As 2011 starts as does a new term and therefore new events; curricular and extra curricular to look forward to…

With still no word from SQA/Government re examinations for senior pupils sitting Curriculum for Excellence we move forward with developing our S1 and S2 courses with a cautionary step. I have to say that I feel we are currently doing some excellent work at Knox on how to meet the needs of our young people in S1 and S2.

Our Standard Grade Pupils are currently involved in a playwriting project with a school in America and are developing their plays based around the theme of ‘Home’. The aim of the project is to write a 5 minute play that will then be directed by a student in the other school, so the Americans will be directing modern Scottish plays and we will be directing modern American plays.

Our Higher students move into the Examination period with the Acting Exam just around the corner…

The NC pupils are currently working on their Musical Theatre Cabaret’s which will be showcased in Feburary before starting their final productions.

on an Extra Curricular side of things… Our school production is being shown in February after being delayed because of Snow in December. So Sweeney Todd is getting gorier by the second…

Our NC Make-Up course is going from strength to strength thanks to my wonderful collegue…

KWN will start filming their Global Citizenship video…

We have our trip to New York and London…

So as you can see… it’s all go… nothing like starting the New Year hitting the floor running.

On a personal note I was given my sabbatical for next session and have applied for some post graduate courses. I have applied for a few promoted posts lately which I haven’t been lucky to get and am kind of feeling maybe teaching isn’t for me. So this sabbatical will be a breathe of fresh air.

Teaching is a great job but there is too much paper work, red tape, people to impress, new ideas, governement schemes (i could go on and on and on) to actually be able to do the best in your job – we can but try – but it’s hard and this holiday I have realised that. I love my job but can I actually do everything that is asked of me? I try but can I do it to the standards I am happy with? Anyway… my sabbastical will hopefully make me fall in love with the job I currently do again… cause at the moment i’m on Act 5 of The Crucible!

To all the teachers out there… you do a wonderful job! Just keep reminding yourself that.

Have an amazing 2011!

I have been at Knox Academy now for two years and I have to say, i’m loving every minute of it. In the past two years I have been encouraged to experience new things and given space, by my line Manager Lynn Black and Head Teacher Janis Craig, to build and develop the department.

In my first year I was given time to create courses, develop resources and build up the department. I taught S1, S2 and Core S6.

This Year I continued to teach S1, S2 but welcomed two S3 Standard Grade classes into the department, as well as 22 pupils sitting crash Higher Drama. I was delighted when E Garwood said she’d help in the department by taking some Junior classes and we also had our first teaching student in the department.

We are now moving to the new timetable and our numbers are up again; as well as seeing my two great S3 SG classes moving into S4, we will welcome 3 new S3 SG classes (which is brilliant), 22 pupils taking crash Higher Drama and now we see the challange of offering two new courses at Knox; Intermediate Two Drama and Advanced Higher Drama. I amalso extremely excited to be told we are getting an NQT in the department for next session.

I am so happy the pupils at Knox are enjoying being in the Drama department and enjoy are courses, it means a lot to see the work I enjoy being rewarded in new courses being offered, more pupils opting in and the school allowing the dept to grow.

I couldn’t have done this without saying thank you to Ellie Garwood this year, who’s been an amazing support in the department by teaching S1 and S2. Also to my line Manager Lynn Black who supports our work within the school and also to Janis Craig, our Head Teacher, who alwyas encourages our work. Thank you.

Well we are now only one week away from taking over 40 senior pupils to the Big Apple for a Drama Week! We are ssssoooo excited! (i’m talking about the staff not the pupils)

The Trip has been organised by EF Tours and the Drama Department here at Knox. Pupils will be involved in a variety of events including a visit to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, a visit to Camp Broadway, seeing Two Broadway shows and doing all your usual tourist stuff!

I am sure this will be a great trip for all involved an dmore info when we get back!

So we are fully underway with the Higher at Knox. We successfully performed the investigatives Drama’s (Unit One) last week in the Drama studio to packed audiences of Staff, pupils and parents. The Groups chose the themes of ‘Teenage Life’ and ‘Cruelty’ and created engaging plays based on a variety of topics including self-harm, eating disorders, animal cruelty and women’s rights to name a few. After tears, drama strops and a few shouting matches they really shone as Playwrights, Directors, Drama-turgs and Actors.

A lot of people don’t seem to understand the amount of work that the pupils have to do to achieve the first unit and parents were quite shocked at a) how mature they approached the topics being dealt and b) how much work they had put into achieving their first unit. The SQA ask that each pupils research a choosen topic and from their research write a play. Their written play is then directed by them and they have to liase with the technical pupils to light and sound their production. They must also act in their peers plays and all the plays had to link to make one whole production – phew even writing it i’m shattered!

So we’ve now moved on and we’re all a go go! for Unit Two we are studying ‘Antigone’ by Sophocles. I studied it when doing Higher and my Drama Teacher, Mrs Chetty, was passionate about the text that it’s last with me all these years! It’s such a great story and how amazing that it was written ove 2500 years ago and still relevant to the world today!

