We have high expectations of all of our Performing Arts students and aim to challenge you to achieve outstanding results. Excellent facilities and a team of highly dedicated and committed teachers will ensure that you are provided with every chance of succeeding during your time at College. At QMC professional equipment and facilities have been carefully chosen to enhance your learning and help you acquire the skills you will need to work in the performing arts and music industries.
The world needs creativity. As well as preparing you for a career in performing arts, we also help prepare you for a range of alternative courses and professions. By studying our courses, you can gain transferable and employability skills that are valued by a whole range of employers and universities. You can go on to study and have successful careers in a wide range of job roles from law to paramedicine.
A level Drama and Theatre encourages creativity, focusing on practical work and developing skills that will support progression to further study of drama and a wide range of other subjects.
A level Drama and Theatre encourages creativity, focusing on practical work and developing skills that will support progression to further study of drama and a wide range of other subjects. The course will enable you to:
Further develop your acting skills and talents
Recognise and understand the interrelationship between performer, designer and director
Understand that texts and extracts studied may represent a range of social, historical and cultural contexts
Analyse and evaluate your work and the work of others
The ability to understand how performance texts can be interpreted and performed.
A level in Drama and Theatre will be assessed through a combination of a 40% written exam and 60% Non-Examined Assessment (NEA). Specifications require students to demonstrate a practical understanding of:
Students are required to participate in:
Component 1: (40%) Devising
80 marks – Portfolio (60 marks) and practical devised performance (20 marks)
Component 2: (20%) Text in Performance
60 marks – Group performance/design realisation (36 marks) and Monologue or duologue (24 marks)
Component 3: (40%) Theatre Makers in Practice (80 marks)
Practical and Written:
If you want to study Drama and Theatre you need to commit yourself fully to the demands of academic study both in and out of College.
There are a number of trips that are organised as part of the course. The cost of these varies depending on the venue. We visit the local theatre here at Central Studio as well as The Haymarket Theatre, other regional theatres in the South and the West End.
1. The arts create independent learners and develop students emotional intelligence. They require the students to set their own agenda from within themselves, rather than follow set topics as in other subjects. They have to make independent decisions all the way, and be self-critical. They also need to be brave in exposing their creations, and accept criticism. Working in teams makes students into effective communicators.
2. The arts are stretching drama, music, and art require long hours of hard work and dedication. Students have to pay great attention to detail, to perfect and re-do. Putting on a play, exhibition or concert takes strong organisational skills.
3. Arts students are highly sought-after by employers. Many employers now actively seek those who have studied the arts. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, was fond of saying his success was due to his hiring artists and musicians fascinated by technology rather than computer geeks. Top talent management agency, The Curve Group, specialising in financial and business services, concurs: “Employees with an arts degree have developed more quickly in their roles from the start. They have discipline, confidence and can accept criticism.”
4. Arts ‘reach the parts other subjects can’t reach.’ The arts develop the broader dimensions of the human being – mind, body and soul. The arts can express the inexpressible and make sense of things that otherwise do not seem to. This can be very fulfilling and helps us function as human beings – which can only be good for society as a whole.
5. Arts ‘reach the students other subjects can’t reach.’ Teachers find arts subjects particularly beneficial for two groups: those who struggle with traditional subjects and those who are high achieving. Less academic students can become defeatist if they feel they can’t achieve: drama, music or art can be the place they blossom. With studious students, the arts can bring them out of themselves and be a release.
Max Harwood imagery from The Sun , The movie my life, Amazon Poster
Vogue Article, @ GettyImages
Outstanding teaching, where you can develop your skills through performances and exploring a range of practitioner styles.
Professional theatre workshops.
A wide range of exciting theatre trips.
Exceptional audition preparation and advice.
Creating original performances in a professional theatre.
The chance to take part in the National Theatre Connections competition.
Academic workshops to stretch your written capabilities.
You are pushed to create imaginative and unique pieces of theatre that challenges society’s preconceived ideas.
Dedicated and enthusiastic teachers.
The arts create independent learners and develop students emotional intelligence. They require the students to set their own agenda from within themselves, rather than follow set topics as in other subjects. They have to make independent decisions all the way, and be self-critical. They also need to be brave in exposing their creations, and accept criticism. Working in teams makes students into effective communicators.
The Head of Department, Steve Gallagher will be happy to help.
Leader of Drama & Theatre, Kirsty Thorpe