Geography

September Scientists of the Month

Secondary Production Crew 2022

Our school production “Bugsy Malone” has started the rehearsal process and students are already busy creating music, developing ideas for set building, and of course, rehearsing their lines.

It is great to see such a large cast create some amazing scenes for your enjoyment, and we are thrilled to see what we can achieve in time for the first show on March 15, 2022. Pupils are reminded to check the rehearsal schedule (both in the Production Classroom and on the Production Notice board) and make sure the students attend every rehearsal they need to.

If you are a keen reader and would like to write a review of a novel you have read, please submit an entry of around 150 words, including who you would recommend the novel for, to Mrs Horsham lhorsham@jebelalischool.org and we will feature it in The Junction! Happy reading!

Thursday 14 October 2021 - Earlier finish for students

Thursday 14 October 2021 is a Staff Professional Development day, as noted on the KHDA approved Academic Calendar for 2021/22. Staff will be participating in professional development sessions in the afternoon. Classes will run as normal in the morning however there will be an earlier finish for students as follows;

• 11.30am - FS1 & 2.

• 11:40am - Key Stage 1.

• 11.50am - Key Stage 2.

• 12.00pm - Secondary - for all year groups.

Article of Interest

How do you train to become a lighting designer?

There are many ways to train in lighting design – in drama school and beyond. A trio of lighting designers talks about how they began their careers and their top tips for keeping the work coming in.

Routes into all careers are many and varied, and theatre lighting design is no exception. The number of courses available to aspiring lighting designers increases every year, with pathways through BTEC courses, apprenticeships, university degrees, drama school and specialist technical training institutions. Others make successful careers simply by getting lots of experience in amateur and youth theatre and then moving into professional work and learning on-the-job.

Jai Morjaria, whose immediate work as the theatre industry awakes from the pandemic includes Shuck ’n’ Jive at the Soho Theatre, London, Cruise at the Duchess Theatre in the West End and Hushabye Mountain at Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre, got into lighting design by accident. Unable to join the apprenticeship he hoped to do in aeronautical engineering at the age of seventeen, he was advised to browse the website of Uxbridge College for alternatives and stumbled upon a pop-up advertising a BTEC in Production Arts. “While I was there, I got my first job as a follow-spot operator in the West End, because my tutor was friends with a deputy chief electrician who knew that the chief electrician was looking for someone,” he says. “I met other designers and found out about drama school, and then I went to RADA where I did the BA (hons) in Technical Theatre and Stage Management, specialising in Lighting Design and Stage Electrics.” For Morjaria it was the ideal route to ease him into a career he’d known nothing about at seventeen: “The BTEC gave me the core understanding and the knowledge that I wanted to do this, then going to drama school gave me the contacts and the experience that I needed to enter the industry.”

Claire Childs is a lighting designer whose pre-pandemic work includes Push and 100 Years for Popelei theatre company, and who’ll be designing The Little Mermaid for Chantry Dance Company in the autumn, as well as continuing her long-running work on The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with Blackeyed Theatre, which will resume touring from September. Childs’ introduction to lighting design came at secondary school: “In the sixth form, you were allowed to be on the lighting team, which meant that you could use the red, green and blue lights set up over the stage on special assemblies or lunchtime charity events. We’d mess around with those, saying, for example: ‘This scene is underwater, I’ll use the blue and green.’ It was incredibly basic, but it was something I enjoyed, and I thought that when I went to university it would be quite a fun hobby to continue.” During a four-year maths degree, Childs worked on student shows, learning as she went: “It rapidly accelerated because it’s a fairly small group of people doing all the technical work.” She found that two student shows each term took place at the local receiving house – Oxford Playhouse in her case. She explains: “Once you’re in there, they always need casual staff so you could end up working on the professional shows coming in every week. That really stretches you – you see what they do and then try to imitate it on your own student show in the 50-seat studio next door.”

Once out of college, university or drama school, lighting is definitely a career in which the old adage that work breeds work rings true. “I could probably link every single one of my jobs back to one opportunity that I had when I was in drama school,” says Morjaria, “That was what gave me my first fringe show, which led to my first semi-professional show, then my first professional show. I could probably go back to every job I’ve had and trace it back.” And it’s arguably in those work-bred-from-work opportunities that the most valuable learning is done.

Mark Dymock studied set design at Croydon Art College, switching to lighting in his first year after realising he had “a natural leaning towards the use of light”. Dymock’s career has included designing the first tours of Clybourne Park and Betty Blue Eyes in the UK, as well as several revamps of Return to the Forbidden Planet. When lockdown struck, Dymock’s work on the tour of Once was sadly cut short. Dymock teaches students at Mountview, Guildford School of Acting and RADA, but he says: “I still feel theatre is a place where you don’t necessarily have to train to learn all the skills. I think you can learn much of it doing the actual job. I’ve always recommended students grab the opportunity to light as many amateur shows, shows for youth groups – things like that – as they can. I also hung on to the coat-tails of other designers and asked if I could go and watch the process. I used to spend time watching Rick Fisher [lighting designer], just to sit in a technical rehearsal and find out what it’s all about.” Ultimately, Dymock stresses that you never stop learning on the job. “I try to learn on every show I do, even now – I still try to review what I did and learn from that experience, and not to worry if that didn’t work, but take it on to the next show.”

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