Hats Off to KS4!
Southlands School is a small and friendly Special School in North Shields. Our Interactive Workshops with KS4 on A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM were great fun! Bearing in mind that our usual identifying costumes are made to fit primary school children, we thought outside the box and took a selection of hats. These proved a great success and also inspired some amazing performances. Helena in Year 10 took on a real ‘diva’ personality – inspired! The staff at this lovely school also got involved playing the roles of Oberon and Titania in one workshop. There’s something really rather wonderful about seeing students and their teachers getting stuck in and discovering a story together. A dream? No, just beautiful reality in North Shields! “Just wanted to say a huge thank you for your wonderful work today at Southlands – we all thoroughly enjoyed your workshops and thought you were amazing. We would love to have you back….” KS4 Teacher – A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Interactive Workshops
What Do You Call an Elephant in a Phone Box?
Stuck!! Thank you to Trinculo in Year 8 for this! He had some cracking jokes to keep King Alonso happy before THE TEMPEST ruined everyone’s voyage! St Dominic’s School near Godalming is a caring and inspiring special school in an amazing location. Nick and I were delighted to spend a day with Years 7 and 8 working on A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and THE TEMPEST respectively. In SEND schools, we make the workshops bespoke. Time is often more limited and we change the actors at regular intervals. In fact, during A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, some of the teachers became actors – an extra thrill for the students watching the staff fall in and out of love at the squeeze of a purple flower! There were some cracking performances from students too, some of whom took on more than one role. It’s so rewarding watching young people blossom before your very eyes. After the tempest raged and we landed on Prospero’s island, our cast was joined by a couple of toys playing Ariel and Miranda. It certainly made it more comfortable to give Miranda a hug! And Trinculo just kept the jokes coming…….oh alright, here’s another: Man gives up chocolate to become a magician. “I have a few Twix up my sleeve!” Trinculo – St Dominic’s School
A Dungeon Pungent with the Smell of Onions
At Woodfield School, Kingsbury we worked with KS3 on MACBETH. One of the classes knew the story really well and the other not so much. Either is fine with us. We had some wonderful improvised conversations between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth (Nick and I almost went for a tea break and left them to it!). We also had some imaginative descriptions of High Dunsinane Castle (“a dungeon pungent with the smell of onions”) and a, frankly, bizarre addition to the heath (“elephant carcasses”). “Whale poo, chocolate cake and toy trains in vanilla sauce” were popular at the Coronation Banquet, all washed down with “unlimited wine” (which you’d need to be fair swallowing a toy train!). But you know Finding the Will – never a wrong answer just an interesting idea! KS3 at Marshfields School, Peterborough with Jules and Nick in the Interactive MACBETH workshop.