“Prompt Copy” SPRING TERM DRAMA NEWSLETTER The Spring Term always flies by in a flurry of activity. Now, you know its hectic when all the other staff come up to you in the common room and say, ‘You’re busy!’. Normally no one knows the secret goings-ons of New Place! The hidden depths of the Drama department! But in the Spring Term we fling our doors wide open and invite people to come and see the practical exam work, performances from Fourth Form to A2, as well as Junior House Drama (of course the younger years don’t want to be outdone!). So, we’ve seen performances of devised work on the theme of ‘Trapped’ from the Fourth Form; extracts from gritty naturalistic play ‘Mudlarks’ by Vickie Donoghue and black comedy ‘The Pillowman’ by Martin McDonagh by our GCSE groups; a non-naturalistic offering from the AS group who interpreted the opening of ‘Five Kinds of Silence’ by Shelagh Stephenson in the style of Steven Berkoff and an A2 show which created a piece inspired by Tracey Emin’s ‘My Bed’. A real range of work, varied in style, genre and stimuli, but all of it expertly accomplished, imaginative, committed and gaining top marks in assessment.
Michael Davies and Phoebe Wilkinson in ‘My Bed’
INSIDE THIS ISSUE 4th Form Devised…………….2&3 Drama G&T ..............................3 GCSE Scripted………………….4&5 AS Performance………………..6&7 A2 Performance……………… 8&9 HCTG review………………...10&11
Junior House Drama was hard to resist this year, showcasing work devised on the theme of ‘Temptations’. All the Houses worked hard and performed to the best of their ability but there can only be one winner on the night, and this year it was Marsh. We are very lucky here at St Albans School to teach such talented students and a lot of our students are involved in Drama outside of school as well. In recognition of their interest, enthusiasm and talent, I have included a couple of reviews of this work and a new column detailing the achievements our students make in Performing Arts. Miss Bruton—Head of Drama
Welwyn Drama Festival….11&12 Junior House Drama… ….13&14 Thanks from a student…...14&15 Dates for the Diary………………15
TRAPPED STIMULI The students were given a range of stimuli, including a selection of pictures, two poems and newspaper article about a Chilean mining accident in 2010.
“Wild are my ways, wilder than you think You will find me standing a little left of frame” Excerpt from ‘Being Me’, John Matthew
“But tiring, tiring. Sirens below are wailing, firing. My arm is numb and my nerves are sagging. Do you see me, my love. I am failing, flagging.” Excerpt from ‘Out of the Blue’, Simon Armitage
FOURTH FORM DEVISED PERFORMANCES For this year’s Fourth Form devised performances, the students were given the stimulus of ‘Trapped’ to base their own unique mini plays on. First up was a play called ‘It’s All Relative’, a harrowing tale of guilt and regret. Ben Solomons played a troubled parent, Dan, struggling with his responsibilities for his household. His son, Zak, played by Jem Andrew, feels neglected, especially as his Dad is distracted by Chris, his brother (Shivam Dahya), who is constantly trying to borrow money for his latest get-rich-quick scheme. The family are involved in a car crash with Dan being distracted by Chris’s constant demands for cash. This was an emotional piece of theatre handled well by all three, using some physical theatre and tableaux. With Chris passing away in the crash, Dan is devastated and is wracked with guilt for causing the accident. He neglects Zak, who has had enough of living at home and leaves, but sadly ends up living rough. Dan is inconsolable with guilt and suicidal thoughts, shown cleverly by him hallucinating Chris, who blames him for his death. He is on the verge of ending his life with an overdose of pills when Zak returns home, telling his Dad not to blame himself. The play ends with Dan making a new start to family life at home with Zak, moving on from the tragedy. The next performance was
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‘Impaired’, about an autistic boy, Peter (Ronak Parikh), his uncaring dad (Chris Foster) and brother, Michael (Leo Shaw). The play dealt with the theme of being trapped in life with a handicap. Peter is told endlessly to man up by his cold-hearted father. When he goes to school for the first time he finds the intricacies of life at school difficult, only excelling at Maths. Sadly, even his teacher is not willing to encourage him, allowing him to be bullied also. As the play continues, Peter’s dad is seriously attacked, and ends up on life support in hospital. It is here that he realises how terribly he has treated his son, and finally admits he loves him and decides to reconcile his family. This was shown by a flash forward to the seaside with all the family together. The subject was well handled, in what was a thoughtful piece of drama, with some good use of pre-recorded audio clips. Our third performance of the evening was ‘Bottled Up’, with Ollie Harris, Jared Craib and Noah Greene. As the title suggests, this was a tale of the damage that alcohol can cause, in this case to a dysfunctional family, with an alcoholic father suffering the heartbreak of his sons leaving because of his neglect. Following an earthquake, his house is destroyed, and the distraught father is left to comb through the wreckage.
