Governor visits – Grease the Musical (1st February 2024) and Year 13 Devised Piece examination (14th December 2023)
My wife and I spent a thoroughly enjoyable evening in The Henrician on Thursday evening watching the school’s fabulously exuberant production of Grease the Musical. The lead actors, chorus and dancers on stage were all outstanding – plus, there is, SPOILER ALERT, a bravura cameo from a member of staff! Chatting during the interval with other members of the audience, many of whom were not ‘interested’ parties, in that they were not parents/carers, siblings, relatives, friends or teachers of the actors on stage, we were all so impressed by the exceptional standard of performance that would not look out of place on the professional stage. In addition to the acting, singing and dancing, the brilliant set, lighting, make-up, costumes and props, including a moveable car, bore testimony to the incredibly hard work and strenuous efforts of all those – staff and students – in the wings and behind the scenes. A musical, self-evidently, needs music which was delivered with gusto by a first-rate, accomplished band led by their Musical Director, Mr Phill Bullas. Lastly, no musical or play can reach the stage, let alone be a resounding success like this production of Grease the Musical, without the vision, drive, expertise and organisational skills of a ‘Producer/Director’. Fortunately, Prince Henry’s has a highly talented and inspirational one: Mrs Maxine Cook, who manages to deliver, year in, year out, for our enjoyment and pleasure a wonderful school production. Congratulations to everyone involved!
Towards the end of the Autumn Term, Mrs Cook, the Head of Drama, had also invited me as Link Governor for Theatre Studies to come in and watch the Year 13 examination being recorded in front of an audience for assessment purposes. I have been invited to watch these performances for over a decade now since my own daughter and son were studying A-Level Drama. This particular ‘Creating Original Drama’ component of the A-Level now involves Year 13 students performing works that they have devised themselves in the style of a particular theatre practitioner. In stark contrast to the fun, jollity and vibrancy of Grease the Musical, the two pieces researched, created, produced and performed by the students, several of whom also starred in Grease the Musical, were much darker in tone and mood, dealing with challenging societal issues, such as attitudes to women, domestic abuse and mental health. The two groups had chosen different practitioners: Paper Birds, a theatre company with a social and political agenda, with the hard-hitting themes delivered through verbatim material and subtle movement; and Frantic Assembly, a theatre company known for the energetic physicality of its renditions, combining movement, design, music and words. Although the two created works differed markedly from Grease the Musical in tone, subject-matter and colour, the pieces were thought-provokingly crafted and outstandingly performed, wringing plenty of emotions out of the audience – one group even innovatively and boldly wove some audience participation into their piece, something I had never experienced in previous years. My congratulations to the students who were performing their work for the exam, for which they are also required to submit their working notebooks documenting all their research, as well as logging the creation and development of their ideas during the devising process; this document forms a key part of the assessment alongside the actual performance. I wish them all the best for their results.
Keith Watson
Vice-Chair of the Governing Body