So I have now, successfully, finished my first year at the fantastic Knox Academy and all I can say is roll on next year. Looking back over the past year I can honestly say it has a pleasure to work such committed teachers and amazing pupils.

Highlights this year include:

• Setting up my studio with my posters and visual aids and meeting my classes
• the S6 Pantomime ‘Cinderella’. A great rehearsal period and production that went down well with everyone who seen it. Great songs, dances, acting and great audiences.
• The senior play ‘In Holland Stands a House’. The pupils really took on board the challenges of staging a small intimate studio performance. This play also was the FIRST production at Knox Academy and we made the audience cry!
• Holocaust Memorial Day - An emotional experence enabling every pupil in Knox look at the themes of the Holocaust through the eyes of young people. It was great to see all our hard work pay off during our assemblies and the wall of silence that hit you after the string group stopped playing.
• Working with students from Queen Margaret University and enabling our young people to create an Award Winning piece of Drama.
• Creating the ‘Across the Pond Theatre Project’ with Carol in America which aims to enable our pupils to engage in various arts form from other countries.
• Seeing the department grow from just teaching S1 and S2 and S6 to having Two Standard Grade Drama classes and a Higher Class as well as two senior Acting Classes and the S1 and S2.
• Having two students accepted in Scottish Youth Theatre Summer School
• Fantastic trip to London with S2/S3 pupils.
• Seeing two students leave Knox Academy and pursue a career in Drama at Drama School.
• Attending my first Knox Academy Prom Night.

What am I looking forward to in session 2008/2009

• Higher Drama Investigative Drama performances in Oct.
• Senior Play (More News Later)
• Junior Play (More News Later)
• The First Knox Academy Musical (more News Later)
• New York, New York! CAN NOT WAIT!
• working with my two Standard Grade Classes on exciting projects.
• Creating more work with ‘Across the Pond’
• Possible exciting trip for Activities Week to the birth place of Theatre.

The Future is Bright… The Future is DRAMA!

I would like to take this time to say a few thank yous and goodbyes;

Thank to Mrs Craig who has fully supported me in everything I do and who’s door has always been open. Mrs Black for being my Faculty Head and dealing with any issues as soon as she could. To my wonderful pupils who with you I wouldn’t want to be in this job, you inspire the Drama we create and your ability to take everything I throw at you is amazing. Loving your work. To the S6 students of 2007/2008 - you were fantastic to work with. To all the staff at Knox who have helped pupils engage in Drama or who have supported the department. To you my readers (do I have any??? lol) a blog without readers is like an play without an audience.

Goodbyes! (CRY)

To Claire; thank you so much for all your help with the Pantomime and all your ideas for dance. You’ve been great to work with. To Andy, Fiona, Gill and Katie; You are great and will be a loss to Knox! All the best!

So that’s it! We’re off now for seven weeks - meeting the Queen on Friday with pupils and that’s my final duty of this session. Again thank you everyone and I will see you all in Session 2008/2009 - which to be honest… looks like another great year at Knox Academy!

Well after an amzing Christmas (hope you all had a great time) I took a wee visit to the Royal Lyceum Theatre tonight to see ‘The Wizard of Oz’. I had heard a lot of exciting things about this production and had been dying to see it for months. Lucky for me a friend had a spare ticket as the show is virtually sold out.

With a main cast of nine they retold the wonderful story of the girl who traveled far from home to kill the wicked witch of the west. Directed by Gill Robertson, Catherine Wheels Theatre Company, she used flair and imagination to tell this well known tale. Some personal favourites was the fact that sh used a puppet dog for Toto and it worked so well to the fact the children were waiting for him to appear. The actress playing Dorothy, Denise Hoey, really used her puppetry skills to bring the dog to life.

Denise has an incredible voice, she played Little Voice in Visable Fictions production of ‘The Rise and Fall of Little Voice’, and she really made the part of Dorothy her own and appealing to all ages in the audience.

Gillian’s use of multimedia in various scenes to move the story along was genius and the tornado scene was brilliantly done.

I’ve seen Julie Austin in many things and took a course with her at Scottish Youth Theatreback in 1996 (I feel old writing this! lol) but I do have to say this was probably one of the best roles i have seen her in. Julie played the Wicked Witch of the West and had played the part with great timing and affect! She was a nasty yet loveable rogue! Credit to Julie here.

By the time Dorothy clicked her heals and said ‘there’s no place like home’ the smile across my face shone and for once I wasn’t looking at my watch to check the time. I could have seen it all over again.

The run ends on Sunday and although it says SOLD OUT on the website you may be able to get returns. What a joyous way to end my theatrical year. Well done! (i’m now starting to think… can we do this at Knox! lol)