Performing Arts
The Performing Arts Staff at John Septimus Roe work to provide the students with a depth and variety of after school activities in which they can take part. Through Dance Club, School productions and multiple performance opportunities our students enjoy exploring the performing arts while socially interacting with students from different year groups. Below are some wonderful shows the school has put on recently.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream has given audiences for the past four hundred or so years a lesson about love and marriage. Pitting the social occasion of a royal wedding against the rite of passage of four young lovers, a madcap rehearsal of a comical tragic play about love, and the Fairy Kingdom at war with itself, Shakespeare combines morals and mirth to enable the audience to walk away feeling enlightened and enlivened by the play’s enchanting story and themes. The performance set in a Greek resort with mischievous fairies manipulating the young lovers has allowed the students to take on the challenges of our first Shakespeare production with flair and enthusiasm.
Choreography Night
Choreography Night has become an enormous event in the JSR calendar. It is so encouraging to have such fantastic support from parents, students and staff. This event is named, organised and run by the Year 12 students each year. The title of the show last year was Dance Street and each of the Year 12 students choreographed and taught a routine in the genre of their choice to a cast of younger dancers. The show also included self-devised Jazz pieces by the Year 10 students, self-devised Contemporary pieces by the Year 11 students as well as class dances, pieces by Dance Club and of course the legendary Staff Dance.
Sweeny Todd; The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
![Sweeny Todd [2010]](/Libraries/content_Images/Sweeny-Todd-_2010.sflb.ashx)
Stephen Sondheim is one of the 20th century’s greatest musical theatre story tellers. His panache for writing intricate and witty lyrics, coupled with his ability to compose complex and engaging music makes for very entertaining musicals! And nothing less can be said of his 1982 musical Sweeny Todd; the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
In this year’s musical, Sondheim takes us to the streets of London, 1864. Times are hard and one must make do with what one has. So, our heroine (or should I say anti-heroine), Nellie Lovett, adds something a little extra to the meat pies she peddles on Fleet Street. The secret ingredient: freshly murdered victims of our anti-hero, barber Sweeny Todd, who is back from exile and seeking revenge! As gruesome as it sounds, Sondheim artfully delivers the story so that audiences are laughing with the characters and humming along to his catchy tunes. The subject matter and performance was very well received by our audiences; no one was left too traumatised!