Write the Girl Gets it Right

The latest phase of our Write the Girl initiative saw the Heads of Drama from five schools come together with five playwrights, for a series of bespoke sessions to set out how the ground-breaking process can shape the future canon of plays available to schools.

With the help of Drama students from both LEH School and St Albans High School, a fantastic sense of energy and enthusiasm was generated as they discussed ideas and worked on bringing the playwright's proposals and short scripts to life with voice and movement.

In a speed dating style session, the Drama teachers and students rotated to work with a new playwright every 40 minutes, allowing them a chance to workshop original new drama that puts women’s stories front and centre. Seeing the passion shared for this initiative on the day gives us the belief that this will lead to new collaborations in the future.

Director of Drama at LEH, Sophie Torrent, who has been a driving force behind this initiative, said: “It was such a pleasure to host the next Write The Girl event. To have a room full of Drama Departments and playwrights was so exciting! It was wonderful to share and inspire one another with new writing to challenge what is already out there for our students to perform. Each bespoke workshop showcased a vast amount of theatrical genre and style. I’m looking forward to continuing this dialogue into the new year!”

“It was such a thought-provoking event” said Claire Brown, Head of Drama at St Augustine’s Priory, London whilst Helen Arney, a comedian and playwright found it to be an inspiring day. “I loved the moments I had of students putting movement to The Fire Song.”