IGCSE Drama
International General Certificate of Secondary Education in Theatre
"I came to HYSA to work at an accelerated pace and to learn in multiple subjects. The Cambridge Drama test coincides with this objective and allows me to learn more about drama itself -- which is an avid interest of mine." - Brett Cohen
"Although, I've always been interested in drama. Recently, I have developed a passion for other facets of it. Analyzing plays and discovering the true meaning behind each line has been enlightening for me. It has changed my perspective on the real world. I often refer back to the plays of Shakespeare and other classics. The Cambridge Drama test serves as a way for me to show my knowledge and my passion for theatre, while challenging me and taking me to a new level. Not only will it be academically beneficial, but it will prove to myself and others my devotion to this wonderful art that has so significantly impacted my life." - Sam Shapiro
Jean Anouilh's Antigone was written in 1942. His homeland, France, was occupied by the Nazis. Inspired by Sophocles' tragic play, Anouilh wrote his version as an allegory of the moral dilemmas inherent in collaborating with the enemy and resisting the enemy. We know Antigone is doomed. And anyone who loves her? They are doomed to the same futile fate.
|
|
William Saroyan wrote about the disenfranchised. He was a playwright who fused fantasy with reality. He believed one had to experiment to create art. Saroyan's 1941 play, The Beautiful People, is about love. How much do you love someone? Is your love limited by eccentricities? What is the preservation of their happiness worth to you?
|
|
Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible as a reflection of Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Committee on Un-American Activities' Communist witch hunts. In the 1950s, the Red Hunt was a paranoia that threatened to destroy the American psyche. What happens when society gives too much power to the wrong person? Why is a scapegoat so often desired to sustain the collective balance? In the transcriptions of the 1692 Salem witch trials, Miller found the inspiration for his desperate allegory.
|
|
Absurdist Theatre emerged out of the shattered sentiments of the post-World War II era. Samuel Becket's seminal play, Waiting for Godot, illustrates the futility of waiting for salvation all the while pondering why we persist on doing it again and again. Is the joke our situation or ourselves? Two tattered souls, under a lone tree, wait to see.
|
|
Scenes for The Naked King
|
|
|
Written in 1932, The Naked King, provides a glimpse into the Communist experience under the watchful and ruthless eye of Joseph Stalin. By paying homage to Hans Christian Anderson's The Swineherd, The Princess and the Pea, and The Emperor's New Clothes, Russian playwright, Evgeny Shvarts, successfully camouflaged a relevant play to get it past Soviet censors for a delayed but groundbreaking opening performance in 1960. Shvarts had satirized the fashion of book burning, the problems of extreme utilitarianism, society's desire for governmental transparency, and the reoccurring tendency of public cravenness under harsh leadership.
|