Academic/Subject Departments

Drama & Theatre Studies

Curriculum

The emphasis is on acting skills and effective communication, but design and technical skills are also addressed and, at GCSE and AS/A-level, girls can choose to be examined in costume design, make-up, mask making or set design.

Polished performances take place in the drama studio which is fully equipped with sound and lighting and the girls can also make use of a digital projector if they wish to include back-projections or moving image in their performances.

Our students are also taught how to evaluate live theatre and many trips run throughout the year including visits to local productions and further afield to such as to Royal Shakespeare Company productions in Stratford-upon-Avon or performances of popular plays and musicals in London’s West End. Girls have even seen Broadway productions as part of extra-curricular drama tours to New York.

Written homework includes assignments such as writing-in-role, drawing and justifying ideas for theatre costumes, writing plays and essays.

Drama Clubs and Competitions

In addition to curriculum drama, there are lunch-time drama clubs where the girls have the chance to relax and meet new friends, learn about theatre skills and they can even put on productions of plays in the Drama Studio.

There is also an annual Lower School Acting Competition open to any girl in Years 7 to 9 and certificates and prizes are awarded for the best performances.

Public Performances

The school play is an exciting event on the school calendar; last year’s was The Pirates of Penzance performed in the newly refurbished school hall, and past productions have included Shaw’s Pygmalion the glorious Cole Porter musical Anything Goes, performed at the Montgomery theatre in Sheffield city centre, and Alan Bennett’s adaptation of Wind in the Willows performed at the Merlin Theatre in Nether Edge.

Auditions are open to all years and for all productions there are always plenty of technical and backstage jobs available. Girls can also take responsibility for various production elements and even take on the role of the stage manager if they have excellent organisational skills.

Smaller school productions take place in the Drama Studio; for example last year, Year 9 students presented The Train, a play written by the Department’s own Mr Thomas and, in the past, a Year 7 and 8 production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was directed by the Year 13 A-level Theatre Studies students; this year, pupils in Year 9 will again be involved in a summer production.

There are also drama evenings which provide girls with the opportunity to perform monologues or duologues before an invited audience of friends and family and each year the Department teams up with the English Department to present an evening of rehearsed readings of poems and prose written by members of the School’s creative writing club.

The Department also organises theatre workshops such as one on musical theatre run by West End actor and choreographer Daniel Sharpe which was attended by students in Years 10 and 12.

Speech and Drama Lessons

Speech and Drama is taught on a group lesson basis throughout the Junior and Senior schools. London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) examinations are available in the following subjects:

• Verse and Prose Speaking

• Solo Acting

• Duologue Acting

• Public Speaking

Sheffield High School is one of the largest private centres for LAMDA examinations in Yorkshire. A term of ten group lessons costs £52.50¹. Please contact the School for further information.

A term’s notice should be given if lessons are to be discontinued.