance of the single word the same. This created a massive contrast and the word came as a massive burst of energy, giving the sentence more interest for the audience.

We also looked at giving characters animalistic qualities, and did this by thinking of an animal that linked with our character. For me, I chose an old lion for King Lear since they are very wise and proud, as well as having a high status. Looking at how the animal walks and interacts with the other animals, we then put these traits into a scene between the characters.

As I lion, I walked slowly and moved on my knees and hands, with clenched fists. I also spoke with a deep growl in my voice. This idea brought more clarity and made it much easier to move and talk as our characters.

We all found the workshop extremely beneficial for learning more about Berkoff’s style and the sort of skills he uses in pieces. We look forward to embedding the techniques that we learnt into our King Lear extract.

Lucy Redwood—Lower Sixth

DANIEL ROSENTHAL ‘SHAKESPEARE ON FILM’ The lecture covered a variety of films which directly used or were based on original Shakespearian texts, from such classics as Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet, to some which are less recognisable, including Forbidden Planet and 10 Things I Hate About You. A major issue, in recent years, in the world of Shakespearean film was why so few have been made. A fundamental problem with such a production was money: epic tales required big budgets, but due to a lack in popular appeal, it was rare that any profit could be made, so studios were very reluctant to take them on. The popularity of Shakespeare was essential. Indeed, there was a greater influx of films made in the 1990s after the hugely successful Hamlet starring Mel Gibson. Clearly, these original Elizabethan texts could not attract a crowd without a big name to draw them in.

So to address this problem, whilst keeping the original stories, studios sought to popularise Shakespeare in film by completely adapting the script into modern English, and placing them in more modern settings such as O, an adaptation of Othello set in an American High School. He underlined the fact that whilst these seemed like complete departures from the original plays, they were at the heart, the same.

Niles Webb—Upper Sixth

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DATES FOR THE DIARY… The following events are all in New Place Gallery 

Junior House Drama Competition, Wednesday 22nd February, 4:30-6pm

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Fourth Form Devised Performance, Wednesday 1st March, 7:30pm

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GCSE Fifth Form Scripted Performance, Tuesday 7th March, 7:30pm

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AS Matinee Performance, an extract from ‘Five Kinds of Silence’ by Shelagh Stepheson (in the style of Steven Berkoff), Wednesday 15th March, 4:30pm

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A2 Matinee Performance, a Creative Adaptation of Tracy Emin’s ‘My Bed’, Tuesday 21st March, 4:30pm

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AS and A2 Showcase Performances, Wednesday 22nd March, 7:30pm

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St Albans School Drama Department New Place 01727 515285 drama@st-albans.herts.sch.uk

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