Drama at BISC
Drama, like music, and art has always featured strongly at BISC.
Specialist teaching in the Junior School and the Senior School enables
students to participate in Drama from Year 1 through to GCSE. They
explore a variety of themes and issues in the drama classroom as well
learning to perform in front of an audience. Students are also given the
opportunity to become involved in all aspects of a production including
stage design, sound, lighting and makeup. Student productions are held
in the main theatre, which is a fully equipped professional theatre and
they also have the opportunity to perform in assemblies. Drama classes
take place in the Drama Studio and the Black Box Theatre.
At the centre of all Drama is communication. Like all the arts, Drama
allows students to communicate with and understand others in new ways.
Drama at BISC also provides training in the practical aspects of
communication, and students who have participated in Drama activities
are able to speak in public, are more persuasive in their
communications, both written and oral and have greater self-confidence.
Students in Drama learn to work together, to cooperate, to find the best
way for each member of a group to contribute, and to listen to and
accept the viewpoints and contributions of others.
Drama also helps students develop tolerance and empathy. An actor must
be able to really understand how the world looks through another
person's eyes. In today's increasingly polarised and intolerant culture,
the ability to understand others' motives and choices is critical. Drama
at BISC helps build responsible global citizens.
In addition to its intrinsic educational value, Drama at BISC reinforces
the rest of the school curriculum. A student who has explored themes
and issues in the Drama classroom will be better able to understand a
number of other subjects. The link between Drama and subjects such as
English, History and PSHE is obvious.
In a creative drama lesson at BISC, students respond to a variety of
stimuli and may listen to or read a story or poem, or hear a piece of
music, or see a painting and plan how to interpret it dramatically. They
may develop a plot, choose characters, create an imaginary setting and
then improvise dialogue. Together with their participatory audience,
they evaluate the performance, decide what was good and what could be
improved, then perform again, applying the suggested changes. The
players and audience then exchange roles.
Clearly this process is a highly collaborative one; it also develops
quick-witted spontaneous thinking, problem-solving, poise and presence,
concentration, and both conceptual and analytical thinking skills.
Making a piece of theatre with students encourages compromise and
commitment, which are all skills necessary for any work environment.
Performances take place in all age groups throughout the year and the
following is a small sample of some of the many well-known productions
that have taken place at BISC:
Billy The Bus; Honk;
The Ugly Duckling; Peter Pan; Alice in Wonderland; Annie; Into the
Woods; Grease; Oliver; Arabian Nights; Stepping Out; Abigails Party.
In addition, the GCSE students sometimes devise their own plays,
resulting in excellent GCSE grades.
