Junior Drama Company

Beaumont Drama Department has a long history with the Welwyn Garden City Youth Drama Festival at the Barn Theatre. We often take our Junior Drama Company to participate in the competition and have had successful years at the competition including placing first in the junior category. Our Junior Drama Company is made up of Year 9 students that have been invited to form the company based on their strong performing abilities. We typically use a National Theatre Connections play for a script, however, in 2022, we participated in Company3’s project ‘When This is Over’ which was performed by companies all over the UK before being published. It was a personal reflection (devised by the company) of the pupils’ experience of the UK lockdowns, climate change, and their hopes and fears for their futures. For this performance we won three awards: Jolliest Company, a medal for the Director for the strong whole-cast ensemble work, and 3rd place in the Junior Category. In 2023 we were also awarded a director’s model for ensemble work. In 2021 the competition held an online event following the lockdown in which Beaumont submitted our recorded production of ‘Game Over’ with the premiere cast. For this we won an award for ‘storytelling at its best’.

In 2024/25 we  have a new and exciting venture as we expand to two Junior Drama Company’s. ‘Team Spark’, directed by Miss Rowe, will attend the Welwyn Youth Drama Festival with ‘These Bridges’ by Phoebe Eclair-Powell. ‘Team Innovate’ is directed by a guest practitioner, Hannah Hassaan, who will direct the team with a scripted performance to be performed at an external venue.