Drama News Pages

For three nights at the end of last Half Term, a terrific senior school cast brought to life the brilliant Richard Bean/ David Arnold musical Made In Dagenham. Based on real events, the plot told of the struggles of Ford female car workers in the 1960s, and the superb songs, plus a sprinkling of slightly saucy gags, made the show go with a real swing.

It's been a busy start to the term in the Drama Department and the Year 12 girls have enjoyed visits to both the Oxford Playhouse to see Malory Towers and the Theatre Royal Bath to see Posh.

On 4th August, six members of the UVI (Year 13) accompanied by their director, Mrs Cochran-Patrick and producer Miss Dickinson arrived in the beautiful city of Edinburgh to perform Mobile Phone Show by Jim Cartwright at Space on the Mile for five days.

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 4th June, the LV and LVI (Year 10 and 12) Drama students set off for Hammersmith's Lyric Theatre for the last theatre trip of the school year to see Kneehigh's terrific political play with songs, Dead Dog in a Suitcase.

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.