Drama

Whether it’s touring Roald Dahl musicals to local primary schools, staging a West End musical with the boys from Hampton School, or running a show backstage with a team of techies, we encourage our pupils to take part, test themselves, and enjoy everything the department has to offer.

In recent years we have staged musicals including Return to the Forbidden Planet and Matilda; we’ve commissioned professional playwrights to write new plays for large female casts as part of our Write the Girl initiative; we’ve dunked Benedick of Much Ado fame into a fully working fountain and we’ve even fired a confetti cannon or two. Meanwhile, in the drama studio, our GCSE and A level candidates consistently excel: with their practical work being frequently praised by the Chief Examiner.

We regularly hosting workshops and training from leading theatre practitioners, and recently, 80 students went on a Performing Arts tour to New York City.

All of this work takes place in and around our stunning 240 seat theatre: it is a flexible space at the heart of the Arts Centre, which includes a rehearsal suite, studio theatre, green room and seminar room, as well as the Music and Art Departments.

Find out more about the School Play Experience at LEH

Drama here is ouststanding.

the Good Schools Guide

Extra-curricular Drama
Speech and Drama lessons

Extra-curricular Drama

The extra-curricular programme is designed to combine open access to all activities with the pursuit of excellence, however that may be defined for the age-group and students involved. Regular clubs include:

Tech Club: two afternoons per week, students are trained to crew the full range of Performing Arts events, from Front of House through to wardrobe, lighting, sound and stage management.
Fun drama clubs for Years, 7, 8 and 9.
A Year 10 project exploring a diverse range of age-appropriate genres.
Musical Theatre Dance Club, which also includes boys from Hampton School, our neighbouring school.

Although many other events can be scheduled, the core production programme consists of:

An annual musical production performed with Hampton School, which the schools produce and host on alternate years;
A main school production;
A Year 10 production, which in the recent past has been an especially commissioned work from an emerging performance poet. Sometimes, but not always, with Hampton School.
A Sixth Form production (produced and directed by students, and open to the boys at Hampton School).
A Year 9 “Theatre in Education” tour to local Primary Schools.
A Lower School Musical (Years 7 & 8): a large scale production with 50-70 students in the cast.

Speech and Drama lessons

Approximately 160 students follow the Trinity Guildhall specification, drawing on the full range of options available as individuals, in pairs or in small groups. These sessions are hugely popular, with many students opting to follow the Communication Skills syllabi to develop essential life-skills for the world of work, and beyond. Over the course of the last year over 80% of all results have been a Distinction, and an increasing number of students are taking the professional Diploma examinations: we routinely place students into world-class conservatoires to continue their training.

Write the Girl

Write the Girl is an LEH initiative between schools and theatre professionals to support playwrights in developing the meaningful stories our young women deserve. A school can select a play proposal from our Write the Girl playback, commission the playwright to write that play for their particular students and embark on the most enriching, creative and collaborative journey from pen to stage. Thus those meaningful stories, suitable for large casts, that stretch, challenge and engage a generation of young women often marginalised by a male-dominated canon, can take their place on the main stage.

Please click here for more information.

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