It is at this point that he finds items which remind him of his sons, and through a series of flashbacks, we are shown how bad his neglect was, and the father sees the error of his ways. After being refused access to see his children, he starts a new life without alcohol and is determined to make it up to them. The play ends with a scene which shows the father’s pride at his sons’ achievements and all they have attained despite their hardships. Next up was ‘Against All Odds’ with James Tudor, Hugh Isnardi and Shahrouz Farhadi. Starting with three pupils on a school trip to the Battlefields, we were then transported to the Second World War and three different perspectives of action, with a Nazi officer, a British soldier and a prisoner of war. A touching scene followed where we discover the Nazi is sympathetic to the prisoner, sourcing him food and water and trying to protect him from his peers. He aids their escape but they are both captured by the British, and in a scuffle, the prisoner is shot accidently, with the British soldier who killed him so consumed with guilt that he takes his own life. This scene was then replayed without the officer shooting and him reflecting on how his actions affect several lives and not just one. The trio then try to escape despite the ill health of the prisoner. With dogs approaching we then return from the flashback to the present and the pupils again. This was an excellent piece of drama, including a detailed flashback to the war, perspectives of three individuals, some excellent monologues and staging, which all helped to make this piece a thought-provoking and moving performance. The final piece we saw was called ‘Anarchy’, with Ben Stein, Rowley Wing, Samaad Muzafar and Taylor Burdett. Mr Levine is interrogated by MI5 agents and then forced to spend a night in the cells before being beaten by his captors. A flashback shows Mr Levine bribing a guard to help him escape in advance of his arrest and there is a good use of split scenes to show the MI5 agents and Mr Levine reflecting on their problems. Still unable to get the truth about why Mr Levine planted his bomb the agents use his sister against him to persuade him to tell the truth. After killing his bribed MI5 agent, the play ends with a stubborn Mr Levine being executed by electric chair. This was the only piece with four actors and was excellently performed by the group, with the pathos of the terror committed by Mr Levine maintained throughout. All in all, this was a highly enjoyable evening of Drama by our Fourth Formers, who all dealt with the stimulus of ‘Trapped’ in a mature way. I look forward to what our students will produce next year.
DRAMA G&T
Adam Pendell, 3rd Form: Gr ade 6 LAMDA.
Kelechi Alozie, 3rd Form: Mem ber o f ‘Stage Coach Performing Arts’
James Tudor, 4th Form: Mem ber o f ‘Top Hat Stage School’ and ‘Company of Teens’ at the Abbey Theatre. Grade 4 LAMDA.
Ciaran Robertson, 4th Form: Mem ber of ‘Hurst Children’s Theatre Group’. Grade 1 LAMDA.
Max Cohen, 4th Form: Member of ‘Hurst Children’s Theatre Group’. Grade 1 LAMDA.
Lucy Redwood, L6: Member of ‘Act Now!’ at Trestle Arts Base.
Ella Walters, L6: Member of ‘Dance Unlimited’. Grade 5 ballet.
Romy Kelleher, L6: Member of ‘BSA’ (Best School of Acting’.
Joe Pattison, L6: Member of ‘Best Youth Theatre Entertainment’. Most recent production – “Laugh Now” at Welwyn Drama Festival. Grade 8 LAMDA
Mr Lewis—Drama Technician
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GCSE SCRIPTED PERFORMANCES On Tuesday 7th March, our GCSE Drama students took to the Gallery stage to perform their scripted extracts from ‘The Pillowman’ by Martin McDonagh and ‘Mudlarks’ by Vickie Donoghue. Students were required to play the same characters, giving each performer an opportunity to show off their acting skills and add their own unique twist to the role.
