On Friday 19 June boys from every house in Year 9 embraced their inner thespian and turned their hand to the pinnacle of Drama competitions: House Drama. In small groups the boys were given just one hour to create an original piece of drama based around a prop that they had found in their House. This led to incredibly varied pieces.
The groups received two separate marks that were combined to give an overall standing: a preparation mark was given from Miss Jenny Unwin and Mrs Sian Pearson, which reflected the effort and organisation that had gone into the piece during the hour, and a final performance mark was awarded by a panel of judges, which took into account the inventiveness, creativity, use of space onstage, projection, characterisation and how well the chosen prop was utilised.
First onstage were Orchard, who had chosen to base their piece around a table. The table was well used, with a comedic scene having been set up with an upper class pair dining at the table, and the remaining boys as waiters behind them. Everett took to the stage next, having chosen a pewter tankard as their prop. They based their piece in a game show format, with one game show host and a host of contestants trying to drink as much as possible from the tankard, before undertaking an obstacle course – with hilarious consequences!
Skipwith were next up, and they had chosen to create their piece around a newspaper. A difficult prop but expertly managed, the boys had very cleverly incorporated it into a short piece that centred on the lives of different people in London. The newspaper linked the piece together, going from a commuter reading on the train, to a chip shop owner using it to wrap up chips, and many other scenarios that perfectly captured the variety of people and lives rushing around the capital.
And finally, Welsh took the stage. They had chosen to use a phone, and based their piece around who had damaged it. The scene was set as a police interview and a line of suspects, and many comedic moments followed between the dozy officers and the clueless interviewees.
Following much deliberation, the difficult decision on marks was made. In fourth place was Everett, with Welsh coming in at third. That just left Orchard and Skipwith, and stealing the victory by just one point was Skipwith House. The boys included in the piece were Matty Fitzgerald, Will Bailey, Elliot Jordan, Robbie Cartwright, Joe Belcher, Josh O’Hare and Lucas Brookes. Head of Drama Miss Jenny Unwin was impressed with the boys, saying that ‘Skipwith were a worthy winner and we were proud of the effort put in by all the groups. Congratulations to all involved.’