Drama
The school's main theatre, named after alumna Celia Johnson, is where most school productions are staged, with a play in the autumn term and a musical in the summer term most years. The drama studio is another, smaller, space where many of the other productions are staged. Both are black box. Productions have, in the past, been performed elsewhere in the school, including the Great Hall and the Concourse.
Students are able to put on 'studio productions' where they direct, produce, tech and act in a play of their choosing. This is open to the whole school.
The Colet Play is put on annually by the girls of the Seventh (Year 12). Voted for from a pool of proposals, the production is undertaken independently of the school, though its premises are used. In recent years several productions have been performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, often with critical success.
The VIIIth play is an annual undertaking for the Eighth (year 13), where a member of staff not in the drama department directs a play of their choice. Recent VIIIth plays have included 'The Love of the Nightingale' and 'The Changeling'.
The leavers' revue is another annual tradition, written and performed by the outgoing Eighth (Year 13) to the rest of the school. In recent years the revue has undergone numerous name changes; from the Eighth Revue to the Eighth Event, the Eighth Charity Event, and, in 2009, the Eighth Burlesque. In 2010 the title returned to The Eighth Revue. Advertisement for the VIIIth Revue has in recent years borne the slogan 'It's Coming'.
Drama club runs on a weekly basis for students in the MIVth (year 7) and the UIVth (year 8) where they devise short performances, and junior and senior improv club also run. Commedia dell'Arte troupe has been running for several years. The Theatre Society runs trips to theatre events around London, chosen by the Theatre Society Committee made up of senior girls. Several trips also run throughout the year to theatres to support learning in other subjects such as history, English, classics and modern foreign languages.
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Famous quotes containing the word drama:
“By whatever means it is accomplished, the prime business of a play is to arouse the passions of its audience so that by the route of passion may be opened up new relationships between a man and men, and between men and Man. Drama is akin to the other inventions of man in that it ought to help us to know more, and not merely to spend our feelings.”
—Arthur Miller (b. 1915)
“The drama critic on your paper said my chablis-tinted hair was like a soft halo over wide set, inviting eyes, and my mouth, my mouth was a lush tunnel through which golden notes came.”
—Samuel Fuller (b. 1911)
“I had this advantage, at least, in my mode of life, over those who were obliged to look abroad for amusement, to society and the theatre, that my life itself was become my amusement and never ceased to be novel. It was a drama of many scenes and without an end.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)