So we are now into the second year of Curriculum for Excellence at secondary level and I am so excited to be working with a fabulous department and faculty.

Our first year and second years are rotated in the Expressive Arts; each pupil gaining 3 periods a week for ten weeks in Drama, Music and Art… This year we have introduced an exciting new area into our curriculum for S2 pupils. Pupils will still gain their core experience in Drama, Music and Art on the rota for but they choose two ‘Creative Industries’ electives throughout the year to attend. These electives will last for 15 weeks each and will give the pupil an alternative insight into the Expressive Arts through the Creative Industries. Students are able to choose from Physical Theatre and Stage Combat, Animation, Theatrical Design, Musical Theatre, Rock Band, Sound Engineering and Puppet Making .

We hope this gives our pupils a chance to see what the Expressive Arts has to offer and how skills cane be transferred from one curriculum area to the other.

Exciting times ahead at Knox!

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)