Author: Admin

Newsletter

Newsletter (Summer Term 2022)

Admin

We send out the Dramatis newsletter three times a year (March, August and December) to provide highlights from the previous term along with plans for the upcoming one.

The below is a copy of the Summer Term 2022 newsletter (sent in March). To make sure you get all our news delivered straight to your inbox, SUBSCRIBE HERE!

Hi Everyone,

The Summer term is nearly upon us, so in a bid to get organised (!) welcome to our first official newsletter!

If you’re signed up to classes with us, I’ll still be keeping in touch with specific things relevant to you, but this Termly newsletter will provide a general overview of what we’ve got coming up.

I will try my best not to waffle on (!) but should you wish to unsubscribe at any point, simply click the link at the bottom of this email.

It’s been a busy Spring Term! In January, our Plays and Pinot participants bunkered down to read The Watsons – a playful adaptation of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel. Giggles ensued.  Over the February Half Term, we ran both a Peter Pan and a House of Hogwarts Holiday Workshop – creating a bit of magic in an otherwise dreary month! Since term began, pupils in our youth Drama Lessons have been working with their ‘Modern Marvels’ and ‘LOL Factor’ themes to create pieces for their graded Trinity exams. And our Act Your Age participants have been donning trilby hats and tutus whilst working on Laura Wade’s ‘Home, I’m Darling’ (the Buzzy Bee’s game proved a particular highlight – who said adults can’t fly around and be silly?!) 

The Spring Term has also seen us work with PACSO to deliver an Outreach Workshop AND work with the Chichester Community Development Trust to launch two workshops for local residents as part of the opening celebrations of Graylingwell Chapel. We even got to meet and chat with Hugh Bonneville 😉 Details on both of these projects are below!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for classes, sessions and workshops – I have so loved teaching you and seeing you all grow in confidence.

But without further ado (we’ll leave that to Shakespeare!) on to the Summer Term! As you can see from the below – it’s going to be jam packed with lots of fun and learning!

So, have a peaceful Easter break and we’ll see you (with your renewed energy levels!) next term.

Kind Regards

Suzy (Principal)

Act Your Age – Summer Term
This term will be focused around Mike Leigh’s award winning play, Abigail’s Party – a suburban situation comedy and a satire on the aspirations and tastes of the new middle class that emerged in Britain in the 1970s. Ice-breakers, games and activities will explore the themes of the play while specific acting exercises will help prepare for the final piece (which will be informally recorded). This 12 week term costs £180 (which works out to just £15 per session) and will run in Bognor on Wednesday mornings and in Chichester on Thursday evenings.
For more information, CLICK HERE.

Youth Drama Lessons – Summer Term
This Term, The Royal Court group will be working with the ‘Keep it Traditional’ theme while The Globe group will be exploring ‘Life and It’s Lessons’. Both groups will work towards an end of term class performance. Sessions continue to run at The Regis School in Bognor on Monday evenings and the 12 session Summer term costs £120 (which works out to just £10 per class).
For more information, CLICK HERE.

Plays and Pinot – Summer Term
This term, our online playreading group will be exploring Alan Ayckbourn’s ‘Confusions’ – a series of five, short, interlinked one-act plays. Whilst each play is vastly different, they all deal with the underlying themes of obsession, isolation and human desire for companionship. This term runs from 8th to 29th June and costs £30 (equating to just £7 a session).
For more information, CLICK HERE.

Holiday Workshops – Spring and Summer Term
We have two Holiday Workshops coming up to keep the Kids’ entertained over the school holidays! The Freaky School of Cool Easter Workshop will explore the School of Rock, Freaky Friday and Legally Blonde, while the Magical Madricals Summer Workshop will be themed around a mash-up of Disney’s Encanto and Pixar’s Incredibles. Both workshops will see pupils’ singing, dancing and acting their way through the films and will culminate in a recording of a costumed performance – to keep and share with family and friends. Workshops take place at The Regis School and cost £120 (for the 4-day Easter Workshop) and £150 (for the 5-day Summer Workshop)…meaning just £30 a day!
For more information, CLICK HERE.

