Drama

Welcome To The Drama Department

Staff

Miss L Waddington : Head of Drama and Deputy Academic Team Leader for Performing Arts

Miss H Donnelly : Teacher of Drama

KS 3/4 curriculum
Extra Curricular Activities

Monday
Dowdales Youth Theatre (DYT) 3:30pm- 5:00pm

Tuesday

GCSE Year 11 Rehearsals 3:30pm-5:00pm

Year 7 & Primary Drama Club 4:00pm - 5:00pm

Wednesday

Thursday Musical Theatre Club (All Years) 1:00pm- 1:35pm KS3 Drama Club (Except Year 7) 3.30pm- 5:00pm

Friday

Partnerships

3 year partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company:

Our partnership with the RSC began in September 2007, and is now its third phase. It has been a great honour and privilege for our children to work alongside such an inspirational company, particularly when we were creating the Shakespeare Festival. This was co-ordinated by Mrs Waddington and held at Dowdales in March 2009, involving a cluster of four Primary and three other Secondary schools in the local area.

The aim of the Festival, and indeed the RSC's national campaign, was to 'Stand Up for Shakespeare'. Here at Dowdales, we have been encouraging our children to perform Shakespeare 'up on their feet', 'see it live' and 'start it earlier'. These are the three goals of the RSC's campaign to engage primary and secondary children with the great works of Shakespeare in a challenging, exciting and rigorous manner.

The play within our cluster was "Much Ado About Nothing". Dowdales Youth Theatre (DYT) decided to focus upon the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick. Training sessions with the RSC for both staff and pupils alike fired plenty of imaginations, and made the Festival a huge success. It was an excellent opportunity and a thrill for the cast of DYT when they discovered that the RSC had chosen their piece to participate in the Festival held at Stratford. This was performed at the RSC's own Courtyard Theatre, and the pupils were introduced to Michael Boyd, Artistic Director to the RSC.

Two of our year 11 pupils, Andrew Hodgson and Tania Clarke, were chosen to take part in a summer school held in Stratford by the RSC. They performed "A Winter's Tale", playing the parts of Autolycus and Perdita respectively. Both enjoyed the experience immensely, and now have the task of cascading their skills and insight to the pupils lower down the school.

Here are a few photos to give you a flavour of the experience:

Developing partnership with National Youth Theatre:

To begin March 2007

Year 10 work with artist in residence Adam Clarke on a climate change project