In the spotlight
By Mr Nick Akhurst, Head of Co-curricular Drama, Dance and Technical Theatre
Radford Theatre Company (RTC) is one of the busiest school theatre companies with 5-6 main stage productions annually. Like many theatre companies, there is a multitude of productions in skill areas including acting, dance, and technical production (lighting, sound, set design, costumes, props, administration and promotion). The difference with RTC performances is a significant amount of the design and implementation work is done by students, guided by staff as part of the overall learning approach of RTC. What they create is entwined deeply into Radford’s fabric and shared enthusiastically with our community. These events allow students to demonstrate and embrace their holistic learning, and are an important way that the College supports this approach. Each production teaches something new and supports a cohesive community among performers, technical people, and audience members.
2025 exploded with the brightly coloured, successful musical, Legally Blonde from this, T.B.Millar Hall morphed into the dark streets of London with the Years 5-6 Production of Oliver Twist. A franticly paced Term 3 delighted audiences through several stage production storytelling, including the Year 12 Revue, Year 9-10 Production of Stories in the Dark, and the mysterious forest of Grimm tales with our Year 7-8 production. Throughout this time, students and staff have been prepping for the Senior Drama production of Hedda Garbler to finish the productions.
While drama and technical theatre students have been busy engaged in stage production learning and experience, dance students are likewise developing dance and performance skills through year-long weekly dance classes and various performances/competitions. Radford Dance Academy’s (RDA) year culminates into an exciting dance extravaganza concert spread over 5 nights.
Additionally, Senior Drama Technical Theatre curricular students and the co-curricular Tech Crew, meet regularly in learning environments which enable students to learn and develop skills in technical aspects of theatre production. These valuable skills are transformed into working experiences with stage productions throughout the year. The Senior Drama Technical Theatre curriculum class with the support of the Tech Crew designed and implemented the 2025 musical and will finish the year with the Senior Drama production. These students take on leadership and decision-making roles, taking risks in theatre design elements and implementation to support performers and performances. These students take a huge risk to put themselves out there to show people their performing or technical skills. They work with professional theatre equipment and theatre practitioners to support the artistic nature of the college. With this they develop project management skills and a resilience to be able to ‘make sure the show goes on’. They also work with students of all ages creating friendships and working relationships that transcend year groups and create memories that will last a lifetime. It is both curriculum and cocurricular and teaches students and staff together as they explore how to collaborate and work towards a single goal.
At Radford Theatre Company we proudly value our community and team-based approach which supports students to learn, develop and implement skills in realistic production settings. I wish to thank all the hard working staff (over 60 Radford staff), casual and contractors, who sacrifice their nights, weekend and holidays to help students build and perform these works of art and allow our students to express themselves creatively. Much of the hours in rehearsals and behind the scenes by directors, choreographers, front of house people, ticketing, technical support, tech crew, and actors, is often unseen. Thank you also to our wonderful audience who support both the staff and students.
In 2025 we have continued to turn the T.B.Millar Hall into a space that fits the standard of work created by our students. Whilst the new retractable seating and individual seats didn’t arrive in time for the amazing production of Legally Blonde the Year 5-6 production of Oliver Twist was blessed with them. The hall feels more like a performance space and enables an enhances visibility for audiences and better highlights the technical and performance skills on display.
Whilst we are coming to the end of the 2025 performance year the planning has already begun for 2026. Year 12 2026 Revue has begun preparing for script writing, directors are planning scripts for the various productions to begin auditions in Term 4, and RDA dance class schedule is being developed.
Those in theatre never really stop they just move onto the next performance!