Drama and Theatre Studies

Assessment

Each year we have one set of around five to ten students for Theatre Studies A Level. We follow the AQA specification, which we feel has a suitably challenging academic structure, as well as enabling our students to explore the practical side of the subject with genuine creativity. The new specification strongly encourages the in-depth practical and theoretical exploration of several practitioners and we see the first year as an opportunity to lay very broad and wide-ranging dramatic foundations, enabling pupils to increasingly take ownership of the work which will feed into the Level assessment in the Upper Eighth Form (Year 13). During the Lower Eighth (Year 12), work engaging with practitioners as varied as Katie Mitchell, Alecky Blythe and Artaud will lead to several small-scale performance opportunities throughout the year. Alongside this, we introduce pupils to the role of the director in all its complexity and focus on the study and practical exploration of several related texts. In the Upper Eighth, the focus will shift to the detailed preparation of the key components of the exam itself- the reviewing of live theatre, study of texts; and devised and text-based practical work.