Drama

Departmental Staff

Miss S Branston, BA (Wales) Director of Drama
D A Jackson, BA (Middlesex) Assistant Director of Drama
Miss S Hayes, BA (Royal Holloway)
I White Theatre Technician
M Burns Drama Assistant
Mrs S Wilson Departmental Assistant

Drama at RGS

Drama is taught throughout the school from First Form (Year 7) to A-level.  It is part of the core curriculum in the First and Second Forms, and an option in the Third Form.  Approximately 50 students take GCSE Drama  each year, and around 20 go on to include Theatre Studies amongst their A-level options.  Results are exceptional: last year 100% of A2 Theatre Studies candidates achieved an A grade and 26% achieved an A* and this year, 88% of GCSE candidates received A* or A grades. The department also supervises students who choose to follow the EPQ programme in an arts-related area. The  department has superb contacts with a range of professional artists working in the industry, many of whom are ex-pupils trained as writers, directors, designers, actors and agents.

Extra-curricular drama is a great strength in the school, with a busy programme of termly theatre events.  The department currently stages five shows a year along with  presentations of examination pieces and student-directed work. There are very strong links with the music department.. Recent productions have included: The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby Parts 1 & 2, Hamlet, The Crucible, A Zoo Story, Anything Goes, The Lesson, , The Tempest, Bouncers & Shakers, Once in a Lifetime, Antigone, Les Miserables, The Comedy of Errors, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Arabian Nights, , The Misanthrope, Henry V and Cabaret.  The department is currently preparing for -The Producers this term and The Importance of Being Earnest , A Midsummer Night’s Dream,  and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole next year. There are also drama, dance and puppetry clubs for various year groups and opportunities to be trained in technical theatre with the Theatre Technician.

The department achieved national success in 2005 and 2008 at the National Student Drama Festival in Scarborough. Firstly, with a student-directed production of Berkoff’s Greek, winning the Buzz Goodbody RSC Award for Directing and then an award for enterprise in 2008. Students successfully audition for the National Youth Theatre. The Director of Drama, Sarah Branston, is also Artistic Director of the Pendley Shakespeare Festival, and the Assistant Director, David Jackson, is an Associate Director of NYT.

There are frequent visits to local and national theatre and regular visits by theatre practitioners and touring tcompanies. Performances take place in the Drama Studio, opened by Dame Judi Dench, who is also the patron of the RGS Summer Festival.  

For a summary of the course please click here.

Examination Boards

GCSE: WJEC  
A-Level: WJEC

Examination Results

Departmental Activites 2010-2011

Over 30 Theatre Trips were organised last year to Fringe and Mainstream theatres around the country, allowing students to experience as broad a range of theatrical styles and genres as possible. Highlights included Mike Bartlett’s new, explosive play, Earthquakes in London, at the National Theatre, King Lear at the RSC and The Railway Children in its site-specific venue at Waterloo Station.

Visiting actor, Andy Apollo, fresh from training at the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Drama School, delivered a specialist acting workshop to students. Physical theatre specialist, Sally Hayes, also delivered an exhausting workshop to examination drama students. Students in the Junior School were given the chance to perform in the Summer Festival in a staged performance of The Carnival of the Animals, whilst our most gifted Senior Pupils battled against the December snow to perform the marathon epic, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby Part1 and 2, to huge critical acclaim. Students continue to use Open Mike Night as a scratch night for honing their performance skills and Comedy Night continued to showcase the school’s finest comic talents. The Easter production, the Junior Musical, Seussical, showed off the talent of our musically gifted performers. Choreographic work was provided by ex-pupil Sofia Greenacre, who will be taking up a scholarship place at Dance College in September. Laura Nicholson, another of our outstanding dancers, will also be starting a dance foundation course, having successfully auditioned for professional training opportunities at both Rambert and Laban.

Students are encouraged to direct their own work and this resulted in an outstanding performance in the Drama Studio of Ella Harland’s hard-hitting , state-of the-nation piece, Eight, directed by Sixth Former, Imogen Leipnik. The students were lucky enough to receive a surprise visit from the playwright herself. Meanwhile, Amy Johnson secured work placements with professional theatre directors, Josie Rourke -(who directed David Tennant and Catherine Tate in the acclaimed Much Ado About Nothing) and the experimental Katie Mitchell. These placements were organised to support Amy’s research for her Extended Project Qualification, expoloring how female directors operate in the rehearsal room. Rebecca Gough choreographed a stunning Dance section for the Charity Fashion/Dance Show, showcasing the exceptional dancing talent in the school.

Sixth Form Theatre Studies’ students spent a week over Easter in Scarborough at the National Student Drama Festival, participating in workshops and seeing the best student theatre in the country. Hilary Stoughton, Peter O Brien and Stephen Gellar had reviews published in the National Student Theatre Review Magazine.  Theatre Studies students also received training in all aspects of technical theatre from Ian White, our theatre technician. Robert Bradshaw, Olivia Flanagan, Matthew Beasley and Charlie Pearson all performed in the acclaimed open-air Festival at Polesden Lacey, in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.  Peter O Brien, Callum Tilling and Sebastian Noller were successful in auditioning for an exclusive residential course with the National Youth Theatre in Sheffield. Having made her West End debut in Billy Elliott, Emily Hart in the First Form is still playing to packed houses on tour in The Sound of Music.