The outstanding Drama and Theatre Department at KGS combines consistently high examination results and an enviable, inclusive co-curricular programme.
Located in The Michael Frayn Theatre, opportunities include full-scale productions, studio performances, clubs, theatre trips, LAMDA, revues and competitions. Students specialise in acting, technical theatre and design, and alongside the development of their skills, grow to be critical and engaged theatre producers and consumers.
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
Albert Einstein
Production standards are exceptionally high. We also have a fully equipped studio space, and flexible green room. The Michael Frayn Theatre is also an NTLive venue, where students can benefit from screenings of top West End theatre, opera and musicals.
First and Second Year
Students study theatrical genres, text, theatre history and devising performances. Using games, improvisation, rehearsed performances and evaluation, students learn to become confident theatre makers and performers.
Third Year
Students can opt to take Drama in the Third Year and follow an exciting and unique course that focuses on working as a theatre company. In the first term students practically explore the differing roles in the theatre and conclude with staging a short production.
The second term sees students introduced to contemporary theatre practice, looking at physical theatre and devising theatre. The Summer term is focused on theatre production, where groups explore live theatre and text in performance.
GCSE
We follow the AQA specification which allows students to specialise in either acting or technical theatre/design. The course combines practical and written exploration of texts, with live theatre, and devising original work for performance.
A Level
We follow the EDEXCEL syllabus in Drama and Theatre, and students can opt to focus on acting or technical theatre/design. Results are consistently outstanding. A number of students go on to study Drama and Theatre at university. In recent years we have also been successful with students winning places at prestigious drama schools such as RADA, LAMDA, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Guildhall, Drama Centre and The Guildford School of Acting.
Drama Scholarships (Sixth Form only)
Scholarships are available to those who excel in acting, design or directing. An award is offered following a successful audition and interview. Acting scholars enjoy one-to-one sessions with our Actor-In-Residence. Group sessions are also run for the Sixth Form scholars.
Co-Curricular
Open to the Fifth Year and above, the Senior Play has included productions of 13, Nell Gwynn, Romeo & Juliet, Earthquakes in London, Blue Stockings and Anna Karenina. For Third and Fourth Year students, the Middle School Play productions have included Great Britain, Love and Information, Mad Forest, Jane Eyre and School for Scandal. Younger actors gain experience playing lead roles, in preparation for Sixth Form study and Drama Scholarship application.
The Junior Play is open to anyone in the First and Second Year and is always a lively and exciting event where many students gain their first experience of performing. Recent productions have included Peter Pan, The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Oliver Twist and James and the Giant Peach.
Drama and Theatre Information Booklet
This is a week of theatre created by the Sixth Form. Students can act, design, write or direct. Drama Scholars also perform in this event in a production directed by our Actor-in-Residence.
Students from all years compete against each other to win the coveted title of House winners. These inclusive events are open to any student in the school, and are a fun way to gain performance experience.
Every two years we offer Sixth Form students the opportunity to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This is an outstanding opportunity to be at the centre of this exciting and vibrant event. Recent productions by the KGS Theatre Company have included Joseph K by Tom Basden, and Female Transport by Steve Gooch. Both productions were awarded 4* reviews, with Female Transport reported to be one of the top 10 feminist plays of the festival in 2015
Beginner Technical Club: offers students lighting, sound, stage management, costume, props and set design experience. Advanced Technical Club: students who attend this club support productions by designing and operating all technical elements. The Junior Drama club is fun, lively and informal and allows anyone from the First to Third Year the opportunity to improve their improvisation and performance skills.
We offer LAMDA examinations for students in all year groups, from Grade 1 to Gold Award. The classes are run by visiting teachers.
Named after acclaimed playwright and novelist, Michael Frayn, who is an alumnus of the School (1946-1952), the Michael Frayn Theatre is also an NTLive venue.
Michael Frayn's career started as a journalist for The Guardian and The Observer, where he began writing plays and novels. His award-winning plays include three Evening Standard Awards for Best Comedy for Alphabetical Order (1975), Make and Break (1980) and Noises Off (1982), which also won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy and was voted the nation's second favourite play. He is also a three-time winner of the London Evening Standard Award for Best Play for Benefactors (1984), Copenhagen (1998), which also won a 2000 Tony Award, and Democracy (2003). His most recent play, Afterlife, opened at the National Theatre in 2008.
Novels include The Tin Men (1965), winner of a Somerset Maugham Award; The Russian Interpreter (1966), winner of the Hawthornden Prize and Towards the End of the Morning (1967). Later novels include A Landing on the Sun (1991), which won the Sunday Express Book of the Year, Headlong (1999), shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction and Spies (2002), winner of the Whitbread Best Novel Award. His most recent novel is Skios (2012).
Screenwriting credits include Clockwise (1986) starring John Cleese, and First and Last (1989) which won an International Emmy Award. Frayn is also an accomplished translator of numerous Russian works by Chekhov and Tolstoy, and the author of many non-fiction works, including a book of memoirs, My Father's Fortune, shortlisted for the 2010 Costa Biography Award and winner of the 2011 PEN Ackerley Prize.
Staff
- Director of Drama; Mr R Gee
- Head of Queens, Teacher of Drama, Miss M Christmas
- Assistant Director of Drama, Mr S Crohill
