Drama Update

17th June 2021

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RSC Playmaking Festival

You may be aware that Helston Community College have the wonderful opportunity of working alongside the RSC as one of their cluster schools. The RSC is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratford-upon-Avon, and on tour across the UK and internationally.

Their education department works with thousands of young people, teachers and partner theatres each year, who experience the extraordinary power of Shakespeare's language in their school, local communities and around the world. In a normal year, the RSC would be hosting a Playmaking Festival in Stratford, where our students would be performing alongside other students from around the country. Under current circumstances, instead the RSC will be hosting a website on which filmed performances from around the country will be shown.

As a county all but surrounded by the sea, Cornwall’s entry to this year’s National Playmaking Festival will be a short film exploring Shakespeare’s references to the sea and to our island nation. Using extracts from a selection of plays, we created a montage dedicated to the sea using ensemble voices and movement.

Over two days during the half term holiday, 4 students from Helston joined several other schools in our Cornish cluster at Treviglas for rehearsals and filming of our piece. They worked with the Head of Drama at Treviglas and a choreographer in creating and recording an ensemble piece. The film will be edited at Treviglas and then submitted to the RSC. It will be released on the RSC website at the beginning of July.

Huge congratulations and thanks to the year 7 students involved. They were positive, professional, creative and hard-working throughout the two days and were a credit to Helston. We look forward to many more exciting opportunities with the RSC.