Drama and Theatre

Drama is a core part of life at KAA. All students in years 7-9 participate in weekly drama lessons and it is offered as an option for both GCSE and A Level students.

We also offer a large range of extra-curricular opportunities for all KAA students to help develop confidence and communication skills through this artistic discipline.

GCSE Drama

At KAA all students have the option of studying GCSE Drama in Year 10 and 11. The course focus on three components and has a range of graded exams:

  • Component 1 Devising Theatre (40%) - students devise a piece of theatre from a stimuli, showing a clear influence from a theatre practitioner. A supporting portfolio and evalaution is completed.
  • Component 2 Exploring and Performing Texts (20%) - students will need to showcase their technical, physical and expressive skills by performing a duo/trio and 2 30 second set phrases.
  • Component 3 Interpreting Theatre Written Exam (40%) - students will complete an 1hr 45mins theory exam which includes a range of questions questions about a set text and a live performance analysis question

A Level Drama

Students have the opportunity to study A Level Dance in Year 12 and 13. The A level course consists of:

  • Practitioners in Practice- Students explore two key theatre practitioners and devise a piece of theatre inspired by a chosen practitioner from a text stimulus
  • Exploring and Performing Texts -Performance of an extract of a selected play for a visiting examiner
  • Analysing Performance (2 hours 15 minutes) - Students must show knowledge, understanding and critical analysis of two set texts under a connecting theme. Students must also answer a question based on a live performance they have seen

• Deconstructing Texts (1 hour 45 minutes) - Students study Arthur Millers "The Crucible" . Student must come up with a directorial vision of how they would perform the play. Questions are based around how they would interpret an unseen extract in comparison to Millers intentions

Workshops

Students are offered lots of opportunities in the performing arts at KAA. This year students have worked with professional actors to explore new and upcoming plays as well as having specialists lead workshops of key theatre practitioners.

Trips

To ensure students have a wider understanding of theatre in performance, students at KAA are frequently taken on trips to see a range of theatre productions. This is a compulsory part of the GCSE and A level courses. We try and take our students to a range of performances in a range of different venues. The trip we have offered this academic year are:

  • Things I know to be True- Year 9 and 10
  • Jack and the Beanstalk- Year 7 and 8
  • Wicked- Year 7-11
  • Footloose- Year 7
  • The Red Lion- Year 10 Boys

Production- Little Shop of Horrors

Productions at KAA are a huge, whole school event. This summer we put on Little Shop Horrors at the Playground Theatre.

Students from Year 7-13 took part, with many students also involved in the technical team and front of House. I

Summer 2019 brings KAAs next musical... watch this space....

House Drama

This year House Drama continued to be as creative and exciting as ever. Each House was given a Shakespeare play and had to produce their own version of it. We saw Honeyball explore Romeo and Juliet setting it amongst the backdrop of the London riots , Pankhurst took took on Macbeth, highlighting the horror and madness. Franklin set the Tempest in a prison whilst Angelou turned Midsummer Nights Dream into a city. The competition was judged by the three professional actors all working in the theatre or film industry today.

The Results 2018:

  • 1st place - Pankhurst
  • 2nd place - Franklin
  • 3rd place - Angelou
  • 4th place - Honeyball

We are already excited for what next year has in store!