It has been another exciting and full year in the drama department!

Highlights include a visit from Travelling Light Theatre Company and their delightful production of The Ugly Duckling performed to children in Nursery, Reception, Years 1, 2 and 3. Mike Akkers from Travelling Light ran a workshop on Creativity, inspired by the educational philosophy, Reggio Emilia, and Year 3 had great fun. Year 8 was entertained by a group of Wellington College sixth formers performing Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge. Our annual trip to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre for Year 7 was slightly different this time as the stage was covered in scaffolding, and we missed our opportunity to impress the tourists! Year 5 watched Michael Morpurgo’s Why the Whales Came at the Hexagon Theatre in Reading, and Year 6 enjoyed Amazonia, set in the rainforest and loosely based on the life on Chico Mendes, at the Young Vic in London. For the first time in all my long teaching career at Dolphin and hundreds of theatre trips, Year 4 sadly missed Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night due to a gas leak at the Unicorn Theatre! Traces at the Peacock Theatre was inspiring and exciting, and Ben was heard to announce very loudly during the interval that this show was better than Cirque Du Soleil! Brian Alderson visited the Hairs and Graces company, and shared his tremendous knowledge of the Grimms brothers; he also brought along a selection of beautiful books. There were mask workshops run by Trestle Theatre Company for Year 6, and for the first time Year 8, giving the older students the opportunity to develop their skills further. The RSC workshop at our annual Shakespeare weekend in Stratford for Year 8 was exciting as we were lucky enough to work with both an RSC actor and an excellent workshop leader. If you look on the RSC publicity in the education section, you may well see photos of Dolphin children!

Many students chose to come along to the optional theatre trips recommended by the drama department; these included NIE’s moving production of The End of Everything Ever and the RSC’s/Told by an Idiot’s fast moving, hilarious joint production of The Comedy of Errors. Year 4 didn’t want to leave their puppet workshop with Tinka Slavicek from the theatre company Puppetellers, and when they finally did, they left with fabulous puppets made out of junk. As one parent said to me, ‘That may be simply rubbish to one person, but to another it is a treasure.’

Finally, a big thank you must be given to Matt Allwright, who came in and worked alongside Year 8 and myself for 5 weeks on a very exciting project inspired by the theme, conflict.

The drama department is looking forward to a busy next year, and as I write rehearsals have already started for A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Shakespeare in Schools Festival…

Judy Seall