Theatre Club news

This term has been one of the busiest ever for Theatre students and members of the St. Clare's Theatre Club. We have had two intensive acting workshops with the actors Pam Jolley and Chris Dickins (who plays the role of Captain Von Trap in the London production of The Sound of Music). Pam and Chris each spent two hours with some very talented St. Clare's actors. They shared with us what they considered to be the most useful skills for a professional actor including singing and tap dancing.

The 'professional skills' theme continued with an extremely valuable workshop from Jeremy Barlow on stage fighting (both armed and unarmed), one of the most useful skills an actor can have on their CV.

Just recently, Theatre students attended a performance of Kathakali at the Mill Centre in Banbury by one of the world's foremost Kathakali performers, Kalamandalam Vijayakumar. As Vijaya explains Kathakali is an extraordinary combination of Drama, Dance, Music, Poetry, Costume, Makeup and ritual where each unique element merges to create total theatre. Vijaya and his company will be coming to St. Clare's to show students how to apply the stunning facial make-up that is so distinctive to this type of drama; a wonderful opportunity for IB Theatre students studying Theatre in the World.

As well as this, Theatre students and Theatre Club members are also preparing for the second year IB students' play which this year is a period production of Oliver Goldsmith's hilarious 18th century comedy She Stoops to Conquer, first performed in London in 1773. Students from all three year groups are performing together and it promises to be a lavish and entertaining spectacle.