undefined undefined The Casting

The grating of chairs, the excited chatter, then silence as Judy approaches.
It can mean only one thing…
Casting

First of all we have to make a contract. A contract stating that we will support each other and learn our lines, come to rehearsals and do our own little bit for the play. Judy will then print off this contract and we will all sign it, agreeing to all of the rules.
Then Judy tells us the name of the play - ‘Sketches of Boz’. It’s always good to know that. Scripts are passed round for us all to look at and we eagerly flick through, keen to see our play that we will be showing to the whole school in March. It looks confusing and has 62 pages, but we can all tell that it will piece together through the many Thursdays and endless lunch breaks. Judy then starts to read out the names on the cast list. Instantly we all start to sit up and eagerly listen for our names to be called out. We have about four Charles Dickens in the play! Name after name is called out, role after role and I still haven’t been chosen! Eventually I think that I won’t have a part, finally Judy calls out my name. I glance at the clock and to everybody’s surprise, it is already 5:15 and time for us to be picked up.

Imogen Lord

Rehearsal no. 2

It’s Official…

Our first proper rehearsal! It was fine due to our amazing acting talents with perhaps a few mishaps along the way… we started off on page 1 and slowly progressed with great results to about page 5! Both Hal and Thomas had to leave slightly early, but that did not hinder us in the slightest. The first few lines were not particularly challenging, although it did give Lawrence a hard blow at how hard being stage manager really would be! Due to our extremely complicated stage layout it takes a lot longer for us to work out how we are going to stand and to which direction we direct our speech. The most exciting scene was when old Mary Weller is telling young Charlie and Fanny a story full of murder and gore! Luca plays the mean and grouchy Captain M who welcomes unsuspecting travellers into his tavern, which sits at the edge of a teetering cliff only to slit their throats to make them into pie. After that scene was mastered, we moved on to the scene where the dickens family are in London. This was not that hard as it did not require much action or moving around, so we moved on rather quickly. After that we realised that time had run out, so we all shook hands with Judy and went home.

Imogen Lord

Rehearsal No. 4 We Progress!!!

As every actor mingled into the hall, Judy sat us down and gave us a digestive biscuit, kindly donated by Jenny Zolkwer, and we all ate while discussing our plans for rehearsal. Instead of starting straight off the script, we started off by doing a character warm up. We all chose one of our characters from the script and thought quickly of how they would behave if they were walking along the fog- lined streets of London, whilst surrounded by pickpockets and up-nosed gentlemen. At the click of Judy’s fingers we slowly moulded ourselves into shape and then we were off, walking around, lost in our own Victorian world.

As I looked around me I could see Seb, a pickpocket, William, a wealthy gentleman, Hannah, a lost little girl staring up at the tall, oppressing buildings of London.

We then started practising our lines from the script and all was running smoothly until Michael fell off his chair, again…

The scene we were practising was when young Dickens is playing with his best friend and fellow mouse trainer, Dan Tobin, from Wellington College. That scene was quickly completed and we moved on to Nicholas Nickleby, featuring the evil Mr Squeers, whom Dickens based on his childhood tutor, Mr Jones. All of the poor boys are sitting in a row whilst being yelled at for speaking out of turn. At the last moment, a load of the cast were nominated for these roles, so had to learn the script really quickly. After Squeers had terrified us enough for one day our lovely parents came to pick us up, for, once again, time had run out. :(

Imogen Lord

A Message from Judy Seall, the head of drama…

Head of Drama, Judy Seall .... flying!

Drama at Dolphin is about being creative, stretching the imagination, expressing ourselves, gaining confidence and developing co-operative skills. It is also about laughing a lot!

We follow the Arts Council Guidance on drama ensuring that our students have the opportunity to create drama, perform drama and respond to drama. Drama is taught formally once a week from Year Two upwards, and over the course of their Dolphin School life students will encounter a wide range of dramatic materials and texts; experience, understand and use creatively dramatic concepts, forms and techniques; experiment with and gain competence in modes of performance; and have access to a wide range of live theatre.

Professionals from the theatre world visit us regularly running workshops on a variety of subjects ranging from visual mask theatre to creating and bringing to life puppets made from junk. There are numerous trips organised to see live theatre – this has included highly respected companies such as Kneehigh, the RSC and NIE touring company. And we watched one of the very first productions at the Unicorn Theatre after it had moved into its new home on Tooley Street.

We stage two major productions annually and numerous other smaller pieces for specific events, such as Bookweek, the weekly assembly or the Shakespeare in Schools Festival. We hope to create dynamic, thought-provoking and popular theatre, which not only challenges us, but the audience as well. Many of the productions are written especially for the students; the most recent example being Hairs and Graces, an adaptation of three Grimms’ fairy tales. Do read the review!

Central to this work is our belief that participating in drama and the other arts can have a profound impact on young people’s lives by promoting creativity, self-confidence and enhancing learning, as well as being lots of fun!

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

Hi! I am actually the first person to write the blog, apparently. We were all really enthusiastic about it, but then we just forgot-we were too busy remembering our lines, I guess. But then again.... some people are still forgetting their cues, me included! We've spent so much time on the end, I forgot the beginning! I think the worst part of the play is when all the 'lovers' (me, Rosie, Gregory and Craig) have to snuggle up. And we all have to put our arms in certain places and my arm gets so uncomfortable. Sorry for being whiny. There are plenty more things to grumble about like some of us still are forgetting cues and the play is 3 days away. AAARGH! We were doing advertising on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. In the morning I was so cold my hands almost dropped off.

I have to go now, coz it's nearly time for bed...... bye! From Ruth, 3^rd October 2009