Aspiring actors are winners at the Peterborough Drama Festival
Aspiring actors are winners at the Peterborough Drama Festival
A group of 14 talented performing arts students from Spalding Academy took to the stage at the Peterborough Drama Festival last term to compete against students from other schools including Bourne Academy and Cowley Academy.
The festival is a fantastic showcase of performing arts with the aim to promote speech and performance skills. This amazing experience has increased our student’s confidence by performing in front of a live audience and also developed their artistic expertise.
Students competed in five different categories that included monologues, duologues and group acting across Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 age groups.
There was great success for Spalding Academy as Zuzanna Kowalska, Emilia Bennett, Connie Cox, Evie Elsey and Julia Kupka and Jess Hope were awarded second place in ‘KS3 Group Acting’ category and Alfie Biggs was awarded third place in ‘KS4 Monologues’ category.
Across the Trust, we had students placed in first, second or third place in all five categories, which is a brilliant achievement especially as this was the first time the schools in the Trust have competed in the festival.
Mr Wood, Director of Performance & Creative Arts at South Lincolnshire Academies Trust said “All students worked extremely hard in preparation for the festival and performed with flair and vigour. The judges were very complementary of the quality of the work and all the students should be extremely proud of themselves by bringing positivity and energy to the festival.”
ALL STUDENT PERFORMANCES
Zuzanna Kowalska (Year 7), Emilia Bennett (Year 8), Connie Cox, Evie Elsey and Julia Kupka (Year 9) and Jessica Hope (Year 11) performed a rendition of one of the scenes from ‘A Monster Calls’ as a group acting piece. This was a fantastic movement-based performance which captured the audience’s imagination. The students achieved an impressive second place in the ‘KS3 Group Acting’ category, which the judges described as “intriguing and entertaining”.
Alfie Biggs (Year 10) brought his natural comedic timing to his chosen monologue showcasing his innate ability for comedy and naturalistic delivery, which the judge commended by stating that he “created a very believable character”. This superb performance was rewarded with third place in the ‘KS4 Monologues’ category.
Imogen Styles (Year 9) performed a very sensitive piece in the monologue category that was full of emotion and maturity which conveyed a character far beyond her years. This showed how professional she was within the performance which was echoed by the judge.
Caitlyn Cheshire and Emelia Bennett (Year 8) performed an extract from the ‘Harry Potter and The Cursed Child’. The scene’s fantastical nature mixed with the high stakes the characters found themselves in provided a challenge to the young actors. One that was matched by their ability to create bold characters full of personality to bring the scene to life in front of our very eyes. The judge’s remarks showcased “the character relationship” and “the understanding of the scene”.
Aiste Dapsauskaite and Rugile Cerkauskaite (Year 9) performed a version of the very moving ‘The Boy in Striped Pyjamas’. This was depicted with the sensitivity and seriousness needed to perform the scene in a truthful manner. The scene’s innocent tone with the air of naivety was matched with the girl’s incredible focus and professionality which produced a very mature performance which had been noted by the judge as being “well staged and well conveyed”.
Emily Angelo De Abreu and Elizabet Beliavska (Year 10) created a very comedic performance of the famous play ‘Shakers’ which had been adapted from an original four actors, to be performed as a duo highlighting how impressive the girls were to multi-role and demonstrate clear characters. This resulted in a performance described by the judge as “fun and imaginative”.