House Drama Festival 2026

The House Drama Festival proved to be one of the highlights of the summer term, bringing together an extraordinary number of students from across the school for an evening that celebrated creativity, collaboration and, above all, a genuine love of theatre.

This year we were delighted to welcome Michael Gattrell, Theatre Director, Adaptor and Casting Director, as our adjudicator. Michael brought a wealth of professional experience to the festival and faced the difficult task of judging four remarkably different productions. His thoughtful and encouraging feedback was hugely valuable to our young performers and directors and gave the occasion the sense of a true theatrical festival.

One of the great strengths of House Drama is that it gives students the freedom to make bold theatrical choices, and the 2026 festival certainly demonstrated this. The programme ranged from classical drama and mythology to comedy, children's literature and modern ensemble theatre. Andrewes tackled the intensity and tragedy of Medea, while Burrows embraced the epic scale of Hercules. King assembled the largest cast of the festival for Gravenhunger, demonstrating the ambition and inclusivity that House Drama can inspire, while Otter took on the much-loved musical Annie.  Elsewhere, Ridgeway brought the anarchic world of Roald Dahl to the stage with The Twits, Story tackled the witty word play of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, and Wilson chose the wonderfully imaginative and visually distinctive Coraline. 

It was particularly pleasing to see Houses making such original and interesting choices of material. The variety of styles, and theatrical challenges allowed each house to establish its own identity.

The sheer scale of participation this year was particularly impressive. Several Houses worked with very large companies: Burrows and Sherborne and King's productions involved around 18 students. Managing casts of this size is a fantastic achievement. It requires organisation, commitment and generosity from the whole company, and it was wonderful to see productions finding ways to involve so many students meaningfully on stage. 

House Drama continues to demonstrate that theatre at Bishop Luffa is not simply about individual performances, but about creating an ensemble and giving students the opportunity to work together towards something they can collectively be proud of.

This spirit was equally evident behind the scenes. Our technical team was enormous this year, with more than 20 students involved in lighting, sound, backstage and technical support. This is an area of school theatre that has grown enormously and is something of which we are particularly proud. Huge thanks must go to Richard Green, whose continued support and encouragement have helped to develop a confident and increasingly skilled team of young technicians. For many of these students, technical theatre has become their own creative specialism and an important way of being part of Drama within the school.

After an extremely competitive evening, Sherborne House were crowned the 2026 House Drama champions with their production of Dead Poets Society, directed by Liv Willson, Ella Hatch and Alex Solly. With a large ensemble cast, the production captured both the humour and emotional heart of the story and demonstrated strong company work. It was a memorable interpretation of challenging material and a worthy winner in an exceptionally strong year.

Congratulations to Sherborne and Dead Poets Society.

Nicky Furnell, Team Leader of Drama