2014 School Magazine

Drama

GRAMMAR DANCE PENELOPE NASH (10R)

Grammar Dance this year has seen an increase in numbers with more dancers keen to share their skills and talents with the Girls Grammar community. Our weekly rehearsals allow for dancers to work on a variety of styles including jazz, contemporary and hip-hop with our three choreographers, Mackenzie Burn (2010), Adrienne Leeson-Smith (2013) and Rachel Ward (2009). The alumnae choreographers ensured we were challenged and extended whilst having a lot of fun. Meeting new girls from different year levels who share the love of dance has been a special part of Grammar Dance. Our showcase performance at Open Day generated a tremendous amount of interest and enabled us to exhibit the hard work of Semester One. Though it was nerve-racking performing to a full house, it was a great opportunity to develop our confidence and performance skills. The talent, flexibility and integrated multi-media impressed the audience and this was a performance highlight for many of the girls.

Our final concert in November was the culmination of our efforts, and an even bigger success than Open Day. We are all proud of our achievements at Grammar Dance this year, and are excited to return in 2015. ■

THE RHODA FELGATE DRAMA CLUB BY PERSIA ADIB (11G)

The Rhoda Felgate Drama Club kicked off another exciting year, greeting our Year 8 students as well as welcoming back old faces. The Club caters for girls in all year levels, providing skill-building opportunities for all students wanting to increase their inner ‘art-beat’ and featuring many more opportunities for the girls to create, perform and shine on stage. The first semester gave girls an insight into the exciting and visceral world of physical theatre with a workshop series led by guest artists from Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre Company. We got to know each other very quickly through physical improvisations which culminated in a performance at the end of Term I. Term II’s workshop series introduced the fun, colour and passion of musical theatre, led by Mrs Gyte. An emphasis was placed on the art of ‘selling it’ to the audience, as well as key skills such as confidence, working in unison, focus and — very importantly — timing. We explored different characters through a number of stimulating physicality and script- blocking exercises. The girls used these new-found talents to execute a number of classic Broadway hits.

Semester II’s programme offered yet another exciting drama skill: scriptwriting. Led by Miss Johnston and guest playwright, Victoria Carless, many Thursday afternoons were spent delving into interesting script-building activities and learning tricks of the trade about the importance of characterisation, dialogue and story. Our hard work culminated in a fun and exciting performance at the end of the semester which showcased the girls’ amazing progress as budding scriptwriters. ■

110 / CO-CURRICULUM