We have a Dancer in Residence and hold the world’s most important collection of papers relating to the Jacobean Theatre...
14 things you might not know about Dulwich College...
Drama and Dance
We are a school for Creative Minds...
An appreciation of all things theatrical is part of the Dulwich DNA. Echoing the spirit of their South London ancestors, Middle School boys seize every opportunity to get involved in productions, House competitions and theatre trips. Drama is a popular subject for pupils at GCSE and A Level. All pupils have a Drama lesson in Year 9, taught as a form throughout the year, which includes dance theatre skills introduced by our LABAN trained Dancer in Residence. Our own, fully equipped, purpose-built theatre is always a hive of activity where practical performance skills as well as techniques associated with production design and stage management are taught. All boys are expected to be confident with basic stagecraft and theatre terminology as well as have a sound grasp of performance analysis. Many pupils take LAMDA courses with specialist teachers, and there are fantastic opportunities for boys to develop their interest in the theatre through joint productions with JAGS, occasional workshops with
visiting Theatre professionals, and by experiencing Live and Digital theatre productions. The weekly Bear Pit club for Year 9 aspiring actors nurtures different approaches to performing, directing and realization of text. Recent productions include an epic reinvention of Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a dazzling adaption of Wilde’s Dorian Gray and a contemporary re-working of the fabled story of Everyman . In the special Dulwich 400 year, pupils in Year 10 and 11 were at the heart of the Olympiad production of Faustus at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and in 2021, Year 9 pupils staged a glorious open-air promenade creating vignettes with a refreshing reinvention of Shakespearean characters and narratives. Last year the phenomenal one-man show Wolf was staged in the Edward Alleyn Theatre for the whole of Year 9, epic storytelling playing homage to film noir tropes with actor Lewis Doherty bringing to life a hilarious adventure across a cyber-punk landscape and Dulwich and JAGS pupils once again collaborated to conjure a splashy Mad-Men style satirical scratch production inspired by the musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”.
Art and Design and Technology
Both these subjects encourage the boys to think creatively and work independently, so they are prepared to take a GCSE in one or both subjects. In Art you will learn how to work independently in a multitude of media and will discover there is never only one answer. The answer cannot be found in a worksheet, cannot be downloaded, will not be found in past papers, will only exist because you want it to exist .
In D&T you will learn how to shape, bend and finish a mix of materials with various workshop hand tools and machinery. You will be introduced to virtual 3D modelling via our CAD package ‘Autodesk Inventor’ and learn to use the laser cutters. You will build a portable microcomputer from scratch and program it so that you can control a Lego buggy. We support the idea that while many of our pupils will go on to Art Colleges, Design courses and Architecture, what we want our pupils to do is use the subject to learn skills that are transferable in a wide range of professions, to make them ready in an ever-changing world, to prepare them to challenge, change and to be prepared to never stop learning.
“The arts define our culture our identity and our national conversation.” Sir Peter Bazalgette OA
“It is essential to push and challenge students beyond any preconceived ideas of what it means to ‘do art’; digital-media, plaster and cement casting as well as experimental film are all skills that Alleynians can explore.”
“I’m still on a high from the creativity and talent that abounds in the Edward Alleyn Theatre; it oozes from every nook and cranny and every person connected to it” Lesley Sharp (BAFTA and Olivier nominated Best Actress and winner of Screen Actors Guild and British Television Society Awards)
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