Lighting the way

Another Year 9 parents’ evening. Keen to fill a class for the next academic year, it is a question many drama teachers dread: ‘John is interested in technical and backstage: do you teach lighting as part of GCSE Drama?’ ‘Yes’, says the drama teacher eagerly, although they know that September heralds the start of another year of continuous marking, assessments, laborious administration, report writing, lunchtime and after school rehearsals…I could go on! While they have every intention of mastering a lighting board themselves, before the new academic year begins, the teacher already knows that this will prove difficult. They also know that, unfortunately, continued pressure may mean that John will merely be shown the Drama studio's lighting board and allowed to eat his sandwiches in there every lunchtime, while he reads the lighting board's manual – if there is one!