Co-curricular activities: Drama
"Drama is life without the boring parts" - Alfred Hitchcock
Haileybury's Drama School enjoys the passion and excellence of a diverse and creative team of staff. Their skills and experience range from professional actors to multimedia specialists, Cambridge University and RADA graduates, to teachers and Heads of Department with a wide range of cultural experience.
We offer an exciting and challenging programme for pupils of all ages and levels of participation. There has been a wide spectrum of productions which afford pupils not only the experience of a high level of study but also the opportunity to be part of a cutting edge performance-based theatre programme.
Haileybury offers a rich co-curricular drama programme. Each year there are three co-curricular performances as well as a range of clubs and technical workshops that pupils can get involved in to enhance their passion on or behind the stage. We also hold a biannual House Drama Festival, which has involved over 200 pupils from all the Houses.
In Spring we showcase some excellent GCSE and A Level performances which are taken from scripted plays as well as work devised by the pupils themselves. We also see talent in some exceptional work by those doing lighting, set or costume as one of their options for controlled assessment. From Shakespeare and Greek comedy, from Bugsy Malone and Les Liaison Dangerous, no challenge is too great as we strive to offer theatre from all over the world. All of this takes place in the extremely well-equipped Ayckbourn Theatre (named after the playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn, who is an Old Haileyburian) where our pupils experience a combination of exciting direction, wonderful staging and a real focus on production values.
Pupils also have the opportunity to experience LAMDA, a professional qualification in acting or public speaking that earns pupils merits and distinctions. Haileybury consistently achieves excellent LAMDA results.
Meet the team
Rachel Beggs - Director of Drama
Rachel joined Haileybury in 2004 as both Head of Academic Drama and Director of Drama responsible for co-curricular drama across the School. She takes the chief co-curricular directorial responsibilities across the year and co-ordinates all dramatic events.
Nigel Parkin
Not satisfied with an English Lit degree from Cambridge, Nigel trained in acting at RADA. He joined Haileybury in 2006, has been acting Director of Drama twice and complements his teaching and directorial work with storytelling in primary and prep schools.
Sarah Parkin
Sarah is in her third year teaching Drama at Haileybury. She has had some wonderful success directing Lower School Productions such as Alice in Wonderland and The Pier. She also runs the Lower School Drama Club. She has a huge amount of experience and was herself a Head of Drama before having a family.
Toby Everett
Toby is our Performing Arts Technical Production Manager. He runs all public events in school requiring sound, lighting or other production and technical assistance. He also runs the TTU (Theatre Technical Unit) which is the training ground of the lighting designers of the future!
Kate Pearson
Kate joined us last year as the Drama technician – she is our logistical and creative guru! And has a special interest in prop making and set design. As ‘producer’ she is the lynch pin in every production at Haileybury.
