Photo: Richard Honey

There is now a brochure available with two programmes for year 5 and 6 children and teachers in primary schools. Using the stories of Silas Marner and Theseus and the Bull Dancers, Pavla is offering introductory single sessions and professional development programmes to schools across Leeds and beyond… (Updated 24th April 2008)

THERE IS A SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY OFFER FOR LEEDS SCHOOLS WITH WHOM WE HAVE NOT WORKED BEFORE. Those schools should please read the Brochure and then contact Steve Aal to hear more.

Download the Brochure

Pavla and Anthony have been invited to Starke Stucke at the end of April. This means “Young Blood” in German and is the name of a well established theatre festival of work for young people in Frankfurt. We will be taking our Forgotten Garden workshop into a German school to work with a class of eight year olds and make a garden out of paper which serves as a starting point for a drama. (posted Apr 17th 2008)

Working in the Classroom

Ruth is currently taking part in a professional development programme run by Artforms. Through this programme Ruth has the opportunity to reflect on participatory theatre practice in the classroom with a community of artists and primary school teachers from Leeds. Geoff Readman is the Theatre in Education specialist leading the course, to which Anthony is also contributing as a TiE expert. Through the programme Ruth is working alongside a year 6 teacher from Seacroft to experiment with a range of TiE techniques to address the specific needs of her class (posted Apr 17th 2008)

Working in collaboration with Rebecca Reed, the Education Officer at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London, Pavla has been commissioned to devise a new participatory piece inspired by the history of Thomas Coram’s Foundlings Hospital in Bloomsbury. Pavla will be leading three one day workshops for Yr4 and Yr5 primary school children in the Camden borough of London as part of an Easter drama project. (posted Feb 4th 2008)

Portrait of Thomas Coram , by William Hogarth

We now have the new version of The Raft of the Medusa ready to tour between June 25^th and July 2^nd 2008 after several hours collating all the different versions of the scripts into one script and bringing the team together for a weekend rehearsal. Anthony and the team of four teachers tried it out on students at Aston Comprehensive School in Rotherham on March 19th which was the first time we had performed it for two years. It went well. (posted Apr 17th 2008)

This is a collaboration between Rotherham LEA and the Blahs with support from Creative Partnerships under the title of Company of Teachers, which is the Rotherham LEA/Blahs initiative to create a theatre in education team from teachers in the borough. This version will be performed by four drama teachers from Rotherham with Anthony. Steve is practising his French, in order to seek out a copy of Le Radeau de la Meduse, a film made by Iradj Azimi in 1998 which seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth, rather like the raft. (posted Feb 4th 2008)

Photo: Gavin Joynt

This is one massive project with five primary schools in West Leeds where Anthony and Pavla have almost completed devising and delivering a thirty part drama called Kingdoms over twelve months with Year 4 children. It is part of an experimental initiative to explore how learning can flow between extended school provision and the classroom. We are coming out of this experience with a pretty amazing story which has been described as part fairytale, part Lord of the Rings and part myth. There will be a gathering of all the people from the Kingdoms at the Core of the Kingdoms on May 9^th which will be the conclusion to this epic tale. If you want to see it then, contact the office. (posted Apr 17th 2008)

Photo: Stephan Aal

Photo: Andy Paraskos

Ruth recently directed a performance by young people from Priesthorpe School as part of the Holocaust Memorial Day event Leeds Town Hall on Sunday 27^th January.

As part of the devising process Ruth and the young people interviewed Mr John Chillag and Mrs Liesl Carter, who are both Holocaust Survivors, about their experiences. From these interviews we, along with Hightone productions created a sound design which formed the basis of the performance.

The performance well received as “one of the most poignant and moving contributions we have seen and we have received some fantastic feedback from audience members. (posted Feb 4th 2008)