St Edward's 150 Years - by Nicola Hunter

St Edward’s: 150 Years

Chapter 5 / Doorways and Gateways

Flossie Pugh and Jack Vincent win the Battle of the Bands with their acoustic rock duo, 2012.

Far left: Henry V , Sebastian de Souza, 2009. Left: The cast of We Will RockYou , 2009. Bottom left: Laurence Olivier (third from the right)andothers,1921.

As instrumental numbers have risen at St Edward’s, so has the ability to produce strong smaller ensembles and chamber music groups. Many of these have not only been based upon classical music, but also have embraced jazz and popular music styles with great success. The School now runs a 20-piece Big Band, an eight-piece Trad Jazz Band, and an improvisatory ten-piece Modern Jazz Ensemble. Even from early days, there was a tradition of ‘Prefects’ Concerts’ and later these developed into ‘Rag Revues’. On a department-led basis, the tradition of Glee singing in the prefects’ concerts is now replicated within our year-group Close Harmony Choirs. The tradition of rock, pop and music technology is also now upon us, with a full recording studio set up in the Music School, and regular opportunities and competitions for student-led alternative bands, whether they be rock, folk, pop or indie. Music was always heard within School productions, and it is fair to say that this is one area that has continued to expand and develop in recent years. Notable stepping stones along the way include Cowell’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1923; a series of pupil-performed operas in the ‘St Edward’s wanted pupils to go into the church or into the army. I wanted to be an oboe player. In my last term I told the captain of boating that I was a cricketer and the captain of cricket that I was a boater.Thus I made time for my oboe practice. When they discovered what I had done they made me score for an inter-House cricket match, all on my own. I had not much interest and a very blunt pencil.They played for three days in sweltering heat.At the end they didn’t know who had won and had to play the match again. I eventually joined the BBC Symphony Orchestra.’ Geoffrey Browne (F, 1959–62)

DRAMA Since Drama and Theatre Studies was introduced to the School as a curriculum subject the Department has grown considerably, with a third of the School now studying the subject from Shell through to GCSE, A Level and IB. At the heart of our pedagogy is the need for self- reflection and self-discovery. We want pupils to feel a sense of ownership of their work and have creative freedom to explore their world and the world at large through a wide variety of performance practices. Pupils can thrive both as performers and on the technical and design side; technical theatre is growing with many younger pupils learning under the guidance of the older ones. All of our ‘techies’ who have

late 1970s and early 1980s; and the bi-annual performances of large-scale musicals with which the School enjoyed great success from the late 1980s. These links between Drama and Music is where the School has been very successful in recent years, appointing its first Director of Cultural Activities in 1991 and linking this post in with the North Wall Arts Centre in 1996. Today, the Music Department consists of six full-time staff and close to 40 peripatetic music teachers, covering every instrument from piano to bagpipes, from oboe to music tech, from electric guitar to double bass. Though not a large building, the Ferguson Music School, opened in 1962, was a major stepping stone, offering the School ten practice rooms and three larger recital rooms for orchestras and other ensembles. It came at a time when Edward Manning, Director of Music, headed an orchestra of 50 and a choir of 60 for the first time in the School’s history. The School Orchestra and Chapel Choir have performed in the last five years at Cadogan Hall and the Royal Albert Hall, London – the latter in the presence of the Queen and televised by the BBC. They have performed at a good number of major cathedrals, and we are now used to dealing with choristers and talented musicians coming into the School as music scholars, nurturing their skills and building to achieve their ambition. At the advent of a new Music Building to be completed in 2016, St Edward’s can now look to the future. The growth in music – be it solo, ensemble; choirs, orchestra, bands; classical, jazz, rock/pop, music tech or purely academic – means that there really is breadth and depth of music for all. Alex Tester Director of Music

wanted to pursue a career in technical theatre have been successful in gaining entry to the very best drama schools, James Atkins and Miles Fisher to name but two. The introduction of IB Theatre Arts to the curriculum has been an excellent one. The guidance for the course has allowed the Department to craft an exciting syllabus for the pupils that encourages independent learning and deep enquiry into a vast range of theatre practices from all over the world. We find the IB course exciting and liberating for both teacher and pupil alike. We also have a very close relationship with the North Wall, where pupils gain a huge amount from the workshops offered by companies and from the performances they can go to see such as Bang Bang Bang and Dreams of Violence by Out of Joint , directed by Max Stafford-Clark. Other companies such as NIE, ATC and Shared Experience have had a huge impact on our work. Much of our curriculum relies on the high quality of the professional theatre in the North Wall. The future for Drama in the School is a bright one, where cuts to the arts are severely affecting the maintained system, here there is growing support and understanding of how important creative subjects and particularly Drama are. Here there is a place for the individual to grow and thrive, here there is space for the mind to dream and create possibilities. Teddies has always been a place for the individual and in Drama we continue to celebrate this and encourage the development of the whole person, emotionally, socially and intellectually. Katrina Eden Head of Drama

102

103