Tallis 16+
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Kat's Story

Picture
The most important lesson I learned at school: possibly, the ability to get on and communicate effectively with a diverse range of people, and an awareness that achievement is collaborative as well as personal. In Year 12 or 13, five of us from our A-level Drama group were invited to spend a week working with an actor/director called Geoffrey Church, astory-teller called Jan and a group of actors from homeless people's theatre company Cardboard Citizens, exploring the themes and narratives of King Lear. It felt a bit like we were going off on a mission just reaching the rehearsal space in an unfamiliar area of North London. The week was an incredible and memorable one of sharing, risk-taking, storytelling and devising.

​I remember extremely strongly a moment when, in a group story-telling session, one of the Cardboard Citizens actors volunteered a memory of an extremely vivid and violent hallucination she'd experienced as a teenager, which had heralded the start of her schizophrenia.

I remember the moments after her very brave admission, while we absorbed what she'd said - something that was a million miles outside our own experience as young adults. I remember clearly, what felt like a joint feeling for the five of us from Tallis (and the others in the room) that we had an enormous responsibility to maintain the immense creative trust that had enabledthe woman to share that with us, and the simultaneous fragility and marvellousness of that trust. It was a landmark in an amazing week and it's a moment I still reference in my working life today. 

"Another moment I remember very clearly was crouching down on the top of the link with my fellow A-level drama students, watching D H perform the final monologue in the Crucible as John Proctor to an enthralled audience on the concourse. "Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because it is a lie, and I sign myself to lies..." and being blown away by how absolutely and vividly D had connected with those sentiments, and that somehow that there was a line being drawn between him aged 17 on a school roof, and Arthur Miller in 1950s America, and John Proctor in 1692, and thinking that that was monumental and transformative."

TALLIS 16+

Kidbrooke Park Road
London SE3 9PX

T +44 (0)208 856 0115   
F: (0)208 331 3004
​E: post16admin@thomastallis.org.uk

​
  • Home
  • About
    • Prospectus
    • A Virtual Tour
    • Why Tallis Post 16?
    • Applying to Tallis
    • Exam Results 2022 >
      • Exam Results 2021
      • Exam Results 2020
      • Exam Results 2019
      • Exam Results 2018
      • Exam Results 2017
      • Exam Results 2016
      • Exam Results 2015
      • Exam Results 2014
      • Exam Results 2013
      • Exam Results 2012
    • How to find us
  • Curriculum
    • Business & ICT
    • Computer Science
    • Design Technology
    • English & Philosophy
    • Extended Project Qualification
    • Humanities & Social Sciences
    • Mathematics
    • Languages
    • Performing Arts
    • Physical Education
    • Science
    • Visual & Media Arts
  • Parents
    • Pastoral Care
    • Letters Home 2022-23
  • Policies
    • Learning Agreement
    • Admissions
    • Attendance
    • Reporting an absence
    • Post-16 Dress Code
    • Behaviour and Support
    • Plagiarism
    • Bursary Scheme
    • BTEC Guidelines
  • Students
    • JCQ Information for Candidates
    • Black Lives Matter
    • Top Tips posters
    • The Personal Enrichment List
    • Reading & Research lists
    • Extracurricular opportunities
    • Student Voice
    • Fanzine
    • Facilities
    • School Journeys
  • Progression
    • Progression Event Resources 2022
    • Progression Booklet 2022
    • UCAS
    • University Outreach, Events and Open Days
    • Oxbridge & the Russell Group
    • Visual, Media & Performing Arts Progression
    • Student Finance
    • World of Work
    • Careers & Training
    • Destinations
    • Alumni
  • Links
  • Contact