Drama and Dance

Senior School

In what has been an extraordinary year for the world at large, students of the dramatic arts at St Dunstan’s College have once again embodied an admirable resilience in their creative and inspired response to the challenges of the pandemic.

Inspired by the polished offerings of examination groups at the College, the Michaelmas term saw the introduction of ‘Black Box’ devising clubs across the KS3 cohort, with the co-direction of GCSE and A Level students ensuring that our younger students were given the opportunity of working with a wide variety of stimuli and practitioner styles. Whilst Year 7 combined Orwell’s dystopian world of Animal Farm with Brecht’s desire to educate, Year 8 took their inspiration from the verbatim responses of the College community to the Covid-19 pandemic, using Boal as a medium through which they could devise a response. As well as expanding our devising provision, the Drama department also dipped their toe into the world of Podcast Radio and Script Writing within KS4 and KS5, with both clubs allowing us to further diversify the skillsets and performance mediums of ensemble members. Following such a popular response to the projects, ‘The Attenborough Project’ was then launched in the Lent term, which allowed students to combine their personal interests with their new-found skills, resulting in some remarkable documentaries that covered a wide variety of topics, from the preservation of sharks to the wonder of neuro-diversity! Demand for Dance at the College remains at all-time high, with ‘Champion Performing Arts’ offering a combination of online and in person classes throughout this academic year, with all styles and variations of movement being accounted for. Having remained one of the most popular choices in our Forder slot over a number of years, we are also incredibly excited to announce plans for the College’s first ever, full scale Dance production, which will be launched in September 2021. As one of the primary driving forces behind Dance at the College, we are equally excited and proud in extending our congratulations to College Dance extraordinaire Willow Fenner, whose dedication and commitment have seen her rightfully rewarded with a place of study at the prestigious London Contemporary Dance School. Another ever-expanding and popular stalwart of our Forder programme is the Stage Tech club, with the vertical mixing of those in Years 7–13 creating a crosspollination of innovation and creativity that has once again resulted in one of our most experienced technicians, Evie Witherell, gaining a coveted place of study at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Having inspired numerous

students in the College to follow in her footsteps, as well as balancing stage management with her exams, she will be missed. Luckily for us, she leaves the club in very good hands! As unprecedented as these times may have been, one thing has certainly remained a constant and that is the commitment and dedication to the Dramatic Arts at St Dunstan’s College.

Mr G Stewart

Director of Drama