GCSE 2009 Entry :: Posted 11-10-2008

Students are preparing for the performance exam which carries 40% of the marks and will be performed to an external examiner in the spring.

Originally I said that the exam would be the week after the early May bank holiday and we would use the bank holiday w/e to rehearse. I am now hoping that we might be able to do the exam during the first week of the summer term and use the last w/e of the Easter holidays (Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th April) to rehearse in the Hut. Please could you get back to me if there any problems with this (check out school trips etc).

Movement sessions
Caroline has kindly agreed to run a 2 hour movement session for each group. These will take place on Saturday mornings. Two have been arranged for this term as follows:

Saturday November 8th (10.00-12.00)
Poppy, Daniel, Sinead and Sid.

Saturday November 29th (10.00-12.00.)
Jacob, Samantha and Eva.

The other groups will have their sessions before the beginning of the February half term. I need the synopsis of the scenes, character profiles and the music to send to Caroline at least 3 weeks before the session.

Costumes
You are responsible for finding your own costumes but Suzannah has kindly agreed to ‘oversee’ the wardrobe. She will be coming to talk to you about your costumes as follows:

Thursday November 6th (6.30-7.45)
Sandy, Jack, Megan, Georgia, Henrietta, Ali and Sophie
Thursday November 13th (6.30-7.45)
Poppy, Sid, Sinead, Daniel, Jake, Samantha and Eva.

You must bring your costume to these sessions. This includes shoes, any coat you might put on during the play, any change or addition to your costume etc. If you know what you want but haven’t got it then we can move from there. It is not acceptable to come to the sessions without anything and say you don’t know what to wear - you must ‘know’ your character well enough to know what they would wear – look at pictures etc. and DO IT NOW!

Dates
Thursday November 20th
Last 7.45-8.45 session this term.

Thursday November 27th
6.30-7.30 Sandy, Jack, Georgia, Megan, Ali, Henrietta and Sophie.
7.30-8.30 Poppy, Daniel, Sinead, Sid, Jake, Samantha and Eva.

Thursday December 4th
No drama for GCSE 2009 entry.

Thursday December 11th
6.30-7.30 Poppy, Daniel, Sinead, Sid, Jake, Samantha and Eva.
7.30-8.30 Sandy, Jack, Georgia, Megan, Ali, Henrietta and Sophie.

Thursday January 8th
Drama starts again (7.45-8.45)

Next term we will need to put in extra sessions. This is partially dependant on how much work is put in by students vis a vis learning lines, putting in time out of drama club time and whether illness/bad weather have affected attendance etc. The options were Saturday mornings and Tuesday evenings. We discussed this last week and Tuesday evenings (5.00-7.00) was the preferred option. This will not necessarily mean every Tuesday for all that time, but parents and students need to be prepared to prioritise Tuesday evenings (especially after half term) for drama when extra rehearsals are necessary.

Lighting
The students are responsible for finding a lighting operator for the exam. This was mentioned at the parents meeting last year and the general consensus was that it is helpful in terms of the exam performance to have lighting (it is not an essential requirement of the exam, but it is usual).

Please could you all put your minds to thinking of someone you could ask to do this. A bit of money is available but it is not a ‘going rate’, so it would need to be someone who is sympathetic to the cause!

Thank you all very much for your continuing support of the candidates. Asking them (some probing questions) about their ‘plays’ is an excellent way of helping them focus on the issues, their characters, and the developing story lines.

With best wishes

Louise