‘The Pillowman’ tells the story of Katurian, a fictional writer trying to succeed in his artistic profession within an unknown state, dominated by an autocratic police leadership. Throughout the night Katurian was played by Roan Popat, Murray McClafferty, Josh Kerr and James Samarasinghe. Each student performed their part with variety and authenticity, applying similar but diverse interpretations of the controversial writer. With each student using their vocal and movement skills, Katurian was shown to be a smart, innocent and protective older brother prepared to lose his life for his less able and less innocent brother Michal. Michal was skilfully played by Sam Jobson who portrayed him as sinister and easily influenced. With Katurian accused of murder he attempts to find out whether his brother is responsible
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for the ‘murders’ by secretly confronting him in a dusky police cell. This intimate moment performed by Sam Jobson and Murray McClafferty highlighted the close relationship the two brothers have and how fantastically influenced Michal had become through his brother’s dark imagination. The police investigations were carried out by ‘bad cop’ and ‘not as bad cop’ Ariel and Tupolski, performed brilliantly by Ollie Larsson and Ryan Martin, Felix Sutcliffe and Matt Carr, and Tom Walter and Hugo Buckland. The boys showed excellent comic timing, depth of character and skilful naturalistic acting. The pair of cops, in their interactions, provided light banter but heavy laughter, forcing the audience to laugh out loud during various moments of the play. Katurian met a cruel and deceitful end at the hands of Tupolski, leaving the audience on the edge of their seats.
The five performances from ‘Mudlarks’ were not much different in terms of darkness and plot twists. This tale of tragedy and dreamy imaginations captured the audience with its honesty and simple plot; a story of three young men hiding out from the police after a night of craziness and crime. The opening scene of ‘Mudlarks’ was explosive and full of hilarious insulting moments initially acted by Jack Stewart as Wayne and Nick Park as Charlie. The cast immediately engaged the audience with high drama and intense topics of knife and gang crime. Like ‘The Pillowman’, ‘Mudlarks’ used several actors to play one part. Timi Erinle played the role of Charlie, working collaboratively with Atabay Rose (Wayne) and Noah ArthurTinworth (Jake), followed by George Hawkins (Wayne) and Kwame Ofori (Jake). Their performances were outstanding, for example, George Hawkins allowed the audience to get immersed in the storytelling through his natural line delivery and emotional connection to the character. This showed Wayne’s confused but caring personality after witnessing his friend’s stabbing. With such contrasting characters the audience felt constant tension and uneasiness during the early scenes of the play where the teenagers were nervous about being caught by the police and Charlie showed his concerns about being found by notorious brothers after admitting to being heavy-handed with his girlfriend. In the final scene, Jake (Hassan Khan and Cameron Furley) and Wayne (Robin Sargeson and Aaron Graft) are in a more reflective mood as the pair imagine sailing off down the Thames to escape the mud and high tides, leaving questions unanswered about Charlie’s survival and whether the teens dreams will ever come true. Each performance displayed the GCSE students’ creativity and comprehension of the complex and twisting plots. All the Fifth Form Drama students showed huge commitment to their roles and their groups, thus producing a highly convincing and enjoyable performance. Ms Olaleye—Drama Teacher
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AS PERFORMANCE An abusive father shot to death by his daughters and the police investigation that follows forms the dramatic heart of Shelagh Stephenson’s play Five Kinds of Silence, but in the hands of the AS Drama group this riskily sensationalist material is moulded into a taut and memorable performance marked by striking ensemble acting.
From the very beginning there is nowhere for the audience to hide from the savage emotions on display in the claustrophobic, deliberately over-intimate performance space, with an inthe-round set and stark contrasts in lighting. At the centre is a bed, symbol of the domestic context for the violence and abuse explored in the drama, and in all the corners of the performance space the lights project distorting beams of red. On the bed are five figures, sleeping, snoring in a way that is both comic and grotesque, all interchangeable in their black and white clothing and whitened faces, and then it happens: one of the fig-
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ures emerges, and her face changes, taking on a hard, brutal, gleefully lascivious expression, and there he is – Billy the abuser, the victim, and finally the dead man who just won’t quit. Ella Walters delivers her horribly compelling monologue of a man whose sexual aggression makes him imagine himself at his happiest as a dog, and all the while the other cast members (Leo Wing, Romy Kelleher, Emily Edmond and Lucy Redwood) magnify her words thorough seamless mime. Billy-dog sniffs a woman’s scent and the others sniff with him, he imagines a brass band playing and they immediately bring his image to life, he urinates on a lamppost and there it is, lying prone at his feet. The use of the techniques of physical theatre to externalise characters’ words and thoughts is clearly a key focus of the production, and it works brilliantly to convey the emotions that are both depressingly ordinary, so often recalled in the everyday domestic tragedies on the news, and also deeply strange.
