Cranford Review 2016

A Year of
Innovation, Exploration and inspiration
Cranford’s Drama Department and its
talented students are not afraid to
try something new, be inventive and
rise to new challenges and this year has been
no exception. Right from the beginning of
this academic year the department took on
the challenge of staging “Macbeth” for the
Shakespeare in Schools Festival which received
huge praise for its originality and staging and
some outstanding ensemble performances. This
was followed by a highly thought-provoking
production of Peter Shaffer’s “Equus” by year
12 A level theatre studies students, which
brought its own challenges with the technical
requirements and double casting. The year 11
GCSE drama students surpassed expectations
with their sophisticated and innovative group
projects based on the theme of “Consequences”,
creating performances which tackled head on
current issues and situations like bullying via
social media, segregation, elitism, and personal
conflict.
In the spring term year 9 performed their TIE
(Theatre in Education) pieces to primary schools
based around issues such as bullying, depression
and autism, which stimulated much discussion
and a lively question and answer opportunity. In
addition the audience were treated to an amazing
Bollywood dance performance by Aelia Asmi
and Shanan Bhamra in year 9.
The year 10 GCSE drama group continued this
trend of high quality performances by presenting
their group projects on the theme of Past and
Present to an invited audience on Wednesday
29th June 2016. They had 4 weeks to prepare
and they worked in groups of their choice. I was
so impressed by their commitment to after-school
rehearsals and during lesson; their enthusiasm
and stress were in equal measure. The start of the
evening was fraught with anxiety and stress, but
once each group were in position before the lights
went up they suddenly came alive and brought
their talent, conviction and confidence on stage,
where they engaged the audience, making them
cry, laugh out loud and most important of all they
made them think and question.
We finished the year with an innovative project
for activities week where drama contributed to a
cross-arts project entitled “Fluid Borders” arising
from the theme, ‘Structures and Interpretations’.
Given the current climate which we cannot as a
society ignore, we felt students should be given
the opportunity to interpret this artistically and
give voice to their thoughts through the medium
of the arts, and create something that is not
connected to the politics. We offered a range of
stimuli and the result varied from year group to
year group. All students were either musicians,
actors, directors, writers, dancers or film makers,
where they had to use the stimulus to create
a piece for performance working to a tight
deadline; the same afternoon at 2.00pm. They
worked in teams with student leaders directing
the process to produce a quality performance and
in true Cranford style, they came up to scratch
each time. The year 9 and 10 performances
were outstanding, where some groups had really
taken on board the artistic ideas of others and
incorporated these within their chosen art form.
If within 4 hours they can produce work of this
quality just imagine the possibilities within a
longer period of time when the focus and the
commitment is so intense throughout.
It is during these times that it is most invigorating
being a teacher because you can see how much
students have absorbed independently and witness
them come alive and bring to the process what
they have learnt, by seeing, hearing and doing.
What is also an absolute pleasure is that you see
students just blossom into confident, organised,
young people who rise to the challenge and so
many of them did.
In my new role from September 2016 I will
be developing opportunities for students and
members of the community within the arts in
school and beyond, into the wider community
of our Cranford group of schools, other network
schools, local businesses, local and national arts
organisations and other partners, I hope to ensure
that we all have access as either a member of the
audience or a participants to a high quality arts
experience. To achieve this, we will be carrying
out an audit of skills and talents within our
community to develop these by offering many
more opportunities for all.
Seema Sethi (Head of Performing Arts)
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