Overview

This collection of historical and contemporary scenes offers drama teachers a wide range of topics through an exploration of vividly drawn texts. The opening pantomime dialogue contrasts with such serious issues as cholera and plastic pollution. These scenes give the drama studio a credible opportunity to develop partnerships with other departments within a school environment. Historical scenes provide opportunities for cross-curricular activities in both History and English. For instance, scenes of the horror of the Great War will heighten perceptions of the wartime narrative. Seven of the scenes are inspired by Shakespeare’s plays and will help the actor to develop their understanding of the original texts and the era in which the plays were written. The contemporary scenes confront issues relevant to young people growing up in an ever-changing world and explore such themes as ecological destruction, the refugee crisis and intergenerational conflict. As the words of the text are brought to life, the actor should seek to find links to a given set of circumstances. Each scene is directly linked to the human situation. The actor’s mantra should be, “I will live the words I learn.”

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9781800422193

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Jeffrey Grenfell-Hill trained for the professional theatre at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where he was chosen as student director in his final year. After a tour of American colleges, universities and performing arts centres, he was invited to join the examining board of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Jeffrey’s poems have been included in Penguin and Heinemann anthologies, his plays have been published by Samuel French, and his monologues by Oberon Books in an anthology edited by Shaun McKenna. In 2019, Jeffrey published Monologues and Duologues for Young Actors, which offered drama teachers wider scene choice for the seven to thirteen age group. His popular monologues and duologues have been regularly chosen for the LAMDA examination acting syllabus as set pieces. They are often performed as ‘own choice’ selections at major festivals of speech and drama. Jeffrey himself is an adjudicator of many years’ standing; this aspect of his career began when he was a member of the Board of Adjudicators at the Wyoming State Youth Drama Festival. Jeffrey widened his career interests by reading history at Swansea University. This has inspired him to write more historical scenes; and has contributed to a belief in the complementarity of understanding history and drama. These scenes offer cross-curricular opportunities to teachers. In 1994 Jeffrey was awarded a PhD in History by the University of Wales for work on the welfare of women and children in Wales from 1890 to 1930. He was also Director of Sixth Form Studies at St George’s School, Harpenden, where he taught AS and A level Theatre Studies. Jeffrey remains an examiner for the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and examines both in the United Kingdom and internationally.

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