Tweet
I enjoyed Drama lessons quite a bit - it was a chance to express oneself and be what one wanted to be; a sort of Let's Pretend for 11 to 16 year olds. So much so that I even attended a Saturday morning workshop at another school for three years and took GCSE Drama for my options in Year 10 and 11 - I quite liked the fact that when I started Comprehensive School, Drama was the last lesson of the week on Friday afternoons - which was a way of unwinding almost in time for the weekend.
There are a couple of points that I would like to make - in most schools it seemed to be the case that the Drama teacher also taught English, probably because of the connection with literature, Shakespeare, and plays and all that. Also, if the Drama teacher didn't teach English, then they almost seemed to be young female teachers who are mostly new to teaching, and are almost like those who teach French, only with an English accent - I made these points when I started the Teacher Stereotypes thread over a year ago. For some reason, the Drama teacher said that we needed trainers to wear for the Drama lessons - ironic considering that trainers were not allowed in school except for PE.
The Drama Room had dark coloured walls, blackout blinds, and sets of sub-disco lights attached to the ceiling via metal bars so one had this keyboard thing to dim or brighten the lights if needed. Some kids risked life and limb swinging on the bars, risking the apparatus falling down and almost killing everyone in the room, which the teacher obviously reminded them when someone did just that. Literally, it was drama in more ways than one - indeed, some see it as a cue for messing about.
At the start of Year 7 (as it would have been known as), we didn't do Drama work as such, just the equivalent of warm-up exercises (fruit bowl, anyone?), and observational things such who as whodunnits - who indeed was the Colonel Mustard of the Cluedo "murder"? Who removed the object and how can one tell it was that person - did anyone do that? Something called "Master of the Keys" came to mind. And a few weeks in, we did some "acting", or should I say "pretending" - things such as "I am a postman as I am delivering letters through this letterbox" sort of thing. It wasn't until Year 9 that what I would call Drama took its course, and when I mean that, it was drama by virtue of some of the group didn't behave as they should do.
On many occasions we sat in a circle with books that had written plays inside them, and some of us had to choose a part and follow it as it goes along - I believe that most actors train in this sort of way. My nephew had done some professional acting in TV dramas and films when he was younger, and has worked with famous people which I will not namedrop on here, and so GCSE Drama would have been such a huge boost towards his career - I never make reference to him as I think it would be unfair. I was even an extra in a BBC Screen Two drama back in 1991 which meant a Tuesday (4th June 1991) afternoon off school, (which I wouldn't have said no to at all), although we were just part of a background scene and so it doesn't really count - one or two others got a bit more prominence, I believed at the time.
And of course, we did that classic stalwart of Drama lessons, playing charades aka Give us a Clue - now, did anyone else do that in their Drama lessons? We obviously had male v female teams as tradition permits; I was not the Lionel Blair of my own team, and neither did I sit in the player's seat in order to keep it warm when he was standing up to perform either. One of the answers was "Murder, She Wrote" or something - cue Yours Truly pretending to faint or fall on the floor as if something bad had happened - but the thing was, something bad didn't happen as the team got it within one minute! Of course, being kids, this was an ideal opportunity to do rude gestures with one's hands, almost as Lionel himself would have done so to fellow teammates Bernie Winters, Lennie Bennett and Leslie Crowther back in the 1980s.
We didn't really get to do theatre trips such as see Opera North at the Nottingham Theatre Royal as result of our lessons, thank goodness, but in recent years, Drama has enriched my interest in travelling around the country and seeing musicals at the theatres around Great Britain as I mentioned in that other thread. I saw the odd children's play there at Junior School but didn't really do that in those Year 7 to 11 days.
Drama was one of the few lessons I liked as well as English Language (not Literature, mind) and PSE as I thought it would give me a pathway to a future career - well, it almost did in a way. It did get me into my interest in theatres and reading the odd copy of The Stage many years later. I think that the nature of the Arts and in particularly Drama is such a precious one as it can breed future Britain's Got Talent stars, soap operas and goodness-knows who else will become famous in the near future.
