Stratford trip photos at Photo Gallery

Stratford 2010

This year's Stratford trip, a bleary eyed 6am start, was one marked by two stunning performances and a great day or two out in the streets of Stratford. As an annual trip it's becoming a secure fixture on the calendar as it prepares our lower Sixth for their Shakespeare unit and offers a break from the stresses of examinations and coursework and so on.

This year was the most popularly attended of the three so far and we managed to fit in a dark and troubling King Lear as well as a glittering and passionate Anthony and Cleopatra. As well as the actual plays, there is the mercurial benefit of immersing oneself in Shakespeare's England with tours through the houses and live performances in the gardens. The best compliment for the trip is the smiling and bubbly faces as we left the theatre, buzzing with enthusiasm for a play that they've never seen before and know very little about. There's proof in the pudding that the old Bard is very much alive and kicking in the literary world despite what the Post-modernists say.

English Department Visit to the War Poets Collection

By Sandy McCleery

A large number of the fifth form travelled down to Edinburgh to Napier University's Craiglockhart campus to visit the War Poets Collection. After a long bus journey we were treated to a short talk from Catherine Walker, curator of the exhibit, before being free to ask questions and look around.

The collection concentrates on Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) and Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967) as well as the doctors who treated them both during their time at Craiglockhart when it was being used as a 'shell shock' hospital during World War One.

It was within Craiglockhart where some of Owen's and Sassoon's greatest war poetry was inspired and written and so it was amazing to have the opportunity to visit the building and look at the collection.

We are all grateful to AJH and MTW for taking us, Catherine Walker for giving us an engaging and interesting talk and finally to the catering staff who had kindly left supper open for us when we arrived back late that night.

Mrs Alison Haylock

Whilst it is the natural way of schools to heap praise upon the students, it is always worth remembering the achievements of the staff. To this end we congratulate Alison Haylock on the completion of her Literature MA with distinction. This is no mean feat given the time pressures of the College, so well done to her!

 

 

 Independent co-educational boarding school, Glenalmond College drama workshop

  

The Black Cat Theatre

Every two years we invite a touring theatre company to Glenalmond to perform studied texts for the GCSE years. Last time it was An Inspector Calls and Romeo and Juliet.

This year the Fourth and Fifth Forms gathered in the theatre to watch a rendition of Romeo and Juliet (a popular GCSE choice), Macbeth and to take part in a workshop on Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. The purpose behind the day is to reinforce central ideas, issues and concerns before the Fifth Form mock examinations as well as to prepare the Fourth Form towards their Shakespeare coursework pieces. The day was highly rewarding and not least owing to the wit and wisdom of the visiting troupe.

 

We look forward to our next encounter with the company which does seem a long way off…

 

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie


Pitlochry Festival Theatre

A party of a dozen from College went to the Repertory Company's production of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" a text we are studying for coursework in the Lower Sixth. It proved to be a very entertaining evening as a good production played before a very full audience.

It was interesting that in performance as opposed to the novel one could feel more sympathy for a single woman attempting to make her mark in the 1930's.

Pitlochry is a handy venue for College being only forty five minutes up the road and we will follow next year's season with interest.

Othello – MacRobert Arts Centre

Stirling University

Studying Shakespeare has changed. No longer are we to expect an answer to what Shakespeare had intended and no longer are we asked to supplicate with wonder and awe and the legendary aesthetic skill of the Bard. Nowadays, we are expected to be critical, to view the play as a way of unravelling political and social ideas and as a way of discussing issues in our own society as well as in ye olden dayes. As a consequence, the written word needs to be seen in action, on the stage and viewed in terms of its emphasis on certain aspects of the work. We travelled to Stirling University to see this production and its fascinating musical evaluation. The Original Theatre Company put on a strong performance with a great set and it was well enjoyed by all those who attended. The most satisfying statements being that "now it makes sense"!

Glenalmond College at Stirling Uni for Othello 

English Department Trip - Stratford

The second annual trip to Stratford was a huge success dominated as it was by a cultural assault on the senses! Again we valiantly boarded the Coll buses and again we heroically stormed the M6 Toll road and circled around as we missed the M40 turn off to London. Once again we were startled by the enchantment that is Stratford and the magnificence of the RSC production values as Glenalmond College Stratford Trip 09we were enriched by two stunning performances: one hilarious As You Like It and one chilling and bloody Julius Caesar. The students had a gay old time too as they visited The Holy Trinity Church to see Shakespeare's final resting place and then went backwards in time to his birthplace, complete with a performance of Hamlet in the garden, and then to the houses of Nash and Dr Hall where the drama this time came in the form of a house guide instructing us on the treatments for various imbalances of the humours: what do you do for a dose of black bile? Well, force the patient to eat an unholy alliance of ingredients Macbeth's witches would baulk at, send him to the lavatory and run! As the students prepare for A2 and the close study of Shakespeare it is fitting that they get the chance to view the Bard at home and here they did and there was much ado, I can tell you.

On behalf of the English department I would like to thank Miss Bircher and Mrs Watson for accompanying the trip and making it all possible.

Lower Sixth English Trip: "A Streetcar named Desire"

Mrs Haylock, having spied the opportunity for an educational and inspiring night out, kindly organised this trip for the Lower Sixth. Whilst they are not studying this text, it is a great opportunity for any English student to see live performances especially when they are of this calibre. On their return many of the students felt that the play was powerfully performed and it was a worthwhile venture for these students who at present are grappling with the demands of a new syllabus. A Streetcar named Desire is an astutely observed perception by Tenessee Williams of the changing face of post-war America. The aggressive, sexually-voracious Stanley represents the modern world and Blanche du Bois, an impoverished dreamer and ex-plantation owner from the southern states, the old order. Through the metaphor of Stanley's ultimate rape of Blanche, a new society without the values and preoccupations of the old is seen to triumph.

Such challenging material was highly thought-provoking for the Lower Sixth and much discussion and lines of interpretation have opened up as a result. Many thanks to Mr and Mrs Haylock and Dr Byrom for assisting on the trip and to Mrs Haylock for the hard work of organising it.

 

Journey's End

The foul and bitter night that I attended this marvellous production was apt enough to remind one of the miserable conditions in which men were sent to fight and to die for which the Western Front is now infamous. The modern memory of the First World War hangs heavily on our collective consciousness like some sin not yet forgiven. It is, rightly, taught in GCSE history and English Literature and it is impossible to forget the legacy of World War One that is still being dredged up in Belgian farm fields on a daily basis and hauntingly commemorated it every village square across the land. As such, it is a difficult task to portray the horrors of Flanders' Fields without slipping into the old cliché of mud, blood, poppies and futile sacrifice of a noble generation of heroes, something I feel the cast and crew of Journey's End managed with sensitivity and skill.

It is then, appropriate and fitting that on Remembrance Weekend that we flocked to the Theatre to view the dramatised experience of one of this cataclysm's survivors, R C Sherriff. Even now, I sit writing this in front of a moving documentary about the fallen, I realise with optimism that the message we get from Journey's End is actually one of hope in the resilience of the ordinary man. The actors each captured with aplomb the characteristics of Sherriff's young sufferers.

To say I enjoyed this performance seems callous bearing in mind the subject matter but, in fact, for the first time I did enjoy this play and that is a testimony to the fantastic direction of Mr Charles Youlten, the reality of the set and especially the fine acting of the cast. Special mention must go to those who toiled behind the scenes in lighting, makeup, scene building and all the other parts that go to make up the whole; it was a faultless display.