A £1.8m theatre with a state-of-the-art computerised system for sound, lighting and multimedia, a make-up room, orchestra pit, moving stage and even a bar is not something most pupils expect for the annual play.

But Lauren, a drama scholar at Queenswood, fills all her time with a rolling schedule of performances.

The drama was one of the reasons why she went to Queenswood. "There’s so much on offer," she says. "The lessons themselves are good and the teachers are always there to help you, but now we have this amazing theatre and it’s just incredible."

She has been acting since she was six years old and takes time off school, where she is studying maths, English, theatre studies and geography, to do external exams in drama.

"I just love everything about drama," she says. "I love the rehearsal part as much as making a character come to life and seeing something develop as a whole."

It was for this enthusiasm that teachers awarded her a drama scholarship, an honorary award given to only three of the school’s girls. "I’m always doing something to do with drama. Queenswood has just opened my options and I’m so lucky to be here," Lauren says. "The facilities we have are incredible and something I know I wouldn’t get elsewhere."

As a lower sixth-former Lauren will be taking part in a drama project later this year to work with a local school for severely handicapped children.

Principal Pauline Edgar says: "We just want other people to be able to use the space in our theatre because it’s such a privilege to have it."

Article by Jessica Salter
Photograph by kind permission of Jane Mingay