Drama
Events
GCSE Drama
The current Year Elevens have recently put on Blue Remembered Hills by Dennis Potter, a play about a group of seven-year-olds set in the Forest of Dean. Their childish games go horribly wrong…
AS Drama
For their AS exam, the Year Twelves performed a piece of naturalistic theatre, which they themselves had devised, about secrets and lies and how they can destroy a family.
Senior School Production 2007
Grease
A joint collaboration with MAGDALEN COLLEGE SCHOOL, OXFORD and OXFORD HIGH SCHOOL.
DIRECTORS’ NOTES
The nostalgic rock and roll musical of the 1950s was written by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey in February 1971. By 1978 the film version of the musical was released and the world became suddenly smitten. Every schoolgirl wanted to be part of a ‘Pink Lady’ clique, looking for her own T-Bird or ‘Greaser’ and every boy wanted to be as cool as Kenicke or Danny Zuko. It’s been 30 years since those halcyon days and yet the appeal of Danny Zuko, Sandra Dee and the rest of the Rydell School gang is as strong as ever. Joining up with Magdalen College School, Oxford High School worked alongside the boys’ school and presented their interpretation of ‘Grease’ to ‘sell-out’ houses. The production emphasised a strong, fantasy element within the script; teenagers coping with the pressures of everyday life, working out questions of relationships, whilst escaping into their own imaginary world of hopes and dreams. The past few months have been full of laughter, delight, pelvic swivels and jiving! Now all the cast have learned to jive, we hope that they will never stop rock ’n’ rollin’. Long live your dreams!
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Lower School Production 2007
The Sound of Music
Our Lower School Production this year was the Sound of Music. Rehearsals began in earnest just after Christmas to ensure that all three performances were a roaring success.
The singing and acting were superb, from Maria and the Captain, to Max, Elsa and Aunty Frieda and the children gave their all.
We had a fantastic nuns’ chorus and some threatening Nazi officers.
Wonderful music from the band and a fantastic set and lighting all combined to create three nights of magic!
Personnel
The Drama Department expanded in 2007.
Miss Jacqueline Clewett has returned to the school to teach Year 8, alongside her Speech and Drama examinations.
Miss Cathy O’Neill teaches the Year 7’s and uses ‘The Grimm Tales’ by
Supple/Duffy as a stimulus for physical theatre.
Curriculum
In Years 7-9 Drama is an integral part of the timetable within the school year (on a rotation basis with other creative subjects). It also forms part of the General Studies programme in the Sixth Form. Every Year 9 girl is encouraged to act within a half hour performance piece and lunchtime ‘Bitesize’ theatre is becoming a regular half term slot that is enjoyed by many.
Students in Years 10 may take up GCSE Drama (AQA), which runs as a 2 year course and focuses on the learning of practical skills. GCSE Drama uses the set texts of ‘The Crucible’, ‘Blue Remembered Hills’ and ‘Billy Liar’ and scenes from these texts are regularly performed by the students, alongside a devised piece of theatre.
Students may also take AS and A2 Drama (AQA) in the Sixth Form.
Extra-Curricular Activities and Achievements
The students at Oxford High School are encouraged to write and produce their own plays. The Sixth Form have in the past performed and independently presented ‘Under Milk Wood’; ‘Anthony and Cleopatra’, adaptations of ‘Hamlet’ and mini-plays for festivals and assemblies.
The theatre is visited on a regular basis. Recent trips have included the RSC’s ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ directed by Tim Supple, ‘War Horse’ at the National Theatre and the pantomime of ‘Rapunzel’ at Chipping Norton Theatre.
Each year there is a Lower School musical and past productions have included ‘Annie Get Your Gun’; ‘Oliver’ and ‘Daisy Pulls It Off’’.