Dramatic Arts

We recently-upgraded our Theatre, backstage dressing rooms and auditorium and added a dedicated Drama Centre. This new building is a tremendous resource, allowing us to accommodate many and varied school-related functions, projects and performances. Our two large Drama classrooms with allied practical rehearsal spaces are home to both theory and practical learning. The Senior Drama studio is situated in a beautiful part of the estate and is a private and spacious venue for girls to fully explore the potential of Dramatic Arts.

Dramatic Arts is taken by all Grade 8 and 9 girls, giving them the chance to explore this creative and cultural sphere. Dramatic Arts has always been a popular National Senior Certificate subject at St Anne's, and the Allied Theatre and Production Programme runs projects aligned to the curriculum to reinforce the girls' exploration of play texts, style, genre, and theatre history.

In Term 1, Grade 10 Drama girls are led in a week-long residency by theatre professionals and perform in front of the school on the last night. This residency gives girls meaningful, lasting practical tools and skills for their drama training. Workshops are regularly arranged for the Dramatic Arts girls with various theatre practitioners and companies so that the girls can learn from professionals in the industry.

Besides the practical Dramatic Arts curriculum, there are many opportunities for all girls at St Anne’s to get involved in productions.

• We stage a major production every year, with auditions open to the whole school.
• We also collaborate in other school's productions (primarily with Michaelhouse).
• The Interhouse Theatre Festival provides a platform for all girls to audition to be in their House production. Led by the Grade 11 Dramatic Arts girls, this wonderful event makes for excellent leadership training and house bonding between the girls and results in a fantastic theatre programme.

Past major productions at St Anne's:

2019 This is Me, A Tribute to Musicals 2018 Metamorphosis by Steven Berkoff 2017 Penelope, a Dance Theatre Production, inspired by Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad. 2016 Curl Up and Dye by Sue Pam-Grant 2015 Love, Crime and Johannesburg by Junction Avenue Theatre Company 2014 Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca 2013 Lysistrata by Aristophanes

Creative movement and dance form part of the Dramatic Arts curriculum from Grade 8 to 12. St Anne’s promotes contemporary dance. Our two dance companies are led by trained contemporary dancers and choreographers.

• The St Anne’s Dance Theatre Company performs on the annual FUNK programme produced by St Anne's - an inter-school dance programme performed at the Hexagon Theatre in Term 2.
• The St Anne’s Contemporary Dance Company is a training company that performs on the Experidance programme in Term 3.

Our Theatre Director lines up an exciting calendar of outside professional productions that the girls attend to broaden their cultural education.

Girls can apply to become Technical Monitors, where they are trained and work in the technical and backstage areas of theatre that interest them - such as lighting, sound, videography, stage management, make-up, costumes, and front-of-house.