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Drama
It has been another difficult year for Drama pupils and teaching staff, with a number of performances postponed or restricted due to year group bubbles and national lockdowns. Still, teachers and staff in all three sections of the school have worked hard to deliver a number of outstanding productions this year. The show must go on!
Ho Ho Ho What A Show Children from St Peter’s 2-8 performed a number of Christmas shows for family and friends to enjoy at home. Over 235 children took part in five performances in December, which were livestreamed using a special streaming service. The login details were shared with parents who were able to watch the shows remotely.
Nursery sang a selection of Christmas Singsongs whilst Reception performed Ho Ho Ho What a Show. Year 1 chose an alternative nativity called Prickly Hay whilst Year 2 performed The Nutcracker. The performances concluded with Year 3’s production Lights, Camel, Action, featuring dancing camels and a tango dance between shepherds and their brooms.
Mr Phil Hardy, Head of St Peter’s 2-8, said: “It is so important that the children can feel the magic and wonder of Christmas at school, and at St Peter’s 2-8 we transformed our main hall into a film set allowing children from Nursery to Year 3 to each perform their Christmas show.”
38 J5 pupils rehearsed for their production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Drama Workshops In the autumn term, pupils at St Peter’s 8-13 learnt a range of techniques in their drama lessons, from monologues to characterisation. Pupils watched lockdown monologues before creating their own duologues to be performed to their class. Pupils were encouraged to think about facial expressions and pauses when performing their duologues.
Our younger pupils enjoyed a special Mr Men and Little Miss drama workshop. The children were asked to choose a character and act out their chosen adjectives. Following the workshop, pupils wrote their own books and created new characters based on different adjectives. This was a challenge as there are already 79 Mr Men and Little Miss characters!
A Midsummer Night’s Dream 38 of our J5 pupils spent the autumn term rehearsing for their production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as part of the Shakespeare Schools Festival. Despite disruptions to the rehearsal schedule, the pupils successfully stage managed the production, complete with costumes, sound and lighting. The final performance was recorded and shared with their peers on Wednesday 9 December in the Shepherd Hall. Drama teacher Ms Bev Veasey, who co-ordinated the production, said: “I think that the disruptions to rehearsals and delayed performance times has really bonded the group. There was no way we were going to be cancelled without a fight and I am immensely proud of the way the cast and crew maintained their enthusiasm despite the project overrunning by three weeks.”
The Shakespeare Schools Festival is the world’s largest youth drama festival. Schools who participate perform half-hour abridged versions of Shakespeare’s plays in local, professional theatres all over the United Kingdom, with 20,000 children participating each year.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory At St Peter’s 8-13, the whole of J3 are usually involved in a large-scale musical production during the Easter Term. Usually, rehearsals start in December and pupils practise all the way up to Easter. This year pupils put on their own adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in just three weeks! Due to Covid the production did not involve any singing, and Ms Veasey was also unable to cast and rehearse in the usual way, holding the auditions online instead. Pupils even made their own props and costumes due to theatrical hire places being closed due to lockdown.
90 pupils (4 full classes) were involved in the production, which was split into four parts so that each of the J3 classes had their own section of the story to tell.
The performance was recorded by Mr Falconer so that family and friends could watch the show from home. Ms Veasey was particularly pleased to see the finished production, as she gained special dispensation from the Dahl Trust for the J3s to perform the play during lockdown. Practice Makes Perfekt At the end of each academic year, all J1s participate in a play in which every child has a speaking part. The production usually involves a number of songs and dances, and although the pupils were unable to sing this year due to Covid-19 restrictions they certainly made up for it with lots of dancing! The production of Practice Makes Perfekt involved 70 pupils and was filmed by Mr Falconer for parents to enjoy at home. The J1s performed in front of a live audience of J2s, who thoroughly enjoyed the production.
LAMDA Success LAMDA pupils at St Peter’s School achieved excellent results once again this year. Of the 42 candidates who sat their exams at St Peter’s 8-13 in March, we had a clean sweep of 42 distinctions across the whole school ranging from Introductory Poetry exams through to and including Grade 5 Acting Performance exams. At Peter’s 13-18 opportunities to study Public Speaking exams are encouraged and a particular mention goes to Oaken who was awarded his Grade 7 Public Speaking with Distinction. As part of this exam Oaken was required to write and present a speech about a Moral or Ethical issue and a contrasting speech of his own choice. He also had to deliver an impromptu speech, with just 15 minutes to prepare having been given a choice of 3 topics!
Other notable achievements were from Madison Hill with a High Distinction for her Grade 5 Acting and Ella and Jazz who were star duo LAMDA partners and achieved their Grade 8 Gold Medal with Distinctions whilst preparing for their A Level finals. LAMDA is the UK’s largest statutory speech and drama awarding body, with a global reputation for excellence. LAMDA sessions are fun and improve communication skills, teamwork, memory skills and creativity, allowing pupils to become self-motivated and self-disciplined as they are encouraged to meet learning deadlines.
42 Distinctions
Putting on a Show Upper Sixth pupils celebrated the end of the autumn term with a special performance, broadcast virtually for friends and family members to enjoy from home. Due to social distancing regulations, it wasn’t possible to organise the full school musical this year. However, the Drama Department at St Peter’s pulled out all the stops to ensure that the Upper Sixth pupils could still put on a show. On Friday 4 December, the Drama Studio was turned into a film studio by Miss Burns, and our fantastic pupils performed live to a small Upper Sixth audience and at least 200 people via TV screens. The production was live streamed as a one-off performance and the audience applied for free tickets in advance. The production included two Acts featuring the play ‘Elephant’s Graveyard’ by George Brant and a montage of “Songs from the Shows”. In the first Act, each cast member really brought their characters to life for the audience. The circus folk were vibrant and sparky and the townspeople were excited and righteous. The singing in the second Act was professional and a joy to listen to and watch. Lower Sixth pupils worked towards an outdoor performance to be produced in the Summer Term, with live music and gritty themes, whilst Fifth Form pupils worked on a devised piece based on the Hindu story of Ramayana.
Fourth Form pupils have also formed a drama improvisation group and are looking at new writing and in particular a play about young unaccompanied refugees.