Did anyone do Drama lessons in school? Did you enjoy them, and did you even do the "Give us a Clue" and the whodunnits, or was it just warm-up exercises, having lines in plays or just acting?
There are a couple of points that I would like to make - in most schools it seemed to be the case that the Drama teacher also taught English, probably because of the connection with literature, Shakespeare, and plays and all that. Also, if the Drama teacher didn't teach English, then they almost seemed to be young female teachers who are mostly new to teaching, and are almost like those who teach French, only with an English accent - I made these points when I started the Teacher Stereotypes thread over a year ago. For some reason, the Drama teacher said that we needed trainers to wear for the Drama lessons - ironic considering that trainers were not allowed in school except for PE.
The Drama Room had dark coloured walls, blackout blinds, and sets of sub-disco lights attached to the ceiling via metal bars so one had this keyboard thing to dim or brighten the lights if needed. Some kids risked life and limb swinging on the bars, risking the apparatus falling down and almost killing everyone in the room, which the teacher obviously reminded them when someone did just that. Literally, it was drama in more ways than one - indeed, some see it as a cue for messing about.
At the start of Year 7 (as it would have been known as), we didn't do Drama work as such, just the equivalent of warm-up exercises (fruit bowl, anyone?), and observational things such who as whodunnits - who indeed was the Colonel Mustard of the Cluedo "murder"? Who removed the object and how can one tell it was that person - did anyone do that? Something called "Master of the Keys" came to mind. And a few weeks in, we did some "acting", or should I say "pretending" - things such as "I am a postman as I am delivering letters through this letterbox" sort of thing. It wasn't until Year 9 that what I would call Drama took its course, and when I mean that, it was drama by virtue of some of the group didn't behave as they should do.
On many occasions we sat in a circle with books that had written plays inside them, and some of us had to choose a part and follow it as it goes along - I believe that most actors train in this sort of way. My nephew had done some professional acting in TV dramas and films when he was younger, and has worked with famous people which I will not namedrop on here, and so GCSE Drama would have been such a huge boost towards his career - I never make reference to him as I think it would be unfair. I was even an extra in a BBC Screen Two drama back in 1991 which meant a Tuesday (4th June 1991) afternoon off school, (which I wouldn't have said no to at all), although we were just part of a background scene and so it doesn't really count - one or two others got a bit more prominence, I believed at the time.
And of course, we did that classic stalwart of Drama lessons, playing charades aka Give us a Clue - now, did anyone else do that in their Drama lessons? We obviously had male v female teams as tradition permits; I was not the Lionel Blair of my own team, and neither did I sit in the player's seat in order to keep it warm when he was standing up to perform either. One of the answers was "Murder, She Wrote" or something - cue Yours Truly pretending to faint or fall on the floor as if something bad had happened - but the thing was, something bad didn't happen as the team got it within one minute! Of course, being kids, this was an ideal opportunity to do rude gestures with one's hands, almost as Lionel himself would have done so to fellow teammates Bernie Winters, Lennie Bennett and Leslie Crowther back in the 1980s.
We didn't really get to do theatre trips such as see Opera North at the Nottingham Theatre Royal as result of our lessons, thank goodness, but in recent years, Drama has enriched my interest in travelling around the country and seeing musicals at the theatres around Great Britain as I mentioned in that other thread. I saw the odd children's play there at Junior School but didn't really do that in those Year 7 to 11 days.
Drama was one of the few lessons I liked as well as English Language (not Literature, mind) and PSE as I thought it would give me a pathway to a future career - well, it almost did in a way. It did get me into my interest in theatres and reading the odd copy of The Stage many years later. I think that the nature of the Arts and in particularly Drama is such a precious one as it can breed future Britain's Got Talent stars, soap operas and goodness-knows who else will become famous in the near future.
Did anyone do Drama lessons in school? Did you enjoy them, and did you even do the "Give us a Clue" and the whodunnits, or was it just warm-up exercises, having lines in plays or just acting?
Comment