The most striking feature of the production, though, is entirely the creation of this cast, who have taken what might seem a limitation – the number and gender balance of their cohort versus the specified roles in the play– and turned it into an opportunity for creative re-interpretation. All cast members take on Billy’s role in turn, and the sight of one suddenly changing in expression and stance, face transforming before the audience’s eyes into the all-too recognisable leer, is memorably eerie; it makes the themes of haunting and of the transmission of abusive relationships across the generations visible and striking. So Billy’s evil spirit travels on from Ella into Leo, and then the domestic drama of the murder takes centre stage. Susan (Romy) shoots him and Janet (Emily) shoots him again just to be sure, with their long-suffering mother Mary (Lucy) anxiously circling them, unable to process the idea of their freedom. The scenes with the three women are tensely involving, and how their identities have been shattered by their experiences is movingly apparent, as they remain resistant to the polite professionalism of the police who interview them. All the while, Billy’s spirit prowls, and the hateful words he spits out at them are spoken by all – his voice forever inside their heads. However, Shelagh Stephenson’s play doesn’t just want us to feel comfortable hissing the villain from our seats on the sidelines, and the following scenes present his family history of abuse, going some way to explaining why he became what he became. Romy as Billy speaks his account of the terrible beatings of his childhood, while the rest of the cast act sometimes the mother, conveying her hugeness and grotesque physicality in comparison to the child he was, and sometimes the emotions he is determined to deny, whimpering by all four sides of the bed and then springing up to laugh. Emily as Billy tells the story of his blind father being beaten and cast out by his mother, while the remaining four pair off to mime the violent action, creating a mirror-image effect that more than doubles the emotional impact. The final scene is fittingly bleak and unresolved, with a sobbing Susan spotlighted on the floor, and Lucy as Billy standing over her, taunting her brutally just as he did when alive, the violence of his dead-man’s threats spookily magnified to more than human proportions by his three faithful echoes. What a great production, and all involved are to be congratulated. Dr Brereton—Deputy Head of Sixth Form
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A2 PERFORMANCE One of the highlights of the Drama Department calendar each year has to be the A2 Drama Creative Adaptation performance. The wonderfully open nature of the brief allows the students to be truly imaginative and creative, and, for me, part of the thrill of watching this performance is that you never quite know what you’re going to get. This year, the exceptionally talented A2 students took the idea of adaptation to a whole new level; rather than selecting an existing text and adapting it for the stage, they chose as their inspiration a piece of art work: Tracey Emin’s ‘My Bed’. From this stimulus they created a stage image which was closely reminiscent of the original installation: an unmade bed strewn with used tissues, empty vodka bottles, and open cigarette packets, and all of the other detritus of one person’s life. It was a rather repulsive image but, as the protagonist Chris (played so convincingly by Michael Da-
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vies) put it, “Everyone makes this kind of mess. You just don’t like seeing it all in one place.” And it is this that inspires the central idea of the play: the mess people make of their lives. All of the characters are caught in a web of broken dreams and half-finished relationships, and many are left feeling in some way ‘used’, just like the objects which litter the stage.
The performances were universally engaging and convincing. Michael Davies as Chris, the protagonist, was terrifyingly cold, unstable and intense, whilst Phoebe Wilkinson demonstrated her impressive range as his girlfriend Amy in portraying both the gentle, level-headed reality of her character as well as Chris’ jealousyfuelled visions of her as a lusty temptress with equal depth. Eleanor Wright was both vulnera-
ble and hateful as the ex-girlfriend Steph, and Ed Holtom captured the suave charm and suspect motivations of Amy’s ‘best friend’ perfectly.
