FPSS Drama Block: Journey to the Curtain Up – 11 November 2011

I remember the cold morning earlier this year clearly when, during a choir-practice for the upcoming spring concert, I first caught wind of Mr Bown’s ambitious plan to reorder the Music and Drama facilities at my school, including the creation of an entirely new building. Mr Bown is one of the Deputy Headteachers at Furze Platt, and I can see a lot of myself in him; a former Drama teacher at a different school, he has a passion for performing arts, has a love for the English language, and regularly works on videos to be shown at various events hosted by the school (including the one I made for him for Open Evening last year). Initially, I thought nothing of this latest scheme of his – he’d been secretly thinking about how he could improve the facilities since I joined, if not before. But this time, it was different: the governors had agreed to the proposal and the money had been found. Furze Platt was to become one of the best-equipped schools for Music and Drama in the Royal Borough.

READY FOR WORK_Diggers arrive on site to begin the construction of the new Drama block.

Construction work started in early May, with the arrival of dumper trucks, excavators, and metal fencing, which cordoned off what had once been a shortcut from the rugby pitch to the PE changing rooms. Within weeks, the Drama department’s possessions – everything, from scripts and prop swords to wigs and scenery used in some of the school’s musicals – would be packed up in boxes and hidden away for months, so as to allow the conversion of the old Drama terrapins into a state-of-the-art recording studio, three new instrumental practice rooms, and a large new Music classroom. Lessons in the interim would take place in the main hall and in the gym.

ALL BOXED UP_The Drama department, ready to go.

The Music department were given a little longer before they had to ‘get out’ of their block, due to the continuing composing coursework of our Year 10 class, completed in lesson time under new ‘Controlled Assessment’ rules. Because the keyboards and Sibelius software needed for the work only existed in one classroom, the sledgehammer-wielding men had to wait for us to finish the twenty-hour-long ‘exam’ before they could get started. Eventually, though, every drum, pair of headphones, and poster of the Beatles was boxed up and stored in the rather novel location of the boys’ toilets.

I WASN'T EXPECTING THAT_Guitars and cymbals stand alongside sinks and urinals.

As I had been from the beginning, though, I remained sceptical of whether the project would be ready in time. Originally hoped to be open by the time we returned from the summer holidays, the deadline was soon pushed back a week. Even so, the metal framework for the building had barely been completed as I cycled home on the last day of the summer term. I knew as well as anybody else that it wouldn’t be finished on time, and Mr Bown reportedly had many "a stern word" with the builders, to ensure a further extension to the deadline would not be necessary.

As I’d predicted, come September, the dustsheets and metal fencing still surrounded the construction site. There were no doorframes, let alone pathways, as behind the brick walls, the majority of the building was still an empty shell.

BARELY FINISHED_The unfinished Drama block, seen in September 2011.

That said, on the other side of the campus, things were looking up for Mrs Armstrong, Head of Music. She introduced me to Miss Watson, her new second-in-line, and proudly showed me around the new block. There was still an electrician working on the recording studio, and the computers weren’t working in either of the two classrooms, but she had at least got somewhere to teach.

As for Mrs Bradley (Head of Drama) and her new Drama teacher, Miss Satterthwaite, the second-week-back deadline had been forgotten about completely. Another few weeks of having nowhere for either teacher to call home followed. But then, at last, news surfaced that we’d be having our first Drama lesson in the new space in the last week of September. It too wasn’t finished, but it was in a state in which we could start using it. "Do you want to see it?" Mrs Bradley asked rhetorically. And oh my goodness, how excited we were on that first day we walked in.

The building is made up of a corridor containing an office, a prop-store, and two toilets, and at the end of the wood-panel flooring are the two drama studios. One is a pretty small yet tall rehearsal room, while the other is a tremendous performance space, with a control desk and gantry overlooking the stage.

Even at the start of this week, though, it wasn’t complete. The lights were only put in a couple of weeks ago, and the projector and drop-down screen were fitted just last week. The black curtains that run around the entire perimeter of the larger studio weren’t there even three days ago.

But now they are. The £1 million building project has finished. Through blood, sweat, and tears, Mr Bown and the heads of the two departments (among so many others) have worked so tirelessly to secure some excellent facilities for our school.

The actress who plays Lady Sybil Crawley in the hugely successful series Downton Abbey, Jessica Brown-Findlay, attended Furze Platt as a child. Who knows what roles the students of today will be in in in ten years’ time?


Click to see photos from the construction of Furze Platt's new Drama block.

Click here to read more about the opening of the new facilities.

Andrew Burdett

Andrew Burdett is a twenty-something from Maidenhead in Berkshire, working for ITV News.