An update from The Theatre Crew team

A Co-curricular opportunity open to students from Years 9 to Upper Sixth, Theatre Crew is thriving with over 30 students attending weekly. The premise of the club is simple: to provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to pursue a career and/or life-long hobby in theatre design, lighting design, costume design, sound design and more - everything behind the scenes.  

We have lots of inspiring projects for students to be involved with throughout the year and have started the term, as we always do, building new skills and developing existing ones. It is our intention in running the club this way that new students feel welcomed and encouraged to join at any point. We also ensure a mixed delivery and focus on different skills which helps to keep all attendees engaged and enthusiastic.

In the first half term of this year, we have focused on a number of different elements: sound; set; initial design exploration. Miss Elsom (Theatre and Events Technician) ran a session on sound design which included a practical exploration of the Bedford Girls’ School theatre sound desk and system, speaker routing and how to distinguish between diegetic and non-diegetic sound. These sessions helped newer students learn and understand the importance of the design element and also reinforced the knowledge of the existing crew.

Alongside this work Miss Middleton (Theatre Design Technician) also introduced mood boarding and collaging. We explored how this approach can be helpful when starting to think about all aspects of design and communicating ideas. These hands-on sessions allow the students to be as creative and imaginative as possible, encouraging active learning.

We will end the term by working on our joint production with Bedford School, Bugsy Malone. Students will have hands-on experience in building set pieces, creating and sourcing props, assisting with costume sourcing and creation. It is very exciting to have our first fully joint venture this year and will be an invaluable experience for our students - particularly as they will be working in a brand-new venue, The Quarry Theatre.