Review: The Crucible Student Conference

The Crucible Student Conference was an interactive, behind-the-scenes workshop day which unpacked the ways the National Theatre staged and developed its current production of The Crucible. It brilliantly explored the different ways we could tackle exam questions about the play. As a student studying the text for my Drama GCSE, I found the day incredibly insightful.

The conference began with an introduction, not just to the play, but to many of the talented production team working on this unique interpretation. The students in attendance were given an explanation of the social and historical context of the play's setting and its time of writing, describing the effects of the Communist ‘witch hunts’ after WW2, and their parallels to the Salem witch trials.

This was followed by a presentation addressing the ways we can tackle an unseen extract. The session showed students how to face the daunting task of analysing an unseen extract with confidence. Throughout the day we were given information about lighting, learning interesting key terminology, such as gobo, lighting angles and colour temperature. We were then lucky enough to see the different lighting effects in action on the Olivier stage.

The conference as a whole was profoundly useful and a great learning experience. I was inspired by the idea that a director would come up with several statements about what they wanted to convey to the audience. They then experimented with the staging of the scene each time the actors rehearsed it, until they felt that they successfully achieved their objective. This was demonstrated practically to us by the director and cast during a rehearsal, which was fascinating to observe.

In a climactic end to the conference, the students got to see the extract fully performed by the actors, with the costumes, sound and lighting as though it were a live, fully staged production. There was also a Q&A session, during which the students were able to ask questions of the actors and production team at the National Theatre, using a link on their phones.

The Crucible Student Conference was an incredibly special experience – helpful and informative, and something that I feel lucky to have been a part of. It helped set us up for our GCSE Drama preparation in a practical, hands-on way.

The National Theatre runs a variety of one-off conference days for students.

nationaltheatre.org.uk/learning/schools/secondary-schools/student-conferences