How we delivered Musical Theatre exams using our Music grades experience

In this blog we hear from Liam Edgington, Head of Music at The Island Free School, about how they used their experience of delivering Trinity music exams to approach delivering Musical Theatre exams for the first time.

The Island Free School (TIFS) opened in 2014 and is a Performing Arts specialist school, in Upper Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. Our school community is committed to providing the very best education for the children of the Isle of Wight, providing life changing opportunities and experiences that they may not otherwise be able to access.

The school has successfully offered and delivered a music scholarship since its inception, giving students the opportunity to work closely with our incredible music team and a musician in residence. Students develop their skills in an ensemble setting, working towards their Trinity music grades, and performing at concerts and events. TIFS has a positive relationship with the local music hub and tuition services which encourage pupils to work their way through the instrument grades and we are proud to say that we have had pupils start in year 7 at Grade 1 and have completed grades 5+ by the time they leave us, with some achieving Grade 8 in recent years.

After spotting the talent we had in the school, TIFS Performing Arts department decided to begin running a musical theatre enrichment programme (as an extra-curricular activity) for pupils that were interested in Dance, Drama and Music. Trinity Musical Theatre exams gave us the perfect opportunity to push the ability of pupils whilst they gain qualifications, aiding them in their personal and professional journeys. These same pupils now regularly take on lead roles in local theatre company productions, and we are certain that they will go onto great things, with Trinity grades proving their credentials in a more formal format.

The Musical Theatre exams have a different feel than the graded music exams we had previously delivered: pupils are engaged in an environment that they find fun and the performative nature of the exams feed into this. As a musician myself I recognise that the Classical & Jazz exams can be more formal, and some pupils struggle with the pressure that comes with completing these grades. For any type of performance driven exams, there will always be difficulty in addressing performance anxiety and nerves. However, to offset this we prepared students for their Musical Theatre exams in a group environment, and this helped to alleviate some of this stress through watching and encouraging one another, often happily singing along or offering supportive critique in blocking and choreography.

Choosing the right grade for the pupil can take time and finding appropriate material at each level can be challenging at times as, unlike the music exams, there is no repertoire list to choose from. The free choice of material, and the vastness of possibilities available, can feel overwhelming for staff and pupils alike. The marking criteria for drama exams is also quite different to music grades, and so initially we found it hard to judge the level of some songs or dances in terms of what grade this would be suitable for.

In order to pitch the material at the right grade we found it useful to compare the relative grades to pieces in the Trinity Singing repertoire and use this as a guide to make suggestions to pupils, whilst also ensuring it was suitable for students to dance or act with. It was very much a team effort to find material, and the Trinity Musical Theatre programme examples helped to clarify what was required of pupils in a user-friendly way.

However, the freedom to choose something they enjoy from a musical they love has kept the pupils engaged and fostered a love of musical theatre, often opening both mine and the performing arts department's eyes in terms of what musicals are out there. The syllabus encourages pupils to express themselves and showcase their talents, whilst also pushing some of them outside of their comfort zone, as they must demonstrate their skills in the three disciplines of acting, singing and dance/movement. The syllabus allows you to get the best out of pupils in these three disciplines even if one of them is weaker than the other two.

When organising Musical Theatre exams, it is important to pull expertise from other departments and encourage cross curricular links to find the talent in your schools that may be hiding. We have been fortunate enough to have the space and facilities to carousel pupils around amongst the dance, music and drama team, so that they could work on choreography, singing and blocking with our specialist Performing Arts teaching staff

Our advice for other centres delivering Musical Theatre exams would be to start with fun chorus numbers and choreography to get students engaged. For support with selecting material, we give our students some guidance and direction for musicals they may enjoy. It won’t take long until they come to you wanting to show you what they have been working on and this excitement yields rewarding outcomes.
 
It has been a joy to see how much the pupils have flourished in undertaking the Musical Theatre exams and, having completed a number of exams, our pupils have been able to showcase their talents and skill and receive accreditation for it. For some of them this qualification will open further doors and opportunities for them post-16 as they use these qualifications to boost their applications to theatre schools. 

For support with delivering Musical Theatre exams, take a look at our resources, including the programme examples available for every grade, and don’t forget you can get in touch with any questions on support@trinitycollege.com