Drama

A-level Course

Theatre at A Level is more challenging and more complex than any mere syllabus outline.   Your interest may lie in performing, directing, lighting or stage management, or you may just have a more generalsied love of the subject: whatever that case, you will find much to stimulate, provoke and challenge.  Our A Level pupils have gone on to perform on the stage,  television (e.g. Edwin Drood) and film, as well as read Drama at a range of top-ranked universities.

We follow the new AQA specification in Drama and Theatre Studies.

Two modules are taken in each year:

Lower 6th (Year 12)

At AS, Unit One deals with the study of a set text and the evaluation of a piece of live theatre seen during the course. Examination is through written paper, which may be taken in January and/or June.

Unit Two is practical: the presentation of an extract from a play. Candidates combine the staging of a script with study of appropriate influences, be they practitioners, designers or directors. The performance will happen in April.

Upper 6th (Year 13)

For A2, the pattern is similar: Unit Three requires the study of two set plays in different ways: one play is examined through essay while knowledge of the other is shown by providing suggestions fro a complete stage realisation of a lengthy extract.

For the final unit, candidates work in groups to make and present a piece of their own devising. As with Unit Two, research into an appropriate theatrical style is needed.

Visiting moderators who come every year habitually report their enjoyment of the work they see, as well as its depth and sustained high quality.

The visual and conceptual flair of performance work at this level is what has inspired so many of our pupils to transcend the limits of the exam specification, whether by writing thier own plays, makign thier own films, or by reading the subject at university, or going on to professional work as performers, technicians, stage managers and directors.

Trips

Not only can pupils expect to be taken to see a variety of plays , but the theatre comes to us!  Shows that have won awards at the Edinburgh Fringe and elsewhere have come to our studion theatre in Montague and provide a great opportunity for pupils to meet, question, and on occasion work with professional actors.