Niles Webb added a much needed comic touch with his depiction of Chris’ frustrated and ineffective brother, himself battling with a drink addiction and relationship woes. The complexity of the characters was a testament to both their focused and nuanced performances and the tight scripting, which allowed them to be conveyed so convincingly in such a relatively short piece. One of the most impressive aspects of the performance was the range of styles used by the actors to tell their story. Music and movement were central to the piece, helping to drive the narrative from the relaxed intimacy of the relationship between Chris and Amy in the opening scene to the nightmarish evocation of Chris’ madness after their break up and his jealously-fuelled visions of Amy in bed with her best friend Marcus. These were not only beautiful moments to watch but they also built the intensity of the play to its climax; a surreal dance where the bodies of the characters became physically entangled, ultimately writhing on the bed in a mess of limbs. There was also an uncomfortable sense of voyeurism that ran throughout the piece; not only were the audience sat on three sides, but the characters themselves sat amongst the audience and, at the end, the protagonist became the primary observer. As Chris got up from the bed and moved to take his stand behind the cordon, witnessing the chaos he had left behind, we too were left questioning our role as an audience and engaging with the central question posed by Emin’s original artwork: should someone’s ‘dirty laundry’ qualify as art for public consumption? Ms Baxter—Head of Middle School
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‘BEAUTY AND THE BEAST’ WITH
HURST CHILDREN’S THEATRE GROUP The final week of January saw, as usual, another successful production performed by the HCTG. The annual musical pantomime for this year was ‘Beauty and the Beast’, and as always it was full to the brim with good humour, a splash of political incorrectness, and awkward interruptions. This years running gag was from a dwarf-sized bookseller named “Toulouse LePlot” any time anything to do with being small was mentioned. Having the experience of working on ‘Beauty and the Beast’ was a true privilege. The start of the term went as it always did, with the plot explained, but we had no idea truly what sort of crazy production it would turn into with six months of hard work. It wasn’t very long before parts were decided upon and scripts given out; the show was beginning to come together. As an actor, no rehearsal went without an audience, with the rest of the principal cast watching and supporting, and laughing as the humour of the script was dramatised. We weren’t just all members of a drama company, we were all friends, and we all supported and encouraged all of the acting that took place. The cast, working together like a family, rehearsed with amazing chemistry, and comedy was created out of thin air with the most subtle and most hilarious of movements. However, that can’t discredit the slightly more adult humour that was in the script from the start, a lot of which came about through naming Belle’s father “Professor Auguste Balls” (which also provided a brilliant segue into “Great Balls of Fire” when the professor decided to try out his flamethrower). Of course, we weren’t able to do it alone, and it would have been simply impossible
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to perform without our energetic and enthusiastic director and co-playwright, Jonas Hurst. Whilst the majority of the cast were mimicking the French accent he could do to improve theirs, the more intricate gait, movement, and actions, were all taught to us by him. We could all easily spot that this script was funnier than ever before, and between Jonas and his father, Mike Hurst, they had constructed a performance that would keep the audience in fits of giggles. Most notably in that respect, “The Messenger” earned a laugh by playing it as an actor who kept coming out of character to marvel about being in the performance, even declaring at one point in the middle of a scene “Wow! I have worked with some big names, but you, you, are something special. Will you follow me on Instagram?”. Even in the last few rehearsals, having heard the jokes what felt like hundreds of times, they were still funny to us.
As the show drew closer, the last few rehearsals were really beginning to fall into place. We were able to run scene after scene without stopping, with everyone having paid attention to the instructions we were given. Principals came to the classes early to practice with the chorus lines, and the last pieces of the puzzle were fitting together. After a set-up in the Harpenden Public Halls with the lighting, sound, and backstage crew, show week began, with Monday to Wednesday being occupied by three dress rehearsals for different casts, and after that, the shows began. It became clear on the first night, Thursday, that the show was among the best that the company had ever performed. Jonas even exclaimed to a cast on Friday that the two and a half hours they had just performed were one of the best shows he had ever done. Of course, everyone had their favourite moments, a popular one among many of the cast members was when the grandfather clock named Deja-vu told the other servants that he has “a sister called Rendez, and her meetings always go well!” but overall, it’s difficult to pick out any singular character or scene as the best as it was all just so good. Performing on the stage is something that I, as an actor, will never tire of, and thanks to Jonas and the crew I was able to have yet another opportunity to do so that week. With performing skills also improved in sessions, the cast could stand on the stage and speak loudly and clearly, and appear to have the most confidence in the world (even though, as Jonas mentioned to at the end of the performance, some of us didn’t have as much confidence as we seemed and had successfully overcome a lot of fear to even stand on the stage in front of the audience). The entire performance ran smoothly, which was down to the crew as much as it was down to the cast. At the end of the performance we were able to walk away and feel proud of what we had achieved, and think about how six, long months of hard work had reached their peak with the outcome of what truly was an incredible show. Overall, it was an amazing experience that brought the entire cast closer together to perform a hilarious pantomime, and all the effort put in by everyone paid off. There is no doubt in my mind that the next show will be just as spectacular! Ben Solomons—Fourth Form student
WELWYN DRAMA FESTIVAL REVIEW On Wednesday 8th March I went to see the third night of the prestigious Welwyn Drama Festival held every year at the Barn Theatre since 1947. The first thing to say is that the festival is in rude health with more teams than ever applying to enter and an extra matinee added on the Saturday afternoon. I was also on a bit of a nostalgia fest as I had taken part at the festival on numerous occasions and noticed form the programme that I had directed the last home senior drama win for the Barn theatre youth group way back in 1983 with a production of Roy Minton’s Bovver.
