Students Shine at Dulwich Shakespeare Festival
Last week, seventeen students from Dulwich Puxi travelled to Singapore to take part in the annual Dulwich Shakespeare Festival. Students have been preparing a 10-minute performance based on a discussion of the paradox between Shakespeare’s difficult language and the universal themes of his plays since the beginning of term. This performance was showcased alongside 10 other performances from within the Dulwich community as a festival of the playwright’s work.
After going on a boat journey to discover Singapore and its amazing light shows and architecture by night, it was time to get stuck in with actors and directors. Workshops included Dance, Drama, Storytelling and language exploration tasks to help students develop their oracy and performance skills as well as encouraging them to interact with students from across the Dulwich community.
As Puxi’s new drama specialist, it was a pleasure for me to see students interacting with Shakespeare in a way that made it both accessible and fun. I was incredibly impressed with the dedication and resilience that our students showed throughout the week, but especially during the technical rehearsal. During this time, our students rehearsed diligently, independent of my direction whilst we plotted the lighting and sound for their performance. Never have I seen such commitment to role.
Below are some comments from the students about their time at the festival -
‘I enjoyed being part of the professional workshops. I have learnt to understand a lot more of Shakespeare’s language and have started to read more Shakespeare plays since I have been back at school.’ – Bella, Year 6
‘I loved performing Shakespeare in front of the other schools.’ – Faye, Year 6
‘I learnt about very famous Shakespeare quotes. They have a lot of meaning to them and we can learn from them.’ – Vincent, Year 6
‘My favourite workshop was about learning ‘tutting’, a dance style based on Egyptian hieroglyphics mixed with hip hop!’ – Muse, Year 6
‘I improved my acting skills and am able to communicate better with others.’ – Lucas, Year 6
I liked spending time with students from other schools and learnt new skills about Shakespeare as well as drama games that I can teach to other people.’ – Anny, Year 8
