Dramarama

Pupils from C5 were joined this year by a number of pupils from the Royal Hill site for integrated drama and poetry activities.  All this activity developed from the successful participation of a group of Charlton School teenagers in the one-off event, sponsored by the BBC, of the Shakespeare Schools Festival ‘One Night of Shakespeare.

Part one: BBC One Night of Shakespeare

(Sunday 3rd July 2005)

The BBC funded a project, run by the Shakespeare’s Schools Festival, for 10,000 pupils from 400 schools to simultaneously perform Shakespeare in 100 theatres on Sunday 3rd July 2005.  A group of pupils from both sites joined together and rehearsed an interactive  workshop of ‘Othello’ using original Shakespearean text, Arabic (which would have been Othello’s first language) and key signs from British Sign Language (BSL).   More details, photographs and an article about the Charlton group’s experience can be seen on the SSF website at www.ssf.uk.com.

Part two: Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

(November-December 2005)

Pupils from both sites were invited to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre to co-host a series of workshops including many other schools.  The workshops included sessions on ‘Romeo and Juliet’, ‘Othello’, ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’

The students were filmed onstage at the Globe for the BBC ’60 seconds of Shakespeare’ project:

www.bbc.co.uk/drama/shakespeare/60secondshakespeare

Part three: Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

(January – March 2006)

Once again pupils from both sites were invited to return to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, where they were joined by a group of pupils from Thomas Tallis School.  This inclusive group played host to many other schools on stage, where they led workshops on ‘Romeo and Juliet’ that used 4 languages:  original Shakespearean text, phrases of Arabic and Hebrew (the warring families were made to Jews and Arabs, to give the play a contemporary relevance) and key signs from BSL.

Part four: School rehearsals

(April-July 2006)

In March, Charlton School successfully applied to join the 2007 Shakespeare Schools Festival, which aims to support around 30,000 pupils from 1,000 schools simultaneously performing Shakespeare in 100 theatres in the week of February 5th – 9th 2007.

In order to plan for this event, as well as for a return to the Globe Theatre in the autumn, a number of poetry workshops have taken place at school in which the teenagers practice reading and directing the workshops themselves.

Congratulations to everyone who took part in these wonderful opportunities.