Drama

Drama shows and productions are an integral component of Norwich school life and are hugely popular across all stages of the school, helping to enhance communication skills, build confidence, emotional intelligence & imagination and promote cultural awareness. The school aims to provide at least one drama opportunity per school section (Juniors, Inters, Seniors) per term, meaning that pupils can involve themselves in up to three pieces of drama each year. Recent opportunities included Musicals such as Grease, Annie, Little Shop of Horrors, and Guys & Dolls, as well as dramatic and comedic plays like Antigone, Treasure Island, The 39 Steps, One Man Two Guvnors, All My Sons, and The Great Gatsby. Our diverse range of performing arts shows are held at various locations across the city, including the Playhouse, Arts Centre, Maddermarket, Cathedral Cloisters, as well on the school site at the Blake studio, a dedicated performance space and the school Chapel.

Past Productions...

Guys and Dolls

Lord Of The Flies

Wizard of OZ

Dreamcatchers

Clue

Gala Night 2023

Gala Night 2024

Junior Dance and Drama Showcase 2023

Dance and Drama News

By Eleanor Lewis February 7, 2025
The 2025 Amnesty Variety Evening was a roaring success. Co-host and organiser of the evening, Rosie Pank, reports on the event; Last week, I had the pleasure of running this year’s Amnesty Variety Evening, allowing me to organise many talented performers in support of different refugee support groups and charities that we get to work with throughout the year. Our main charities we have been raising money for this year are English Plus, which is run across Norwich to help people learn English, allowing them to have opportunities such as careers and educations. We also support Nancy Oldfield Trust and have an ongoing bicycle restoration project that fixes old bikes and delivers them to refugee hotels around Norwich, providing them with a small bit of freedom each day. My favourite part about this evening was meeting different people who come to support the show, from many different areas of life and also watching our fantastic school community come together in such an enthusiastic ways to help support others. At this year’s variety evening, there were a plethora of different talents on display from the staff band to a dance troupe of pupils from Norwich school, Jane Austen and the City of Norwich School. After working with the dance troupe for the last few weeks, it was extremely rewarding to watch the mix of pupils across age groups and schools, getting on so well and creating friendships as they work together, and watching them come to life on stage as a group for the final time. After watching the show each year, it was a pleasure to be able to return this year as a compere along with Nicholas Conway, introducing the performers, and sharing some information about the importance of each charity we support and the wider amnesty community. It was a great success this year, with the audience being incredibly generous helping us raise lots of money for our charities, and I hope next year’s show is just as successful, and that we get to be involved again! Thank you to Mia Scarborough, L6 from the Close Creatives Collective , who took a selection of the images below.
By Jakka Pranav Swaroop Naidu December 13, 2024
This term we saw our first ever in house pupil led choreography competition. The competition was a massive triumph with a range of ensemble and solo independent choreography across Junior, Inters and Senior year groups. It has been a great opportunity for pupils to collaborate and share their choreographic flare. A real testament not only to their performance skills, but their creative talents too. Lets hear from our winners! Juniors - Poppy Zhang (U4) “I chose the song Footloose because I love musicals, and I thought that I could create a fun dance that could connect with the music. When I stepped onto the stage it felt amazing but also scary. However, when the music started, all my nerves went away. When I won, I was absolutely shocked with joy, bursting inside of me. I was so grateful and happy knowing that all my hard work paid off.” Inters - Clara Flewin (L5) and Tilda Rochester (L5) Clare – “We wanted our dance to be non-traditional and theatrical so we came up with a character-driven piece inspired by a horror film - the Grady Twins from The Shining. Luckily we are almost exactly the same size and height so with the mood lighting we could pass for twins!! Miss How helped us choose some creepy music and we convinced her to let us use an audio clip from the film. We both love gymnastics so we added some walkovers and other moves to look like contortion. Adding fake blood to our consumes was great fun! We were both really excited to win.” Tilda – “Performing on the stage for the first time ever at Norwich school was overwhelming but also really exciting and a really amazing opportunity. We chose this music because it went with the characters’ personalities. The rehearsal progress was super amazing dancing in the dance studio for the first time and practising with my partner made it so fun and the style we chose was creepy because of the film we picked. Winning was such a surprising moment and it felt amazing and I am so thankful to my partner for getting through this with me.” Seniors - Leah Feetham (U6) and Aggie Johnson (U5) “Our piece was entitled To My Sister set to the song To My Siblings written from the perspective of the artist Tessa Blasko to her siblings reflecting on memories they shared growing up. As two technical dancers who really enjoy embracing our creativity through choreography. We elected to make a contemporary lyrics dance that portrayed the relationship of an older sister who paved the way for her younger sister growing up just to fall ill and become dependent on the girl she helped raise. It was a beautiful piece we were both so proud of and equally excited to perform it to an audience. Silently praying that everyone would pick up on subtleties of the costumes and hair being representative of the difference in the ages and maturity of our characters and their time of weaknesses and dependency conveyed through proxemics to the ground; things that we'd thought about a lot and which we hoped the audience would appreciate.”
By Eleanor Lewis December 2, 2024
On a blustery winter evening, Blake Studio was warmed with the varied work of the academic drama GCSE and A level students presenting their scripted extracts. The work brought a varied palette of style, genre, theme and purpose and, as ever, proved a vital educative tool for development in preparation for the external examination season in Lent term. Middle 5 performers presented extracts from The Domino Effect, Blood Brothers, Private Peaceful and Girls Like That. Their work was pacey, energised and skilfully delivered; the experience of thinking not just as an actor but as a designer in terms of staging, costume, media and lighting too, made the experience a broader educational experience. Lower 6 students had a difficult task to present extracts from the first and second acts of Fin Kennedy's How To Disappear Completely and Never Be Found made even more challenging in that they had to use multiroling to depict a myriad of other characters. They took the chance for some creative interpretation and to start to shape how they use artistic intention in their performance work. The Upper 6 had their first chance to try out their monologues, which constitute 10% of the final A level grade; they presented these with increasing skill and confidence but more importantly were able to take their performance experience back to the rehearsal room to continue to shape their work in preparation for the visiting examiner in early March. It is a busy schedule and testament to the hard work of the pupils in the latter part of the Michaelmas term. Thanks to those who joined us and also to Jon Mardlin for his technical expertise.
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