Wrexham high school all set for big summer show

This summer term, students from every year group at Ysgol Clywedog will be staging their school play.

The youngsters will perform Stone Cold, playwright Joe Standerline's adaptation of Robert Swindells' famous 1993 novel, which won the 1993 Carnegie Medal for the best children's novel by a British subject.

The plot is about a teenager called Link, who leaves home and ends up homeless and struggling to survive on the streets.

The show, out on July 14 and 15, is one of the region's first big school performances to be put on since covid but it hasn't been without its difficulties.

Students rehearse for the show Stone Cold at Ysgol Clywedog.

Steve Witherden, head of drama at Ysgol Clywedog explained: "We have experienced lots of difficulties in running a school play project in a pandemic.

"We normally have our auditions judged by a panel of myself, a school governor and an Ysgol Clywedog alumnus (ex-student) who has gone on to study drama in further education.

"However, our covid-19 risk assessment meant we could not allow external visitors into school and this meant we had an internal audition judging panel of myself, Ashleigh Talbot-Jones and Alice Woch. An advantage of this was that Miss Woch teaches English and Mrs Talbot-Jones teaches English and drama.

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"Stone Cold is more commonly studied as a novel, in English lessons, than it is as a play in drama classes, so they had a unique perspective on the auditions.

"Covid has has also meant that a few rehearsals have had to be cancelled because - like all schools - we have had more absences than in a normal year.

"Then, when I got covid, I had to take a rehearsal virtually. Whilst I have taught lots of virtual lessons over the last two years, this was the first school play rehearsal I had done through this medium of delivery!

"All of this put us slightly behind schedule but we got back on track with a four-hour rehearsal on, what would have been, a staff-only training day, back after the Easter holidays."

Students rehearse for the show Stone Cold at Ysgol Clywedog.

Steve added: "I felt very lucky and privileged to be working with such a dedicated and committed body of students, who were willing to give up what was still a day of holiday for them, in order to come into school and rehearse.

"Like all creative subjects it lets you express yourself in a way some other subjects maybe don't. One of the good things about the new curriculum that's being rolled out over the next months and years, is it does give more emphasis to the creative arts.

"And at Ysgol Clywedog the decision has been made to slightly increase the number of creative arts subjects - drama, music - that we're offering from September."

• Stone Cold is at Ysgol Clywedog on July 14 and 15, with a dress rehearsal in front of invited pupils from feeder primary schools on July 12.

The two evening shows are open to parents, friends, family and the public, with tickets available from the school office on 01978 346800.