Private School News

Film Star Joins Dean Close School Cast

HISTORY BOYS WORKSHOP WITH JAMIE PARKER

Drama pupils at Dean Close School, Cheltenham, who are putting on The History Boys by Alan Bennett this term, were thrilled to be given the opportunity of meeting and working with the actor Jamie Parker, who played the character of Scripps in the original National Theatre run of the play, as well as the film.

Jamie visited the School on a Sunday afternoon and gave the drama students an excellent and exciting workshop. Having worked closely with Alan Bennett, the author, and Sir Nicholas Hytner, the director, Jamie was able to communicate his ideas for performance and characterisation first-hand to our actors.

They looked at three key scenes in which eight bright and cynical would-be-Oxbridge boys – who think they probably know all there is to know – are suddenly challenged to think for themselves in new and unorthodox ways. The play’s big themes are about the ways in which we teach, think and understand – not just about history, but about our contexts and friendships. The play will take us beyond our comfort zones in all sorts of ways – and as Jamie said, “if it does not disturb us, it is not doing its job.”

Dean Close’s top actors received incalculable benefits from working with such a prestigious member of the original cast. Jamie is fast becoming a household name as a result of exciting performances in films such as Valkyrie (which also starred Tom Cruise and Kenneth Branagh) and theatre performances – most recently at The Globe Theatre as Oliver in As You Like It, and from the end of the month as Prince Hal in Shakespeare’s Part 1 and Part 2 Henry IV plays. Dean Close students will be there to see him, and thank him warmly for coming and working with us.

The cast of the play at Dean Close is composed entirely of pupils who are holders of Scholarships in Drama: the School is well known for its impressive standards in drama. Every year, its semi-professional group Close Up Theatre receives large audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe, and 2009′s performance of AMADEUS was no exception. Last December audiences were wowed with an acclaimed Hamlet – one of six plays mounted that term.

All of the Senior Drama Scholars in The History Boys achieved the very highest marks in the country in their respective drama GCSE years.