Year 7 Performing Arts Showcase

Recently St Bede’s Year 7 presented an Evening of Entertainment, with a series of short plays, choral poetry performances, instrumental pieces and dance solos. The children had been working on these adaptations in their fortnightly Drama lessons, and with their individual Music and Dance teachers. Although the evening was intended to be a low-key affair, with focus more on improvisation and mime, characterisation and adaptation of scripted text, rather than on costume, props and lighting, the final performances were superb. There was a varied and entertaining programme, ranging from the sombre tale of The Highwayman to the porcine spoof of Twelve Angry Men and the rib-tickling adaptation of Albert and the Lion.

There were lots of excellent individual performances and special mention should be made of Rachel Morgan and Katie Taplin for their beautiful dance routines and to Laurence Adamson, Jake Simmons, Archie Taylor and Rosa Witts for their accomplished music solos. What became most apparent about the evening was the team spirit of Year 7. What an enthusiastic, conscientious and supportive group of children they are! Performance after performance ran with clock-work smoothness and there were always many helping hands when it came to moving scenery and staging around. There were many positive comments from the packed audience - and lots praised the professionalism and polish of the performances, given that it was supposed to be just a light-hearted studio production.

Gail Brundle
Head of English and Drama