Don Valley Academy

I have recently seen Othello at the Sheffield Crucible with the year 13 drama students, Miss Cattaneo and Miss Sheldon. The Shakespearean play was great to watch and the actors worked well to bring out the piece of theatre. The best part for me was the on stage fighting, they were choreographed well to create the naturalistic style of the time.

My favourite character was Iago, played by Dominic West. His Yorkshire accent worked perfectly well for this devious villain, adding a little comedy to his malice. I have to say, due to the length of the part and the amount of monologues this would be an extremely difficult part to perform, but Dominic West was faultless.

The play’s themes include racism, jealousy and revenge, and these subjects are clearly seen throughout the play and shown well by the cast. Overall, I had a brilliant time and enjoyed the production a great deal, the actors should be proud of the play they performed.

I give this production 4 stars.

Yr13 Student.

I woke up in the early hours of Saturday morning to get the 7am train with Mrs. Atkins. We were all very excited about the day ahead as we headed off to London. We had quite a new experience going on all the tubes and seeing masses of people, it was quite nerve racking as I wasn’t used to anything like that.

We got outside the theatre where we met the other teachers and students who were also participating in Richard’s Rampage. After everyone arrived we were taken down to a studio where we watched a 30 minute performance of Richard III that was performed by 2 people who also ran the workshop. They covered the main themes of the story and it was very captivating to watch.

The teachers were then taken on a tour of the Old Vic theatre  while the students stayed and worked on team building skills and trying to feel an emotion and then to portray it. We developed techniques on how to create different body language to represent a character.

After a long morning we had lunch, during which it was announced that someone special had come to see us. We excitedly moved to the other room, where Kevin Spacey was sat waiting. I sat near him, speechless from the presence of the Hollywood actor, we sat quiet, taking in the moment.

Later in the afternoon we got the chance to watch Kevin Spacey play Richard III in the theatre. It was a three and a half hour performance, but the time flew by. It was a truely memorable production and an amazing day that I will never forget.

Yr12 Student.

On Saturday 3rd September two students from Don Valley Academy journeyed to London to take part in an amazing experience offered by the Kevin Spacey Foundation. The candidates were chosen out of hundreds of applicants nationwide. As part of the audition process, our students had to film a two minute monologue and write a one thousand word essay each.

We were up early to catch the 7:30am train and travelled to London’s  West End and the Old Vic Theatre, which Kevin Spacey is the Artistic Director.

The students participated in a group workshop privided by the ‘Richards’s Rampage’ company and I was given a tour of the Old Vic Theatre. When I rejoined the students, they had taken part in the making of a short film for the company’s website. They produced some stunning work, alongside very talented students from other schools across the country.

After the workshop we settled down for lunch, which was soon interrupted by the workshop leader announcing, “ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to put down your sandwiches, we have a special guest who would like to meet you all”. Full of excitement and anticipation, we made our way into the studio to be greeted by Oscar winning actor Kevin Spacey, dressed very casual in shorts and baseball cap having just finished a game of tennis. Our students sat to the front of the other students and listened to Kevin talk about the play Richard III and answer questions from the students. I think our girls were a little starstruck at meeting the Hollywood actor as they were very quiet.

This really set us up nicely for the afternoon by building up our excitement even more at the prospect of seeing Kevin on stage, we were not disappointed! The play was fantastic, a real special performance from Mr. Spacey who delivered a unforgettable Richard, with exceptional direction from Sam Mendes. The play was three and a half hours long, but it really didn’t feel like it, the time flew by! We gave the cast a standing ovation, and it was truly deserved.

Overall, a very special and exciting day, something I, along with two very talented and deserving students, will never forget.

Mrs. Atkins