Year 9 performances review

On 5^th May 2022 as part of the Performing Arts Festival led by Year 13, the Year 9s put on plays for their parents as part of their end-of-year assessment. These plays were a vast range of genres including comedy (“The Play that went wrong part 1 and 2”), a story about a wardrobe through time (“The Wardrobe”), a story about the experiences of students in an exam (“The exam”), a play set in WW2 and finally a play all about why one shouldn’t be in a play (“15 reasons why”). Each of the four plays was around 30 minutes long and included all Year 9 students – some even played two roles.

In preparation for the performance, the students practised their plays in their drama lessons and in their own time. As well as acting, students had to create and organise all props, costumes, settings for their scenes and music and lighting queues in their own time with only a little help from teachers. This allowed students to work on many valuable skills including teamwork and organisation.

On the day of the performance, students came out of lessons to finalise their plays and were able to practise on the stage, in the auditorium, where they would perform on later that day. The Year 13 drama students helped Year 9 students to improve their acting and help prepare for their performance.

The evening went smoothly and was a success as the Year 9s performed confidently with only a few hiccups in some performances. Performing in front of an audience was a challenge at first since this was the first performance in two years for many students due to the pandemic. The evening was enjoyable and made many members of the audience laugh. This was definitely an evening to remember and to be repeated in the future.

By Elena, Year 9