Drama Careers Day - May 2023

On Tuesday 16 May we held our annual Drama Careers day - an exciting day filled with talks and workshops from theatrical industry professionals. We were fortunate to host some incredible professionals including Gina Beck, Vamos Theatre and Shaun Kerrison. 

We began the day welcoming Drama students from The Blandford School, and kicked things off with a physical warm-up lead by Miss Simonds, which allowed participants to get to know each other and got everyone's creative juices flowing.

Gina Beck, West End performer, has starred in a plethora of West End shows, including Cosette in 'Les Misérables', Glinda in 'Wicked' and Christine in 'Phantom of the Opera'. She sang songs from shows she has been in, spoke to us about her journey as a performer and led us through her vocal warm-up. This was followed by a physical workshop led by Vamos Theatre Company, a company which focuses on mask work. Ricardo, the practitioner, led participants through a variety of activities exploring how to create character through mask work.

After a well-earned lunch break, participants then enjoyed an online workshop with Shean Kerrison, an incredible director, who shared his journey through his career and gave useful tips about working in the industry.

In addition, there was an insightful talk from Charles who works at Poole Lighthouse, who explained about the other jobs needed in a theatre. Charles spoke to us about the different elements of a theatre, and how different departments all work together to produce the UK's biggest arts complex outside of London. It was especially great, because we have just become a partner school of Poole Lighthouse, so he told us the great things we can get involved in.

Everyone then enjoyed a stage combat workshop with Jack Tuson. Jack taught us different moves, which we then developed into a sequence, and by the end of the workshop, we managed to stage a fight, which looked realistic!

Finally, to end the day we welcome Laura Blake, who is currently studying her PhD in Applied Theatre. Laura ran a workshop, which got us to explore different elements of applied theatre. We looked at issues going on in our world, which matter to us, as she encouraged us to make theatre about things that we care about.