Drama & Theatre Studies
Plays and performances will take you into other worlds, help you empathise with other lives, inspire you to communicate in other ways. Drama and Theatre Studies is skill and theory-based learning where each element supports and enriches the other.
At many points in our students’ 21st century working lives, they will be required to communicate on more public platforms; they will be called upon to collaborate in teamwork, communicate their ideas with others, or be faced with the challenge of delivering success under stress. Drama is a subject with all of those core skills at its heart.
The drama curriculum, both in and out of the classroom, is driven by our desire to provide students with a broad range of opportunities: chances to build skills; to collaborate; to create, perform and appreciate; and to communicate, with analytical preparation, but also, on occasions, in the moment! These skills and experiences are what help shape Monkton students into confident, diligent, appreciative and cultured young adults.
Year 9
What will I learn?
Performance drama - which employs acting and theatre skills in order to communicate effectively to an audience.
The process of drama - which allows students to explore and confront problems and situations, and challenges them to respond creatively.
The pupils will be introduced to many aspects of the subject including improvisation, script-work, mask and mime and their skills and abilities in specific areas will be developed.
GCSE Years 10 and 11
What will I learn?
There is an incredibly exciting broad range of areas of Theatre that are studied including: improvisation, scriptwriting and performing; self-devised drama; mask work; physical theatre; mime; different styles of theatre; directing; lighting; sound; staging and set design. Students will delve into the art of writing drama, and great emphasis is placed on collaborating with other actors and writers. There are also a host of opportunities to perform on the stage, leading to the final scripted and devised GCSE performances (see the Eduqas website for further details).
A Level Years 12 and 13
What do I need before starting this course?
A genuine interest in the subject and a real enthusiasm for, and dedication to, plays, productions and those you will be working with, is essential. We will look for a B grade or above in Drama GCSE (or, if you have not taken it, a grade 5 in English GCSE).
What will I learn?
Through the study of texts and the production of plays, students will gain many life skills along with theatre-specific techniques. As well as analyse theory, subtext and character to lead us to creative form and design of performance - using our knowledge to reach into the lives of others and experiment with ways to affect our audience. Throughout the course, you will experience varying professional theatre companies, analyse their techniques, and use this to influence the work in class (see the Eduqas website for further details).
