Drama
Drama is a very popular subject and engages many different learning styles. It is an excellent subject in which girls learn how to create characters from scratch, play the part of historical characters, and literally allows them to step into the shoes of someone else.
At AESG, the girls study a wide variety of Genres spanning through Jacobean, modernism to Post modernism and contemporary play text. The girls are encouraged to use other styles of Drama, such as Physical Theatre, which allows them to be more creative.
Our girls achieve excellent examination results at both GCSE and A Level.
100% of girls achieved grades A*-B for GCSE Drama (2010), with 87% of girls achieving an A*or A grade.
100% of girls achieved A*-D in A Level Drama and Theatre Studies (2010)
A number of our students have chosen to continue their study of Drama at universities, even venturing out to the USA to study Musical Theatre on Broadway, and we have no doubt that Alderley Edge School for Girls has produced some of the stars of the future.
At A Level, the girls follow the AQA specification which is recognised to be more academic with 60% of the course being theory based. At AS the girls study Henric Ibsens ‘A Doll’s House’ and they also watch a wide variety of live theatre which they will go on to discuss in more analytical detail. They also choose a scripted piece of Drama which they will present in the Summer term to a visiting moderator.
During the A2 year the girls study a contemporary text by Bertolt Brect’s ‘The good person of Szechwan’ as well as a pre-20th century play by Middleton/Tourneur ‘The Revenger’s Tragedy’. They also create a devised piece of theatre in their chosen style, which has been influenced by a piece of live theatre they have seen during their course and is formally presented in the Summer term to a visiting moderator.
Fascinating FactsFascinating Facts
Shakespeare Facts:
- Evidence indicates that William Shakespeare was born on 23 April, the same date he died 52 years later.
- In his will, Shakespeare left his wife his "second-best" bed.
- Shakespeare's name may have meant "Shaker of Spears", indicating warrior ancestry.
- In Elizabethan times, men and boys played all the parts in Shakespeare's plays.
Other Facts
- Musical Theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humour, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole.
- The two masks associated with drama represent the traditional generic division between comedy and tragedy. They are symbols of the ancient Greek Muses, Thalia and Melpomene. Thalia was the Muse of comedy (the laughing face), while Melpomene was the Muse of tragedy (the weeping face).
- There are over 100 theatres in London alone