Unit 3 is Contemporary Scottish Theatre and again another passion of mine so it’s been great to start teaching this and seeing the pupils really engaging in the first two lessons (Lecture on National Theatre Scotland and an introduction to playwright Linda McLean). We are going to be studying ‘Passing Places’ by Stephen Greenhorn, ‘One Good Beating’ by Linda McLean, ‘Black Watch’ by Gregory Burke, ‘The Women of Lockerbie’ by Deborah Brevoort and ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’ by M Spark.

So we are all go at Knox and through practical workshops our pupils will, hopefully, be ready for their acting exams in March/April and the written exam in May!

So session 2008/2009 has begun and it’s all go already! I feel like i’ve been back months!

Knox Academy are offering Higher Drama for the first time and our cohort of pupils doing the course are brilliant with some really exciting script writing ideas taking place now for their Investigative unit. The Standard Grade students are underway looking at characterisation and S2 are already using all they have learnt from first year to produce some excellent work. So we are already well underway for an exciting way.

Some exciting things to look forward to in this session

Junior Drama Production – TROJANS

The House of Troy have abused their position for too long. They deny the Youths their rights, have destroyed society and squander the country’s wealth on a stalemate war with Sparta. Enough is enough! While the Royal family plan a big party, the Council of War plan one final assault on the enemy and as Princess Cassandra tries to appeal for peace the Youths are preparing to fight back. Will the House of Troy fall? Will the rebellious Cassandra jump? Will Helena be returned to Sparta? All will be revealed in this powerful drama that takes the legends of the Trojan Wars and throws them into the madness of the 21st Century.

Senior Production – The Crucible

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 it’s been awhile since my last post but the Drama Department has been busy, busy, busy with non stop activities since christmas.

Holocaust Assembly

Last week seen all students at Knox Academy attend an assembly relating to the Holocaust. We had two students (from thr English Department) who went to Auschwitz last year and we wanted them to be able to reflect their time there and enable students to be aware of what they seen. The Drama Department, along with English, created a 30 mins assembly that really made the students think. It included an edited video of NBC’s ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ put to Simple Plan’s song ‘Untitled’, personal accounts from the two Knox students, reflections from The Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide, 3 poems, a power point presentation reflecting life in Europe before, during and after the Holocaust and the Knox String group playing the theme to Schnidler’s List.

The impact on the students was amazing, they sat completely silent taking everything in, respecting each piece. The power point was played during the String Group and when they had finished the images kept going for another 2 minutes and the wall of silence that hit you from the young people was so powerful. What was so rewarding was that although I ‘directed’ the order of the assembly this was very much student led with the ownership on them.

We are now about to have a de-brief session and start planning our event for next year.  I would just like to thank all the staff and students involved for making this a rememorable experience.

American School link

Well we are now under way in our collaboration production with our school in the States. Students from the youth theatre have started to look at script writing skills and will begin their research into terrorism in the UK and after Easter will begin to create and write their pieces.

Across the pond they have began to look at their structure and the overall piece is to be staged in both schools in May – lasting roughly an hour.

All go! Keep looking for more details later

Junior Courses

S1 students have now completed their dance/drama unit, creating some lovely work in connection with the Holocaust. Each student in S1 watched the acclaimed film ‘The Diary of Anne Frank – the whole story’ to gain insight into life during WW2 for Jews. They have now started a new unit of work on Bullying which has seen us actively discussing all sorts of bullying. They have now started to examine the story of ‘Wicked – the untold story of the witches of Oz’. By using a well known story (The Wizard of Oz) students will look at how there are two sides to every story and because of being different the ‘wicked’ witch of the west was bullied. We will then use the skills learnt in the unit to devise a docu-drama about bullying.

Over in S2 we have a new rota of students so we have just started Stage Combat. Using feedback from the students who completed the course before Christmas I have now changed the course slightly and these students will sit an acting assessment based on Stage Combat using skills learnt in improvisation, self-control, focus, stage combat, characterisation and status.

New York! New York!

The Drama department are taking 42 senior students to New York next February break (2009). They will spent a week in capital city of show business taking part in a Drama workshop with a Broadway performer, visiting some of the most iconic sites in the City, seeing two Broadway Shows and shopping! We are all excited and will be posting more about this later.

S6 Acting Company

As you may remember from a previous post; Knox Academy has an S6 Acting Company which produced ‘In Holland Stands a House’. Since then they have been focusing on skills and are now working towards a showcase evening which will see each student take part in a duologue; each scene will be linked by a cast member reflecting on her friends in the street where she once lived. Can anyone guess who? Yup! Mary Alice Young from Desperate Housewives will be telling the audience about what she can see. Audience members will see scenes from ‘Angels in America’, ‘Perfect Days’, ‘Bondagers’, ‘Medea’, ‘Sleeping Around’, ‘The Architect’ and all are linked by monologues from Desperate Housewives… as well as a trio from the musical ‘The Witches of Eastwick’. Should be an excellent evening of entertainment!

The Women of Lockerbie

On a personal level I am now directing Deborah Brevoort’s award winning Drama ‘The Women of Lockerbie’ with my own theatre company random ACT.

