Introducing the First KES One Act Play Festival!

This year instead of the usual Senior School production at the end of the Autumn Term, the Drama department will be staging four very different plays, directed by four very different directors, involving four different year group bubbles.  When so many arts provisions are currently limited across the UK, we are very lucky at KES that we have the staff and the facilities to be able to offer such a wonderful range of performance opportunities!

It is an exciting and challenging project that the Drama department are about to embark on together, with the different plays exploring comedy, symbolism, puppetry, dance and physical theatre. ‘The KES One Act Play Festival’ promises to be a very exciting and diverse offering of plays, showcasing the range of talent across the year groups and providing an entertaining range of theatre over the course of show week! The plays will run from Dec 9th – Saturday 12th December.

How will it work?

• The casts will be rehearsing in their Year group bubbles, in designated spaces and tech rehearsals and performances will be divided up between the casts. 
• All the plays have been picked as short productions with the aim being that performances will run no longer than a normal show night. 
•  The first half will be one play, an hour long, then we’ll have an interval and then the second show will run for the second hour. 

What about further COVID restrictions?

• Should Government guidelines limit audience attendance we will stream the performances digitally via KESTV! 
• Tickets will still need to be purchased in the usual way.

When will each year group perform?

• Weds 9th Dec and Fri 11th December: Year 10 will perform the first half of the evening, the theatre will then be wiped down and reset for the Year 11 play after the interval.
• Thursday 10th and Saturday 12th. Year 12 and 13 will perform.

Who is performing what?

• Year 10 are directed by Mrs Bruton and will be performing The Cagebirds by David Campton ( presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd on behalf of Samuel French ltd).  This is an abstract piece, set in a metaphorical birdcage which explores themes of freedom and oppression and the cages we trap ourselves and others in.  Audience go-ers are promised a play that is, ‘Comic, sinister and thought-provoking by turns – with a shocking twist at the end!”
• Year 11, are directed by Mrs Rolfe, and will be performing an original, reworking of The Importance of Being Earnest’. This contemporary jazzy, musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play will take audiences on a journey to The London Cocktail Club and Ye Olde Worthing Country Pub. Igniting this tale with a new layer of absurdity, themes of confused identities, social rituals and romance will incorporate more Wildean wit than ever before! 
• Year 12, directed by Mrs Stevens-Craig will be performing The Red Shoes (based on plays by Anna Maria Murphy and adapted by Emma Rice). This fun, lively and at times brutal reimagining of the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairytale draws on Kneehigh Theatre traditions and conventions using an eclectic mix of music, puppetry, and dance to deliver a captivating tale about obsession and dance!
• The Year 13 students are directed by our Drama department Intern Charlie Howard and will be performing Beautiful Burnout by Bryony Lavery. A physical, edgy and visceral play about boxing which explores what it takes to be successful and at what cost does this come?

Follow @KESBathDrama on twitter to follow these productions in rehearsal.