Arts
Dramatic Arts
Dramatic Arts at SJK
Drama builds confidence, communication skills, empathy, and the ability to work collaboratively with others—skills that extend into all areas of the curriculum and throughout a student’s life. All SJK drama students, regardless of their educational and career goals, have benefitted from the social and life skills developed through our program.
Students at SJK are introduced to drama in the IB Primary Years Programme through classroom activities such as the French play, as well as through its drama production, which is often a musical staged every two years. Formal drama classes begin in Grade 7, and students have the option to pursue drama through the Middle Years Programme and into the two-year Diploma Programme Theatre Studies course.
Dramatic Arts Programming
An exciting part of our program is our partnership with the Stratford Festival of Canada. Beginning in Grade 4, all students see at least one Stratford production each year and have workshop opportunities around that production designed to enhance the experience.
SJK provides a rich environment and many opportunities for development through drama. A number of our students have gone on to study drama in prestigious conservatory program such as the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, England or NYU’s highly selective Cap21 Musical Theatre program.
The Upper School stages one major production each year, usually in a professional theatre space, providing opportunities for students to experience the full range of technical and design elements that contribute to a production. Students also have the opportunity to take part in a one-act play festival each spring, hosted by the Conference of Independent Schools, at which they present their own play, see the work of students from up to 14 other schools, and participate in workshops led by theatre professionals.
Professionals from Stratford and other companies also visit the School, working with senior students and often with the cast of our Upper School production on specific skills related to that play. We are very fortunate to have this internationally renowned resource to draw on in our area.
St. John's-Kilmarnock School
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