A mother from New Jersey roams the hills of Lockerbie Scotland, looking for her son’s remains which were lost in the crash of Pan Am 103. She meets the Women of Lockerbie, who are fighting the US Government to obtain the clothing of the victims found in the plane’s wreckage. The women, determined to convert an act of hatred into an act of love, want to wash the clothes of the dead and return them to the victim’s families. The Women of Lockerbie is loosely inspired by a true story, although the characters and situations in the play are purely fictional. Written in the structure of a Greek tragedy, it is a poetic drama about the triumph of love over hate.

We went to Lockerbie last sunday and visited the crash sites and was overwhelmed by what we saw and the kindness of the people who showed us round and spoke first hand of what happened that night. It was important for us as a theatre company to make sure that we do this play complete justice.

This is to be staged in April at the Scottish Storytelling centre. For more details click here

So as you can see it is all go… and i’ve not mentioned the admin, the report writing, the course options etc! I love teaching!

S6 Pantomime: Cinderella

I can not believe that I have now completed my first full term at Knox Academy, and do you know what? I’m loving every minute of it! There is such a creative buzz around this school!

In August I was asked to direct the S6 pantomime and 4 months later the s6 students had staged an hour long production with passion and gusto. This may seem the norm to many reading it but you have to remember that most of the cast had just staged a two act emotional drama about the Holocaust and then 80% of the cast were involved in the Christmas Concert last week too so to still have the energy to stage the production three times in one day is amazing.

It was a very hard to write a panto for a school I had just started in but the audience seemed to laugh along with all the jokes. The students worked so hard on getting everything right, the set and costumes, dance moves, songs….. everything!

The story tells of poor Cinderella who works in the family chip shop in Haddington, dreaming of one day meeting her Prince and being a singer. When PC (Prince Charming) holds a prince idol contest to find entertainment for his Ball he auditions people throughout the land, however the wicked step-mother doesn’t let her go! Her fairy grants her wish and she finally meets her prince but does it all work out?

With a gangsta Prince, a Riverdancing Buttons, 2 of the ugliest sisters you have ever seen and special appearances from the Wicked Witch of the West and Sleeping Beauty this is a panto for the whole family!

All the students at Knox loved it on Friday and Mrs Craig even had to stop people trying to sneak in for a second time! lol!

Because it was so successful we are staging it for family, friends and the local community on Wed 9th Jan, 2008, in the Hall at 6.30pm. Tickets are £3 and can be bought on the door. Come along and bring your family.

I would like to take this time in thanking all the staff and students involved. I have never known a school to be so actively creative in the run up to Christmas (Senior play, Amazing concert, pantomime). Thank you to Mrs Sommervile for some excellent choreography and Miss Folconer for her role as Stage Manager. To all the S6… you have been a pleasure to work with and I am only sad that I started working with you this year. Break a leg in Jan!

I just wanted to write a wee something about our first production by Knox Academy Drama Department.

It was always going to be a challenge to do a full scale production with a group of S6 students who had never done drama before and rehearse it in only two months, one hour a week. The technical rehearsal was awful and so I thought we, and I say we as drama is a team subject, had bitten off more than we could chew.

To find a play that will a) not only engage the actors but also the audience and b) suit the talents of the cast isn’t always an easy option.

Come opening night we were all nervous and with an audience of around 30, students, teachers, parents and friends the lights went to black and the show began. Having decided to stage it on the thrust (audience on three sides), to make it seemed confined and like the house they were living in, the actors and audience were very close together and the company really had to focus to get through the night. As soon as the last scene finished I became teraful, they done it and they were amazing. The second night seen us perform to a full house with us having to turn a few away and through word of mouth we performed to a varied audience including SMT.

The Holocaust is very personal to me and I am honestly honoured to have worked with these talented and amazing students on such a powerful piece, to make members of an audience cry, to make them discuss, to make them feel moved by what they have seen is a great thing for any actor to be part of, let alone a student company. That is what theatre is about!

As Tess said, we’ve set a standard now and I really hope we can live up to it.

A huge thank you to everyone involved, I am so thankful to work in such a supportive faculty in such a fantastic school. Rock on next terms S6 production.

…In Holland Stands A House.

In Holland Stands A House

by Sue Saunders and Directed by J Naples-Campbell

Wed 5th Dec & Thurs 6th Dec 2007

7.30pm

Drama Studio, Knox Academy

£2

 The senior acting class at Knox Academy having been busy learning their lines and putting their finishing touches to their play ‘In Holland Stands A House’. Two students who went to Poland to visit a concentration camp will be holding an exhibition before and during the interval of the play about The Holocaust and genocide since.

This is the story of Anne Frank who with her family went into hiding during the Nazi occupation in Holland. The play interweaves a dramatised account of events in Europe with domestic scenes from the secret annex. The script draws strongly on Anne’s diary.This is the story of Anne Frank who with her family went into hiding during the Nazi occupation in Holland. The play interweaves a dramatised account of events in Europe with domestic scenes from the secret annex. The script draws strongly on Anne’s diary.

This is one of the events leading up to National Holocaust Memorial Day that the school will be hosting.

If you are interested in attending please email me at school or leave a comment, limted seats due to space.