By Shanay Nijjar
On Wednesday 22nd January, parents arrived at school to watch their daughter perform in the highly anticipated Drama GCSE showcase. This was to be a pivotal moment for Year 10 students, who were getting their first taste of official GCSE exams. As families took their seats, students made final preparations, ensuring that everything was ready for the moment when they would showcase months of hard work.
-Image from actual GCSE performance (“Behind Closed Doors”)
I interviewed some students before the showcase to find out how they were feeling:
“I’m feeling a bit anxious but I’m really excited to finally put our whole vision out there.” – Isla Stock
“I’m feeling quite excited, yet really nervous, as you never know when your mind can go blank” – Alexia Peake
The Drama GCSE course consists of three main components, which all contribute to a student’s final grade.
The first component is devising and contributes to 30% of the overall grade. It involves students working in groups to create an original performance piece that is based on a chosen stimulus. This includes thinking carefully about staging, lighting, sound, costume design and makeup, as well as being able to communicate and work as a team. Alongside this, each student must also create a portfolio in order to document their rehearsals, research context and find inspiration.
The second component is presenting and performing texts, and makes up another 30% of the grade. It involves students performing extracts from a play to an examiner, who will mark them on their vocal and physical skills.
Finally, component three is performance and response, which makes up the final 40% of the grade. It involves a written exam, where students analyse a live theatre performance and answer questions on a set text which assesses their ability to evaluate performances and demonstrate an understanding of techniques used in performing.
In preparation for the first component, students dedicated a significant amount of time to choosing a stimulus, writing a script, developing their character and choosing how to stage their performance. This was followed by a countless series of rehearsals, technical run throughs and line running. This all began in September allowing students five months to create their masterpiece!
So, how did the night unfold? Students had a few hours from the end of school until the show began in order to put on costumes and any make up. Some groups had designated costume designers or make up artists, as this is an option students can choose instead of performing. Students had to quietly prepare and make final checks to avoid disturbing the performances in the drama room. Before performing, each student had to introduce themselves with their name, candidate number, the character(s) they were playing and their play’s title. Throughout the performances, the audience laughed and clapped for the amount of skill on show. There was a sense of relief and accomplishment for students when it was all over, knowing that their hard word had paid off.
After the showcase I interviewed the same students as before to see how they were feeling following the performance:
“I feel relieved, so relieved that some of my Drama GCSE is done! There was also a shocking number of teachers that came to watch.” – Isla Stock
“I feel so happy! I received a lot of good feedback and our group performed the best we’d ever performed.” – Alexia Peake
And of course, we certainly can’t forget the great efforts of teachers who helped to prepare and provide valuable advice to each group. I spoke with Ms Brown, the head of the Drama department, to ask her about the performances:
How did the night go? What was the level of skill on show?
“The Year 10 Devising Drama exam performances on Wednesday 22nd January were an extravaganza of creativity and self-expression. We enjoyed a vast array of pupil-created original plays: circus, time travel, social elitism, scientific human experimentation, and fashion were backdrops for the highly engaging stories. All the plays were rich with carefully crafted text and developed characters, enhanced by our pupil costume, set, and lighting designers. It was exciting to see pupils stretching themselves to fulfil their artistic potential”.
How much preparation did students have to undergo?
“Pupils started work on their plays in September, and worked hard to breathe life into their artistic vision. Many attended Saturday rehearsals, dedicated to honing their pieces”.
What advice would you give to year 9 students that are considering taking the subject for GCSE?
“To those Year 9 pupils considering taking Drama GCSE, I would say it is a fantastic course for exercising your imagination, compassion, and performance and communication skills. Substantial written work accompanies the practical components, so do not opt for Drama just because you think there will be less writing than other subjects. For example, devising portfolios are often twenty or more pages in length. GCSE Drama invites you to engage with the world and the human condition through an empathetic lens and, as such, is a potent vehicle for promoting understanding”.
Overall, students successfully showcased their talents and have already completed a portion of their final GCSE grade. Now, they must wait an extremely long time until they are able to receive their overall GCSE Drama result in 2026. Their dedication and effort throughout their preparation marks an important milestone in their academic journey, and has left everyone feeling very proud!