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Drama & Theatre

Welcome to A Level Drama & Theatre

Find out more about the subject

What do our students say about Drama & Theatre?

My favourite thing about studying Drama is that it is a lesson where I can be creative and experiment. It is so different from every other subject that it is a welcome break when things are stressful. There is no right or wrong and you have the freedom to explore and create what you want, and our lessons were always fun despite working hard.
I knew that there was going to be a lot of dedication required to study Drama because it is such a hands-on subject but I don’t think I expected it to be as time consuming as it was. Sometimes I needed to remember that I had two other subjects to learn because I was always so focused on planning for Drama, but I loved the subject so to me it didn’t matter. However, I do think people considering it need to make sure they are truly prepared and committed to choosing Drama, it was definitely my most demanding subject.
My advice to new Year 12s would be to make sure you enjoy the subjects you pick because the work is hard and its a bigger jump from GCSE than you would expect, but if you actually have some genuine interest in the subject it makes it less challenging. Also, keep on top of the work and your notes from the start because when you get towards the end of the course it will make it a lot easier.
I also studied English Literature and Geography, and did an EPQ in the changing role of women in the theatre industry.
After Sixth Form my plan is to do a BA Drama and Theatre Arts degree at the University of Birmingham. Drama is obviously going to be a huge help in this degree as I already have a foundation of learning and knowledge that I will be able to build upon, but also the skills I have learnt in the subject e.g. communication will help me in general university life and the future.

Amelia (with the rest of her A Level Drama class) celebrating their last day in the Sixth Form by wearing their old school uniforms!

Tom was a regular in school productions at Crompton House and is now studying Drama with Creative Writing at the University of Huddersfield

My favourite thing about Drama was getting to learn about and perform in the style of a range of theatre practitioners such as Brecht, Stanislavski and Berkoff. I enjoyed this as the range of practitioners helped me strengthen different dramatic abilities all at once and it gave good variety to the course and the different ways I could act and perform pieces.

I wish I had known about how the group selection process for practical exams was going to be carried out, I was surprised that we wouldn’t be picking our own groups for our final practical performances – instead these were selected by our Drama teachers. It also would have been useful if I had looked up more about the how much the coursework, the practical performances and the written exam would make up our overall grade as this would have helped me understand the course better in its entirety.

My advice would be that if you want to study Drama you should not let anything hold you back. Even if you are shy or socially awkward but still want to study Drama you should still go for it as it will help you with confidence issues and social worries. Ignore any comments or thoughts that this is “not a proper subject” because people said this to me, and I still went on to study Drama and I can tell you it is not easy! It is a proper subject that teaches you confidence, teamwork and other life skills that other subjects cannot teach!

I would also encourage you to get involved in the plays and musicals the school puts on each year as this will improve your skills as an actor and overall performer and allow you to realise and improve other performance skills. These are fantastic opportunities that I loved being a part of. 

As well as Drama I also studied English Literature and English Language. I enjoyed learning about both sides of English and the Literature side especially helped me with my Drama (as we studied plays), so these subjects work very well together.

Since leaving Sixth Form, I have been studying Drama with Creative Writing at Huddersfield University. Drama covers the majority of this course so doing Drama at A level really helped as I had already began improving and working on my skills as a performer and team player and so this gave me a personal head start on this when starting my degree. My English A Level also helped with my creative writing as I already had already gained good writing skills from the A Level course.