Theatre Studies
Why choose the Drama and Theatre Studies A-Level?
The Drama and Theatre Studies AS/A2 Level is a unique course offering intellectual, creative and practical challenges. As well as extending and strengthening your acting and drama-making skills, the course will deepen your understanding of theatre – its history, styles, techniques and stagecraft. It is a fascinating, broad and collaborative subject… and also a lot of fun!
Some of the attractions of studying this subject are:
* Performing in a stimulating production as part of your assessment (40%). Each year the students perform a major production. Last year the AS-Level students performed a futuristic production of the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex – ‘sex, genes, death and destiny’… Working as a small group of Sixth Form students, you will be able to explore dramatic material quite different from that of a normal school production.
* Regular trips to see live theatre. Productions seen recently include a physical theatre version of The Importance of Being Earnest, the African dance and drama sensation The Mysteries at Newcastle Theatre Royal, Caryl Churchill’s Vinegar Tom, Oedipus Rex in Durham, the stunning Mourning Becomes Electra at the National Theatre, and The Price in the West End. The course includes a combined Art/Theatre Studies residential trip to London in the autumn term.
* Exposure to a range of plays…
You will be able to think, read, analyse and argue about an art form which has been a key form of cultural expression throughout the ages and civilizations. Plays we have studied to date include Our Country’s Good by Caryl Churchill, Lorca’s symbolist classic Yerma, Ibsen’s naturalist classic Hedda Gabler, Brecht’s scathing satire of Nazism The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, and Shakespeare’s magical comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
* …dramatic styles…
You will be working, at different times, with realism, melodrama, classical drama, physical theatre, epic theatre, devised theatre, theatre of cruelty and theatre of the absurd.
* …and theatrical practitioners.
You will gain knowledge of Stanislavsky’s system for actors, Brecht’s famous alienation effect and Artaud’s idea of a theatre that shocks and breaks the rules. The English Touring Theatre, a group a professional actors with a national reputation, present a workshop on Brecht and Artaud in the autumn term.
We welcome everyone with an interest and enthusiasm for drama and who wants to learn about theatre, including students who have not studied drama at GCSE.
Entry for AS/A2 modules will be dependent upon regular attendance, a commitment to the subject, and successful performance in school based assessments. The student must demonstrate that s/he is capable of fulfilling their realistic potential in that module. If this is not the case, the Head of Department may no enter the student in that examination sitting. Students will be offered the opportunity to take that module at a later date. Should the student insist on taking the module in that sitting, against the advice offered, then it will be as a private candidate.