I had come mainly to see Patrick Marber’s play ‘The School Film’ which had been written as part of the National Theatre Connections Scheme and featured GCSE Drama student James Tudor as well as former Second Master’s daughter Hatty Hardy and our very own current Senior Master’s daughter Izzy Taylor among the ensemble. Continued over the page...
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This play posed a number of challenges to the director Philip Reardon. The Barn is a tight space and there were plenty of actors in the talented cast. It was impossible for it not to look a little cramped but they dealt with the restrictions of touring a production admirably. The play involves a school assembly where the pupils watch the David Lean production of ‘Great Expectations’. Ironically, their expectations are very low at the start of the assembly but they begin to get engrossed in the action and absorbed by the characters and the quality of the acting. The assembly is necessarily static but they had an ingenious idea to hold the audience focus by using time lapse, speeding up movement sections to show the passing of time. The acting was uniformly strong with many young actors able to bring out fully developed roles with only a handful of lines to build on. The transitions between the film acting and the assembly were smoothly handled and you got a sense of the power of storytelling on the eclectic mix of pupils. James himself handled his multi-role playing admirably and clearly differentiated between each character. So whilst the play is a bit of an oddity and feels like it should not work, the quality of the writing and the strength of the acting transformed the production and the audience became engaged by the action - just like in the play. Later on in the evening a devised production of ‘Laugh Now’ featured two more St Albans pupils. This was a complex piece set in the future where different factions rebel against a Trump like figure spouting non-truths. At moments this play was quite brilliant, at others indecipherable unless you had been on the inside of the devising process. The acting throughout was quite excellent and the performances were
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highly defined. Niles Webb gave a comic and quite chilling portrayal as an orange-tanned leader out of control and spouting his lies direct to the audience. Joe Pattinson invested his Civil Servant with warmth and dignity and you followed his ‘everyman’ character as he tried to make sense of what was going on around him.
One of the most exciting things that I took form the evening is just how buoyant the state of Youth Drama is in the region. The quality and quantity of acting and directing on disposal across the week was highly impressive. In an era where the arts are used as a political football and funding cuts have left Drama as an easy target, a frivolous luxury that needs to go first, it felt almost like an act of defiance. As Scheherazade says in ’Arabian Night’s’ as she attempts to save her own life – “people need stories more than bread itself. They teach us how to live and why”. I am trying to cut down on bread but I never want to cut down on nights like these. Mr Swanson—Head of Lower School
JUNIOR HOUSE DRAMA COMPETITION On the 22nd of February, St Albans School Drama students took part in a Junior House Drama competition. This was an opportunity for the students to showcase their drama skills in addition to their script writing skills. The competition consisted of four Houses each showcasing a performance built around the theme of “Temptation”. Each of the plays were executed with conviction and each actor on stage gave a valiant effort to help their House win. The first play performed by a group of talented performers was ‘The Bad Genies, Good Genie and a Whole Lot of Mess’. The only downfall about this play is that it lacked detail of knowing where some of the scenes were located. Other than that, I thought that the Good and the Bad Genies worked well together with an excellent contrast between the two. They established themselves brilliantly on stage, giving a fearless and entertaining performance. I thought that the personification of the conscience was a great idea and the actor was also very entertaining. Extra credit to this actor for writing the piece too; he was funny and we all looked forward to him coming back onto the stage. The only criticism I can give this young actor is that he needs to work on his diction as there were some slurred lines, but I thought he was brilliant nonetheless and has a future in acting if he continues to train. ‘Smoking Kills’ was the second play in the line up. This had the biggest cast and each of them gave a fearless performance. There was a stand out performance from the young actor who played the classroom teacher, he stayed in character throughout the whole performance and he made the lines funny without trying to be funny. The relationship between the four main boys demonstrated good chemistry and comedy. I felt they showed their creative skills with the locations that they used, each were clearly evident and justified by the positions and use of the props in the scene. ‘The Heist’ was third in the line up. They showed creativity with the locations that they used on stage, but I felt that some of the concentration was placed too much on the news reporting, rather than the theme of temptation. I know that the space that they were working in was very small but I still believe that they could have been more creative when it came to stealing the diamond, it was too easy and very quick. The news reporter was the stand out performance with his energetic delivery of lines, however, I felt that the speed that he was delivering lines showed nerves which then led to line repetition and forgetting lines. Continued over the page...