NEWS FROM LAST TERM

Meeting Hugh Bonneville at Graylingwell Chapel!
Friday 4th March saw the official opening of The Chapel at Graylingwell Park by the acclaimed actor Hugh Bonneville. Dramatis has been working closely with CCDT (the owners and developers of The Chapel) to deliver two workshops for adults that will run as part of the opening celebrations, so this was the perfect opportunity to see the former derelict hospital transformed into a thriving new neighbourhood space. It also gave Dramatis Principal, Suzy Duxbury, the chance to have a chinwag with Hugh himself! The two chatted about the role of drama in the community with a particular focus on the importance of storytelling and kindness. For more information about the Dramatis Workshops being run at The Chapel, CLICK HERE.

Dramatis Outreach Workshop with PACSO Begins!
After numerous delays (due to you know what!), this term we FINALLY began our Outreach Workshop in partnership with PACSO (Parents and Carers Support Organisation). Funded by Sussex Community Foundation and Pagham Pram Race, this ten-week workshop has focused on improving attendees’ social awareness and interpersonal skills with their peers, family and carers. Weekly workshops (themed around a range of films and musicals) have looked at the topics of good and evil to enable teenage participants to explore their emotions and help guide their future actions. For more info about Dramatis Outreach, CLICK HERE.

Hot Off The Press

We’re returning IN REAL LIFE!

Admin

Hurrah! The moment we’ve all been waiting for – Dramatis is returning to an IN REAL LIFE format!

Whilst it’s been lots fun adapting to online classes (which have brought out new levels of creativity in our teachers and pupils alike!) we can’t lie: we’ve missed our face to face lessons.

So, in accordance with the latest government guidelines, we’re delighted to be bringing back our Youth Drama Programme next month. Social Distancing rules will remain in place (which you can read about here).

We have a Holiday Workshop lined up from Mon 12th to Fri 16th April and then the Summer term for Drama Lessons will begin on Mon 19th April.

The Easter half-term workshop, ‘Can’t Stop the Beat’, will be a performing arts extravaganza of acting, singing, dancing and playing games based around three well-loved musicals – Hairspray, Beauty and the Beast and Hercules. To learn more, CLICK HERE.

The Summer term drama lessons will culminate with each lesson group doing a class performance (that will be filmed and uploaded to the Dramatis Online Stage for family and friends to enjoy). To learn more, CLICK HERE.

Please note, since Social Distancing guidelines mean we can only bring together 15 children at a time, workshop and class places are limited, so BOOK NOW to avoid disappointment!

The Adult Drama Programme will remain online for now (with the continuation of Plays and Pinot playreading sessions) but we will start to transition back to real-life classes once guidelines allow.

We can’t wait to see all your faces again IRL!

Hot Off The Press

Dramatis featured on BBC South!

Admin

Yes, you heard correctly! Yesterday saw us make our TV debut with a feature on BBC South Today!

Having been quick to adapt to a virtual format when the first lockdown was announced, over the past 12 months, we’ve run a range of online activities to help support local children with their mental wellbeing. It was great to see all the hard work put in by our teachers, pupils and parents alike recognised in this news segment:

The BBC report focused on our Winter Term classes which were based on a script devised by Dramatis principal, Suzy Duxbury. ‘Willy Wonka’s Lockdown Madness’ was written to help children express their frustrations and fears surrounding the pandemic as well as provide them with some much-needed social interaction with their peers.

As Suzy explained, “Like everyone, I was concerned with how the pandemic was affecting children and so reached out to an online parenting group to get a better understanding of how kids were being impacted and where Dramatis could best support”. A common concern was “a change in behaviour”, with some children becoming “increasingly withdrawn” and others having “uncharacteristic outbursts”. Parents cited a “lack of structured activities” and “ongoing absence of friends” as possible causes as well as the “struggle for children to explain how they feel”.

