A-level Drama & Theatre Studies students get the chance to come centre stage at Ashbourne’s very popular annual Revue where students and staff from across the college get to showcase their talents and skills in the end-of-year extravaganza. With your new-found drama skills, you could go on to play leading roles at the National, go underground with your cutting-edge scripts, tell stories through movement, or puppets, keep the show on the road backstage, create spectacular costumes and sets, produce dramatic effect with your lighting and sound and so much more. Drama and Theatre Studies A level will enable you to apply for Performing Arts, Arts and Humanities degree courses as well as English, Film, History, Art and Design. A level of Drama and Theatre tests your practical and theoretical understanding of theatre, as you explore a wide range of play texts throughout the two-year course. Practical lessons focus on performance work – getting on your feet and creating real theatre. In theory lessons, you will analyse and study the meanings behind play texts, such as forbidden love in Romeo and Juliet. In both types of lessons, you will be assessed primarily as an actor and how well you can perform a character or play style. We look for your ability to convey emotions believably, take on roles of people unlike yourself and use your voice and movement differently on stage. Exploring different roles in theatre As a theatre maker, you will be required to create your plays and direct, them by leading ideas and guiding other students in how best to show the play. You will also need to show your skills as a designer, creating ideas for set, costume and lighting, which could create moods, and atmospheres, or replicate specific periods, as well as a theatre critic, analysing live professional theatre. Performance skills The majority of lessons will have a practical focus and develop your performance skills, such as character work, in studying the acting methods of Stanislavski and others; vocal control and movement, or understanding how best to stage plays and devised work. These lessons will always start with a physical and vocal warm-up. The warm-up includes cardio exercise, rhythm practice, yoga and voice stretches. After this, an extract from a studied script will be read together, before acting it out, by creating a mini-performance using a specific acting genre or style – a specific category of acting that follows set guidelines, such as the genre of ‘Realism’, which is focused on making the performances as true to real life as possible, dealing with real issues. Whilst the genre of ‘Expressionism’ looks to place the main character in bizarre and unexplainable situations, to look at social oppression. In these lessons, your contribution will either be from an actor or director’s perspective. Skills in these lessons that are developed include acting craft, character development, directing others, staging work and creating the director’s concept – focusing on specific themes within the script that you, as a director, really want to push to the front of the work to display to the audience. Creating theatre In the lessons where you will be asked to devise, you will have total freedom in the lesson to create, with the teacher giving sporadic feedback and advice. This normally comes in the shape of sharing the work created with the teacher, who will give advice and ask questions on how best to improve the presentation elements of the work. The work is led by you and the other students in your group, with total creative control. In these lessons, skills that are developed include; creating theatrical ideas, storytelling, script writing, directing, acting, character creation and staging work. In script writing, the teacher will support your understanding of how to structure a story, creating a narrative arc and ensuring there is a clear beginning, middle and end, surrounded by the desired conflict. Theory Some lessons a week will have more of a theoretical focus. In these lessons, the focus switches to the historical context, (what was happening at the time the play was written and what effect it might have had on the play’s themes or ideas). In these lessons, there is also a detailed focus on examining techniques and how best to achieve the highest marks in written tests. Individual attention is given and feedback is personal. The lessons will support your ability to articulate creative ideas, develop your theatrical vocabulary, structure your writing for exam purposes and share your own opinions on theatre and your views on it. Lifelong drama A level of Drama & Theatre Studies is designed to inspire and enable students to become lifelong theatre practitioners, actors, directors and writers. It is a highly creative course, which requires students who are hard-working, passionate and willing to give 100% to rehearsals (even at weekends) and performances, as well as theoretical elements like essays and written exams. The subject provides a great opportunity to express and showcase creativity and performance talent.
Students who continue to Year 12 at Ashbourne are expected to be able to gain a minimum of 6 grades 6s (or equivalent) for their GCSE results and must have a determination to work towards their academic potential.
