Fourth Form give new life to the Classics
Our Fourth Form girls brought the dramatic year at St Mary's to a terrific end, with their full-strength, high energy productions of the junior musical versions of Aladdin (LIV - Year 7) and Beauty and the Beast (MIV - Year 8). Lasting just over an hour each, the scripts cut much of the dialogue from the 'official' versions, but still retained most of the narrative and all of the well-loved characters, so provided a real challenge that all the actors passed with flying colours (and carpets!).
On Thursday 6th June, 11 girls performed in the Summer Term LAMDA Showcase in the Delscey Burns Theatre. The selection of girls ranged from LIV up to LVI (Year 7 to Year 12) who are mostly taking a LAMDA exam later this month.
On 13th May, the MIV (Year 8) and the cast of the school's production of Flesh were treated to a night at the Bristol Hippodrome theatre to see the visually spectacular Matilda. The musical is based upon Roald Dahl's classic children's book, and features original music by Tim Minchin.
On Thursday 2nd May, the Drama students in LV and LVI (Years 10 and 12) performed their devised plays for a small audience. The girls had been working on the pieces for a few months, and the final products were of a brilliant standard.
Friday 26th April saw the girls' final performance of Flesh, having already performed the play in the school theatre, and it was a great opportunity for the girls to perform on stage at The Egg Theatre, Bath.
On Sunday 24th March, selected members of our UIV (Year 9) took part in two thrilling performances of Flesh by Rob Drummond, and directed by our fantastic LAMDA teacher, Rebecca Cochran-Patrick. The play is our entry for the National Theatre Connections Festival, and our 7pm performance was visited by a director from the NT. 
On 12th February, 15 Year 12 girls gave their presentations at the RADA Studios in Chenies Street, London. These were in front of an audience and a panel of communications experts from RADA in Business, who then questioned them on their topics and gave feedback on their skills.
On 1st February, against the snow's best attempts, our GCSE and A Level students performed their Scripted Plays for their examined performances.
On 6th December, our Junior Drama Club, comprising girls from across the Fourth Form, were treated to a trip to Bristol's Tobacco Factory Theatre to watch a fun-filled performance of The Borrowers to say thank you for all the hard work they have put in over the Autumn Term. The play takes the well-loved story of the little people beneath the floorboards and places it on stage in a crazy, inventive but wonderfully simplistic way.
This term, our Junior Drama Club girls have been working on small pieces of Children’s Theatre, inspired by stories from the BBC’s '500 Words' competition. The girls have performed at two local schools, St Margaret's Preparatory School and Holy Trinity Primary School, Calne, and have thrived in front of the young audiences.
The St Mary's UV (Year 11) Drama group fused Drama with learning on 4th December, when they visited Colerne Primary School to perform their TIE (Theatre In Education) plays. The class had spent a month devising 10-minute pieces with an appropriate moral message, each based on fairy or folk tales.