Category: General, Drama, Academic, Events
On Saturday, 15 October 2011, the English Department hosted the third annual Remove Shakespeare Festival in the Memorial Hall. Designed to bridge the gap between the freer, more collaborative work of Form and the more disciplined approach necessary for success at IGCSE, this project takes up some of the English teaching in the first part of the Michaelmas Term and culminates in an evening of enjoyment and competition between forms for the Remove Shakespeare Festival Trophy.
English beaks choose the play for their form, and then students adapt and develop what they have read into a production lasting no more than fifteen minutes. All the words are supposed to be Shakespeare's, though this year saw a startlingly effective episode following the shaming of Hero from Much Ado About Nothing set in the Big Brother house. Eight different plays were presented in whole or in part, costumes were worn, and lines were learned. Every student in the Remove took part in some capacity or another, most appearing on stage.
Students greatly enjoy the occasion, learning the value of good preparation, team work and fostering a supportive atmosphere. They certainly won't have had a Saturday night quite like it before!
The Director of Drama, Mr David Kenworthy, nobly acted as adjudicator this year and placed Mr Gist's Remove C in third place (Much Ado...), Dr McKeown's Remove G in second place (The Taming of the Shrew), and Mrs Ford's Remove D (Julius Caesar) as the winners.
Student comments about the Remove Shakespeare Festival:
'It was a great Saturday night. I didn't think I would enjoy it, but I was wrong.'
'It was really good fun to see all your friends in their plays and to be taking part yourself, even if the play I was in wasn't very good.'
'It was worth all the hard work and line-learning. It was a great experience.'
'My heart sank at the thought of a whole evening of just Shakespeare, but it was really good.'
'The evening taught us a lot: how easy it is to be boring if you don't pace things well, how embarrassing it is if you don't learn your lines.'
'It is the only time we have come together as a year group on a Saturday night. It was really enjoyable to be part of something bigger whilst representing your own form.'
Follow this link for more reviews of the Remove Shakespeare Festival.
Mrs L F W Ford