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Overall the performance was honest and entertaining but I felt that the lack of attention on the consequences of stealing let them down.
Winners Marsh House ( ‘Smoking Kills’) with Aaron and the trophy!
‘Train of Thought’ was the final performance with a man down in the cast due to illness. This did not stop the performance from being well-executed and entertaining. All based in one location, the set that they used showed imagination. The audience knew exactly where they were due to the set up of the seats on the train and we also knew the essence of each character because of the props that they used and the talented acting. The stand out performance for me was by the “I’m going to see my parents” character. I believe that he was one of the strongest performers of the evening. He showed creativity with emotions and body lan-
guage and made us feel his pain through the delivery of his lines. His intonation was excellent and I feel that he was a credit to the cast. Their interpretation of the theme was brilliant as their conscience spoke to each of them through out the piece. Great all round performance and idea from everyone. All of the performers did themselves proud and they can take a lot away from their performances for the future. A great night of plays. Aaron Fontaine—JHD Adjudicator
A THANK YOU… FROM AN A LEVEL DRAMA STUDENT Any Sixth Form student who enjoys or indeed wishes to further pursue humanities subjects will be all too familiar with the sentiment we are bombarded with anywhere we look: STEM is the path forward! Kneel before STEM! I don’t like numbers much. It’s not that I chose this personal distaste for arithmetic or that I have formed it out of negligence after I chose my AS options, but it is just that my aptitudes for other things took precedence. The problem with this sentiment is that it can be thoroughly discouraging. If students are met with bar charts of subject employability, and are shown the literal devaluing of what might be their life’s passion, there are some horrid implications that their deepest interests are irrelevant. This clinical comparison wrings out the passion, importance and difficulty of subjects such as Drama or Art in the minds of some students, but it also robs the more indecisive pupils of the alternate and arguably necessary perspective: each subject has the same value. Without this consideration, this very dry comparison of subject value might go to turn pupils away from opportunity for participation.
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My very perception of the word ‘drama’ has been formed in this school. Everything I have known about it upwards of the age of 12 (and there wasn’t much knowledge there before that, save for my experience in the role of Hieroglyph 4 for my primary school play Glint of Gold) has been known here. Almost every line ever memorized has been lifted from a script handed to me by a St Albans School teacher. The Drama Department’s video camera has even documented my annual shift in height for every recorded performance I’ve taken part in. If this is my last chance to write as a pupil, I should spend it thanking the school and particularly the Drama Department for enabling keen students to hone their passion for theatre in an academic climate that would consider such a thing an easy option. Passion and ability for anything should never be shown to be of a lesser importance.
Michael as Smee in ‘Wendy and Peter Pan’
St Albans School Drama Department
When I look back on my years at this school I will remember the fact that my teachers Ms Bruton and Mr Swanson would not shy away from Kane’s ilk, were it not for them or this school the concept of Total Theatre would be entirely alien to me. All my experience and memory that is conjured when I hear the term ‘drama’ is indebted to this department which has done nothing but encourage me for almost seven years. My deepest thanks go out particularly to my teachers over the years that they have given me a passion for drama by showing it themselves. Michael Davies—U6th Drama student
DATES FOR THE DIARY...
Fourth Form Scripted Performances—extracts from ‘Accidental Death of an Anarchist’ by Dario Fo: Thursday 18th May, 7:30pm, New Place Gallery
Lower School Drama Summer Show: Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th June, 7pm, Amphitheatre
Senior House Drama ‘A Play in a Day’ Performances: Thursday 29th June, 4:30-5:45pm, New Place Gallery
New Place 01727 515285 drama@stalbans.herts.sch.uk