What are British boarding schools performing this year?
Creative arts are an important part of life at just about all the schools we work with. To give you a flavour of the range and quality of shows produced, here is a small selection of what our British boarding schools are performing this year.
Frensham Heights is a progressive day and boarding school in Surrey, which champions the creative and performing arts. Its next senior school production, to be performed in early December, is Regeneration, an evocative play adapted from Pat Barker’s Booker Prize-winning novel. With 30 talented students performing, and many more contributing behind the scenes in roles such as stage management, tech, sound, and prop creation, this production showcases the collaborative spirit of the school’s community. Set against the backdrop of the historic Craiglockhart War Hospital, the play features real-life figures, including renowned World War I poet Wilfred Owen, and will be staged in the school’s auditorium, where audiences will be transported to the haunting world of the Great War, experiencing the emotional depth and resilience of its characters firsthand.
As a total contrast, Taunton School’s festive production, also being performed in early December, is One Man, Two Guvnors, a comedy based on a play written by Richard Bean and an adaptation of Goldoni’s A Servant of Two Masters, written in the mid-18th Century for the famous Commedia dell’arte actor, Antonio Sacco. Although there are only ten named characters, a brilliant cast of 17 students includes actors playing multiple parts as police officers, taxi drivers, passers-by and waiters to name but a few! Around ten more students will support the production in backstage roles, such as lighting and sound, props, and costume. With a range of comic characters, farcical situations and plenty of mishaps including falling down stairs, jumping off bridges and even an incident involving fire on stage, it promises to be a thrilling show.
Rounding off the full range of productions, Wells Cathedral School senior pupils will be performing one of the most popular musicals and greatest love stories of all time, West Side Story, early next month at Strode Theatre in Street, which is a large village near this boarding school in southwest England. The run includes a special free matinee performance for local prep and primary schools to attend. 60 pupils will be acting, singing and dancing in the show, with a further 20 playing the music and 15 production crew members. Damian Todres, Director of Drama and Head of the Creative Arts Faculty is directing the production. Wells has recently won awards for its performing arts facility both in the Prep and Senior School, with the Christmas production being a sell out every year.
So, from moving drama to a vibrant musical via side-splitting comedy, this snapshot from just three of our wonderful British boarding schools gives you an idea of the range of opportunity for children to develop their confidence and talents here. Please contact us to find out more.
