Clifton College Website

NEWS ✺ NEWS ✺ NEWS ✺ NEWS ✺ NEWS ✺ NEWS ✺ NEWS ✺ NEWS ✺ NEWS ✺ NEWS ✺ NEWS ✺

Download our Lent Term newsletter

The Drama Department has had a great start to 2012 with several "Interviews with ..." events which have proved very successful and have been attended by a range of students from 13–18 years and, of course, many staff too. It is always very special when those who have been successful in their careers come back and share their experiences and advice with students in the school. I am very grateful to our guests for all the enthusiasm they have given to their audiences and my thanks go to:

Clive Swift (OC)
Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley
Andy Hay

Updated Summer 2012 National Youth Theatre 2012 Two of our pupils, Lilith Wozniak (5th form) and Florence Woolley (4th form), have been accepted into the National Youth Theatre and this will mean the opening up of many wonderful opportunities. There will be workshops, audition techniques and productions which will be open to them to become involved in, not to mention the working with professionals and meeting new friends with which to work in theatre.

We wish them luck and encourage them to make the most of this fantastic opportunity as this will improve their acting skills and performance work.

Updated Summer 2012 Bluefin Dance Award 2012 Tuesday 13th March saw performances from five students who were each competing to be selected as the prize winner for the Bluefin Dance Award. This is the second year we have held auditions for the award and we saw a considerable increase in standard from last year... more

Updated Summer 2012 Circomedia Workshop April 2012 The cast of Romeo and Juliet enjoyed an early start to the term in April, working for the afternoon with two performers on juggling and acrobatics. The performance of Romeo and Juliet will include street performers and to ensure that everyone is trained well for this, we brought in Circomedia to assist us. The whole cast worked for three hours on a variety of street entertainment from juggling balls to standing on each other in a pyramid!

The ability level was quite low for juggling to begin with, but it was very surprising how quickly some of the cast managed to achieve a good level of skill in this and quite a number were juggling with three balls very quickly. Spinning the plates was a popular skill too and a few cast members were able to put the spinning plate on their nose or chin whilst keeping the plate spinning. Quite a feat!

Towards the end of the workshop, the cast worked in small groups to develop their skills in using each other as steps to form a pyramid and this helped their levels of trust with each other too.

We shall be using these skills in the Jacobean street around the stage for our outdoor performances and the cast is looking forward to having the final workshop to enhance their skills for this production. A smaller number of cast will be chosen for this workshop and they will have further skills taught them and choreographed.

The performers from Circomedia who came to the workshop were patient, kind and very helpful and our cast really appreciated the time they spent teaching them their craft. We all look forward to working with them again soon.

Shakespeare’s Globe The trip to Shakespeare’s Globe on Friday 17th February was a huge success for the cast of Romeo and Juliet as they gained enormous benefit from two workshops given by the Globe professionals – one on vocals and another on combat fighting. We were all so excited as we set off for London and everyone enjoyed every minute of the day, and are looking forward to putting our new skills into action. See a Review and some photos of the day.

The House Play Festival In the Lent term there is a week-long festival of performances by each House in the Upper School – directed by the students, for the students. A panel of three judges (independent of the drama department) critique each performance and present their comments and awards to the whole School in an exciting Oscar-style Awards Ceremony on the Friday morning. See reviews of the performances, awards and commendations of the 2012 Festival and previous years.

The Fifth and Lower Sixth students spent a day at RADA in January and learnt how to project their voices and how to put text into their vocal performance. This was an exciting course which included support and information about audition expectations and work; and a tour of their amazing Drama School. This was followed by a trip to the West End to see David Haig as King George III – an amazing performance which earned him a standing ovation.

The events are not over yet of course! There are still the following exciting plans in the department to look forward to:

Phantom of the Opera Bristol Hippodrome on 29th May. JUST ANNOUNCED! Phantom of the Opera has been announced as the next School Production in November 2012. We are all very excited to have the privilege and challenge to put this famous production on the Redgrave stage, and workshops will start in the summer term.

Excitement is mounting for everyone as the Drama Department is involved in the Son et Lumière on Friday 6th July and the Drama students will be performing in this spectacular event!

The Cherry Orchard at The Tobacco Factory This trip will be for the Fourth, Fifth and Lower Sixth. This has had amazing reviews so should be a play worth seeing!

War Horse, London At last we have managed to purchase enough tickets to encourage all the Drama students to come to one of the most stunning shows in the West End. We shall be doing some work on this to follow the trip, which will be on 11th December, immediately after Last Chapel, and returning at about 1 a.m. on 12th December.

STOP PRESS!
Ghost the Musical More information to follow! There will be a one-off opportunity to share in this spectacular show by meeting and working with the cast on the stage of the Piccadilly Theatre and joining the audience in the evening to see it being performed.

Vanessa Bailey (OC) Sadly, Vanessa has had to cancel her visit to Clifton, but it will be resheduled, so please check back soon. Since leaving Clifton, Vanessa Bailey has made a name for herself as a director and we are all looking forward to hearing about her steps to her very successful career in films.

Let’s not forget our exciting production of Romeo and Juliet which will be an outdoor production in the School Quad. This is the first time that this Shakespeare play has ever been performed at Clifton and to have the opportunity of working with the students outside in the grounds will be fabulous. This production is showing on Saturday 30th June, Sunday 1st and Monday 2nd July, 2012.

November will bring our production of Phantom of the Opera in celebration of the School’s 150th anniversary. The celebrations of the School’s official birthday will take place at the end of September and therefore it will be a wonderful opportunity to put on this very special musical to celebrate.

The students are already speculating and becoming excited and as the Drama Department will be taking assemblies during the week of 6th February – this will be the time for the announcement of what it will be.

The Drama Department continue to organise other special events for students during the remainder of the year and these will be added to this page as soon as we have the plans in place.

© 2006-12 Clifton College