Drama News Drama in lockdown has been a challenge – it rather hinges on the ability of people to be in the same room at the same time. The Archers has bravely tried to keep going with a series of monologues ... with mixed results! We have been galvanised in similar fashion in the last months. Nicholas Beeby, Director of Drama The COVID-19 crisis meant that the usual assortment of rehearsals, plays and workshops that would normally take place in the Summer Term, had to be removed from the calendar. Nonetheless, the Drama Department, alongside a group of enthusiastic pupils from all year groups, has continued practising over the term, and a whole array of virtual activities and performances have taken place in the last three months. The enrichment programme for the Upper Sixth and Fifth Form offered four weekly 30-minute sessions on various topics. For Drama students the programme included a course on Gender in the Theatre for the Upper Sixth, and classes on Theatre as a Political Tool for the Fifth Form. Every member of the Third Form and Drama students from all other year groups worked on monologues to record and submit. Lower Sixth and Fourth Forms produced two monologues each: one Shakespearean and one modern. The Upper Sixth and Fifth Form produced one each, a mixture of Elizabethan and modern, while the Third Form concentrated their efforts on Shakespeare.
Talking Heads
As the Founder’s Day Play couldn’t take place this year, an alternative virtual event was hosted for the occasion on the College website in the form of a set of mini radio plays. Sixth Formers Ross Belton, Nicolò Beretti, Jessica Emerson, Abigail Gibbs and Amelia Parker recorded excerpts from Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads. The recordings took place in Hove, Worthing, Saltdean, Seaford and Singapore.
Advent Term Drama
Online rehearsals for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which had been scheduled for the Summer Term, were held online. We hope to be able to go ahead with the play in the first half of the Advent Term, alongside A Man For All Seasons, which was originally planned to be performed at the end of the Lent Term. 18
The Quad • Summer 2020
Drama Club at the College with Lower Sixth pupils
