On Thursday 3rd March, pupils from Year 7-9 attended the annual Eskdale Festival of the Arts in Whitby. Pupils have always done well at the festival, and this year was to be no exception. The pupils performed at the Spa Theatre in Whitby for Carol Schroder, a professional adjudicator.

Ben Carpenter, Lola Wilson, Olivia Coates and Rory McAdam performed first in the Shakespeare Solo category. They had to memorise and perform a three minute piece of Shakespeare. On the day, Olivia Coates (Year 7) was the winner, performing Pyramus’ death scene from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. She was closely followed by Lola Wilson (Year 8) in second place. Ben and Rory (Year 8) were placed joint third.

The next class saw all pupils in Year 7 and 8 compete alongside drama pupils from Year 9. In drama lessons this term, pupils have devised performances based on a range of themes. They have created the basic storyline, a set of interesting characters, found costumes and props and considered staging too.

Everyone performed fantastically, however on the day, Finn Clive, Max Harland, Ellie Davison, Sophie Asprey and Carolina Clements were victorious. Their piece was based on ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time’ and featured stand out performances from Finn as an angry drinks and refreshments lady, and Max as Christopher. “I didn’t think we would actually win, but I think our performance went pretty well, apart from my wing falling off! It’s good that the judge wasn’t scary too.” Finn, Year 9.

Year 8 group ‘Violet’ featuring Milly, Chemin, Lucas, William, Ellie and Lola were placed second with a piece exploring discrimination and segregation. In third place were Year 7 group ‘Yellow’ who took a visit to a hippy museum with Olivia Procter, Olivia Coates and Jimena Lopez who said: “I haven’t ever performed in the theatre and it was huge. I think we did quite well.”

For many of our pupils this was the first time they had performed on a professional stage. Elfie in Year 7 said:  “The difference between performing in the theatre to performing in the Barn is that I feel like I can really do my best when I’m on a proper stage and I can really express myself to the full.”

Everyone performed fantastically and I was incredibly proud of them all.

 Miss Rowland