Performing in front of a live audience is no easy thing . . . even for drama students! Last week Fyling Hall’s Year 11 drama class performed their exam pieces in front of a live audience for the first time. The GCSE exam asks pupils to perform two extracts from a play of their choosing for a visiting examiner. This year we were lucky enough to have a visitor in our audience for our first run through, director and musician, Chris Wales. 

Chris will be well known to people local to Whitby as the director of the local pantomime, several musicals and a member of the Whitby Amateur Dramatic Society. He has performed in multiple shows a year and recently took the part of Hubert in ‘It runs in the family’ for town’s summer play. This is one of the plays that year 11 have chosen to perform for their final exams, and it was great to have his feedback on the performances. 

Year 11 really stepped up their performances and were able to get some excellent feedback on how best to improve their pieces. Suggestions from Chris included picking up the pace of the opening section, considering your staging more carefully or slowing down for dramatic effect on a particular entrance. These are all aspects of their performance that year 11 will now be able to work on and improve before their exam in March.

Thank you to Chris for all his help and support with our exam class, we really enjoyed having you in school. We are now much more confident performing in front of a live audience and more!

by Lizzie Jeeves, Head of Drama and English as a Second Language