Drama

There are numerous drama projects in rehearsal and production every term at Ellesmere. Some of these are pupil directed, and use groups of students in their cast such as the 'playwright' productions in the annual House Play Festival and some give specific year groups an opportunity to perform. There are also weekly drama clubs provided throughout the year.

The Senior School play performed in the Easter Term is open to all pupils in Year 11 and in the Sixth Form. We try to perform biannually either a musical or direct two productions, one small scale to be taken on tour to the U.S.A. and the other a classic 'straight' production. We visit professional theatres as a matter of course within our examination classes but also have a termly 'open' theatre trip for enthusiastic sixth formers. Lower School pupils also enjoy trips out to the annual Pantomime at Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury and large scale productions such as 'The Lion King' in Manchester.

Our studio theatre is run by a professional technical theatre graduate, drawn annually from national theatre schools. Our technician works in conjunction with a vertical grouped pupil stage crew who learn to light, stage manage and run complex shows as a tightly knit team of hard working technicians. Script writing competitions are open to the students on an annual basis and we encourage and guide our most gifted towards Summer Schools of excellence such as the National Youth Theatre.