The drama department hosted a very special guest on Monday 12 June – Alecky Blythe. Blythe is a renowned theatre practitioner famous for her ‘verbatim theatre’ techniques. The current Lower Sixth drama students chose to focus on this technique for their A-Level project.
Alecky lead a workshop in the afternoon with Bedford School, Bedford Modern and Mark Rutherford on her techniques using earphones and original recorded transcripts. The students were asked to explore this challenging technique in pairs and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. After the workshop, Alecky and a public audience watched the Lower Sixth drama students perform their exam piece entitled ‘Spooky’s Story’, a piece of verbatim theatre based around interview transcripts from people in Bedford. Afterwards, Alecky commented on the piece, saying it was ‘a wonderful show and many of her authentic techniques were utilised successfully’.
Antoinette Keylock, Head of Academic Drama, commented, ‘It was great to have the students’ own practitioner watch the piece and pass on such positive comments. They started the interview process back in January and it has been a long journey, but very much worth it. They have now completed 10% of their final mark for A-Level!’
