IGCSE Drama Performances

Last term, all the year 11 drama students (myself included) gathered to film one of our coursework pieces. This event – a monologue for some and a scripted group piece for others – was the last of our three coursework recordings: monologue, group piece and devised.

Throughout the latter part of the term, Ms Fisher guided us through our pieces, leaving us to develop and characterise our roles, giving some much-needed direction in places. After memorising lines (an unfortunate necessity), things were looking up. In the few days leading up to the scheduled recording, we scrambled to go over lines, amend staging and blocking, dig up character-accurate costumes and grab any props we needed.

Among the props were buckets, tables, carefully sourced lamps, couches and even an enormous wooden owl. And a selection of these had to be carted on and off stage between each performance. Luckily, we accomplished it like a well-oiled machine. Miraculously, I managed to avoid any particularly heavy lifting. My arms needed to remain intact for the show…

Monday afternoon was a fairly successful tech rehearsal, and then the day was upon us. Classic performance nerves mixed with the stress as this would be marked for our IGCSEs. We had a great turnout of friends, family and teachers all supporting the students. Despite admitted concern from Ms Fischer, I think we managed to pull it off in the end – with a very high standard of performance if I say so myself.

Thank you to the AV crew and everyone who came to support us. Now we wait for the videos to be sent off to Cambridge…

– By Ruby