As a result, Dramatis devised tailored scripts for children to work on as part of their Winter Term classes which culminated in filmed performances of ‘Willy Wonka’s Lockdown Madness’. The Spring Term, which concludes next week, will see children perform ‘Lucy’s Adventures in Zoomland’, another script created to help explore changing emotions in relation to the lockdown.

Eva, one of the pupils who took part in the BBC filming explained: “‘it was great to work through a new script that felt relevant today and it was fun trying new characters”.

We’ve had some lovely feedback about the feature, with many pupils excited to have some fun news to share with their friends in the playground as they return to school this week. For others, its given them a taste of stardom, that will no doubt motivate their drama performances in the future!

A huge thank you to Pete Doherty from the BBC team, for helping spread the word about Dramatis and for guiding us through the process of making our TV screen debut!

We will be announcing Summer Term dates in the coming weeks, but if you have a child who can’t wait to get going, check out our upcoming Easter Workshop (‘Can’t Stop the Beat’) which will run from Monday 12th April to Friday 16th April (and will be our first IN PERSON activity since last year!)



Hot Off The Press

Our online Playreading group expands and rebrands!

Admin

With the latest UK lockdown meaning people are once again finding themselves socially isolated, disconnected from others and struggling to keep occupied, we’ve expanded our much-loved online playreading group to provide a wider variety of plays, dates and times so more people can participate!

When lockdown was first announced back in March 2020, we were quick to adapt our programming and move to a virtual format. As part of the new digital offering, we launched ‘Wine and Wilde’ online playreading sessions.

This affordable online activity (which brought people together via Zoom sessions to read through an Oscar Wilde play) had such an overwhelming response, that we’ve decided to expand it for 2021. The new Plays and Pinot format provides participants with a larger range of plays from different playwrights as well as a wider selection of dates and times.

Plays and Pinot is ideal for adults who are interested in the literary classics but keen to explore them in a new way. The low-pressure environment means it is also perfect for those who are unfamiliar with acting; as there are no lines to learn, and no stages to perform on! Participants are pre-assigned characters in scenes from a play which they then read through together as a small group. In keeping with the informal nature of the group, participants are encouraged to bring along a glass of wine or alternative beverage of choice for a de-brief afterwards.

The first block of Plays and Pinot (A Country Wife) is already sold out but there are spaces available for upcoming sessions which include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Heartbreak House, Lady Windemere’s Fan and What Every Woman Knows.

For more information, check out the PLAYS AND PINOT page.
To book your place, click the BOOKINGS page.

Uncategorized

Hot off the Press: Dramatis launches Family Nights In to keep inter-generational relatives connected during Lockdown 2.

Admin

With the novelty of online quizzes and family video calls worn thin after the first lockdown (!), Dramatis community drama school has launched Family Nights In to help different generations of the family stay connected in the safety of their own homes.

Combining the nostalgia of traditional games with the convenience of technology, these one-hour sessions use Zoom to bring family members from different households together to play a series of games and activities led by Dramatis.  Having an impartial leader take charge of proceedings (and scores!) means families can simply sit back and enjoy the fun.

Family Nights In include a series of games which test acting, singing and memory skills (for example the Conveyor Belt game in which a series of objects are shown on screen that contestants then have to recollect in a set period of time). There are also activities which focus on family knowledge and teamwork (like Freeze Frame in which contestants are given a moment in time that they have to capture in a frozen statue position).

Having moved their programme online in the first lockdown, Dramatis has now welcomed over 75 Sussex adults and children for virtual drama classes and courses. This experience with their private groups means they can now extend their services to be able to offer this more flexible family format.

Family Nights In are for up to five households (suitable for ages 5 to 95!). Participants simply need a computer/laptop/iPad and access to Zoom. One-hour sessions cost £50 (for all 5 households).  For more information or to book one for your family, CLICK HERE.