Drama and theatre studies is an exciting and highly practical subject that offers you a unique opportunity to develop key skills in creativity, communication and cognitive analysis. You will explore a wide range of performance styles, play texts, practitioners and production elements, whilst also developing your skills in performance and design. If you have a passion for creating theatre, performing and/or the inner workings of theatre, then this is certainly the right course for you. Drama lessons at Tuxford are referred to as ‘workshops’ and are highly practical. The drama department at Tuxford strives to provide students with a wide variety of enrichment opportunities, including an annual residential (London or New York), a wide range of theatre trips throughout the year and an extensive extra-curricular program designed to further develop skills in performance and technical theatre. Unit 1 – practitioners in practice You will practically explore the theories of two renowned theatre practitioners – Brecht and Artaud. You will then work collaboratively to devise a piece of original theatre inspired by a stimulus. Your work must also be influenced by the two studied theatre practitioners. Unit 2 – analysing characters You will study two contrasting texts – Hamlet and Black Watch. You will practically explore common themes between the two plays, characterization and appropriate dramatic devices. As well as gaining an understanding of the text as a whole, you will focus your efforts on four specific extracts. You will also analyze a piece of professional live theatre, with a focus on style/genre, dramatic intentions and the use of semiotics (production values). Unit 3 – exploring and performing texts This scripted performance unit allows you to stage a large extract from a contemporary play. During this unit, you will deepen your understanding of the acting process whilst developing a well-crafted character. You will be responsible for making key decisions surrounding staging, style and dramatic devices. Unit 4 – deconstructing texts for performance You will study a full-scale play text, focusing on characters, structure, themes and the social, cultural, historical and political context. The exploration of the text will be both practical and research-based. The work of an established theatre practitioner will be studied alongside the text.