About Education Provider
| Region | London |
| Local Authority | Kensington and Chelsea |
| Ofsted Rating | Outstanding |
| Gender Type | Co-Educational |
| ISI Report | View Report |
| Boarding Fee | Unknown |
| Sixth Form Fee | £32,250 - £34,500 |
| Address | 17 Old Court Place, Kensington, London, W8 4PL |
A-level Drama & Theatre Studies students get the chance to come centre stage at Ashbourne’s very popular annual Revue where students and staff from across the college get to showcase their talents and skills in the end-of-year extravaganza. With your new-found drama skills, you could go on to play leading roles at the National, go underground with your cutting-edge scripts, tell stories through movement, or puppets, keep the show on the road backstage, create spectacular costumes and sets, produce dramatic effect with your lighting and sound and so much more. Drama and Theatre Studies A level will enable you to apply for Performing Arts, Arts and Humanities degree courses as well as English, Film, History, Art and Design. A level of Drama and Theatre tests your practical and theoretical understanding of theatre, as you explore a wide range of play texts throughout the two-year course. Practical lessons focus on performance work – getting on your feet and creating real theatre. In theory lessons, you will analyse and study the meanings behind play texts, such as forbidden love in Romeo and Juliet. In both types of lessons, you will be assessed primarily as an actor and how well you can perform a character or play style. We look for your ability to convey emotions believably, take on roles of people unlike yourself and use your voice and movement differently on stage. Exploring different roles in theatre As a theatre maker, you will be required to create your plays and direct, them by leading ideas and guiding other students in how best to show the play. You will also need to show your skills as a designer, creating ideas for set, costume and lighting, which could create moods, and atmospheres, or replicate specific periods, as well as a theatre critic, analysing live professional theatre. Performance skills The majority of lessons will have a practical focus and develop your performance skills, such as character work, in studying the acting methods of Stanislavski and others; vocal control and movement, or understanding how best to stage plays and devised work. These lessons will always start with a physical and vocal warm-up. The warm-up includes cardio exercise, rhythm practice, yoga and voice stretches. After this, an extract from a studied script will be read together, before acting it out, by creating a mini-performance using a specific acting genre or style – a specific category of acting that follows set guidelines, such as the genre of ‘Realism’, which is focused on making the performances as true to real life as possible, dealing with real issues. Whilst the genre of ‘Expressionism’ looks to place the main character in bizarre and unexplainable situations, to look at social oppression. In these lessons, your contribution will either be from an actor or director’s perspective. Skills in these lessons that are developed include acting craft, character development, directing others, staging work and creating the director’s concept – focusing on specific themes within the script that you, as a director, really want to push to the front of the work to display to the audience. Creating theatre In the lessons where you will be asked to devise, you will have total freedom in the lesson to create, with the teacher giving sporadic feedback and advice. This normally comes in the shape of sharing the work created with the teacher, who will give advice and ask questions on how best to improve the presentation elements of the work. The work is led by you and the other students in your group, with total creative control. In these lessons, skills that are developed include; creating theatrical ideas, storytelling, script writing, directing, acting, character creation and staging work. In script writing, the teacher will support your understanding of how to structure a story, creating a narrative arc and ensuring there is a clear beginning, middle and end, surrounded by the desired conflict. Theory Some lessons a week will have more of a theoretical focus. In these lessons, the focus switches to the historical context, (what was happening at the time the play was written and what effect it might have had on the play’s themes or ideas). In these lessons, there is also a detailed focus on examining techniques and how best to achieve the highest marks in written tests. Individual attention is given and feedback is personal. The lessons will support your ability to articulate creative ideas, develop your theatrical vocabulary, structure your writing for exam purposes and share your own opinions on theatre and your views on it. Lifelong drama A level of Drama & Theatre Studies is designed to inspire and enable students to become lifelong theatre practitioners, actors, directors and writers. It is a highly creative course, which requires students who are hard-working, passionate and willing to give 100% to rehearsals (even at weekends) and performances, as well as theoretical elements like essays and written exams. The subject provides a great opportunity to express and showcase creativity and performance talent.
Students who continue to Year 12 at Ashbourne are expected to be able to gain a minimum of 6 grades 6s (or equivalent) for their GCSE results and must have a determination to work towards their academic potential.