Drama & Theatre Arts in March

All six year groups started 2012 with noteworthy creative energy and passion.

ES1 students are working on a mime unit that will see them performing both individually and in small groups.

ES2 is currently presenting El reglamento es el reglamento, a short piece by Adela Basch, for which they also designed props and costumes.

ES3 students are rehearsing scenes by Oscar Wilde, Eugene Ionesco and David Ives as their first text-based pieces of coursework for Paper 2 of their Drama IGCSE. Their work so far bodes very well for the future of theatre in St. Georges.

ES4 students have already devised and performed two of the three devised pieces for Paper 1 of their Drama IGCSE which they will be sitting in May. Their first piece, based on the phrase Made to Measure prompted dark, ironic looks at body fascism in the music industry, the selfish greed of politicians, and the search for alternative burial possibilities. Their second piece, based on the phrase Dead as a dodo resulted in bold and striking pieces denouncing the selfish and irresponsible exploitation of nature for our short term benefit. Before tackling their last devised piece for Paper 1, they will work on Act I of Christopher Durang’s Mrs Bob Cratchitt’s Wild Christmas Binge—this year’s set text.

ES5 has begun work on an ambitious devised piece which explores the grotesque world of daytime TV chat shows: expect lurid wardrobe, bad prosthetics, social masks in heavy mascara, melodramatic acting out and vicious acting up, chewing the scenery and scene stealing, and much much worse.

ES6 is currently putting the finishing touches to a piece of Theatre of Cruelty which grew out of their work last year with Alice Fairhall on physical theatre and corporal expression. An exploration of the surreal world of nightmares, The Horizon is Drowning promises to embrace the theatrical potential of set, lighting, sound, costume and make-up designs in order to expand the production of meaning.  

In addition, ES5 and ES6 students are currently devising this year’s IB Play—a look by turns ironic, poetic, apocalyptic, and even hopeful at THE FUTURE. Following 2009’s For $how and last year’s Junior Play Feo, this will only be the third devised school play in the history of St. George’s College. I’d like to tell you more about it, but who know what’s going to happen…