Working with young people through theatre:
The Primary Stage
LEADING THEATRE COMPANIES AND PLAYWRIGHTS DISCUSS WAYS TO INCREASE THE PARTICIPATION OF PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN THEATRE
The conference, chaired by Nick Stuart, was welcomed to the Soho Theatre by its artistic director Lisa Goldman. The morning was a great success and resulted in not only many positive comments from the delegates but some important points that are summarised here. Overall the level of enthusiasm and the quality of response indicated what an important and vibrant area of work is that of theatre in schools and primary age children.
Michael Coveney, theatre critic and the Charity's advisor on theatre, got the ball rolling with the keynote address: Back to School and Forward to Basics. He called for theatre to be at the very heart of the school curriculum, not tacked on. "Teachers should not have to beg for time out, or time off, or special dispensations in order to take part with their pupils in the kind of work we are discussing here today."
Tony Graham of the Unicorn mentioned the vibrancy of young theatre in Germany, with five or six times the amount of funding here. There was, he said, an international movement of theatre for the under-fives. Lyn Gardner of the Guardian said this area, citing such groups as Oily Carte and Theatre Rites, was the new avant garde, and their energy was suffusing more mainstream groups like Punchdrunk and Shunt; this energy was no longer in the theatre buildings themselves.
Tony Graham said that he would like to see the Peter Brook audience and the Les Miserables audience switched over: then you'd have real theatre. He wanted to see older children in the same room as younger children and adults.
Janice Taylor a teacher in Lewisham, who accompanied Jackie Skinner from the National Theatre, said she loved Shakespeare at primary school but that secondary school "killed it". She uses Shakespeare in her classroom for almost everything except Maths. You can do this, she said, if you ignore the literacy strategy.
Fiona Banks of Globe Education said the government's five hours of culture a week policy was a mandate for their work. She wanted schools to make more demands on them; stand alone work has value but is much better if it feeds into the curriculum. Funding was essential in the linking process between teachers and practitioners. Organisation in school was needed, she said: reschedule, reschedule, reschedule.
Fiona Bailey, a teacher in Soho Parish Primary School, accompanied Suzanne Gorman of Soho Theatre, and commented that progress in the children participating in the Soho's writing workshops was apparent after two sessions. The new national framework was "opening it all up" in terms of literacy in schools.
Jacqui O'Hanlon of RSC Learning said that Shakespeare plays were great in themselves, but what the RSC did was more about learning through the plays. Expanding on the new RSC primary schools policy - "Do it, See it, Start it Earlier" - she said that primary school children were fearless; nobody had got to them yet. In the recent Henry IV project, linked to the Company's history cycle at the Roundhouse, she said the primary schools blew the secondary ones away with their work on the Prince Hal / Falstaff relationship; the rejection scene was Hal leaving primary school to take on a new responsibility at the higher level...
A panel discussion was chaired by playwright James Campbell and included Lyn Gardner, David Wood and Vicky Ireland. Lyn Gardner said that children's theatre was a sector where you can earn a living without necessarily creating new work; the good work, though, needed much more advocacy, too much of it is invisible.
Playwright David Wood said that teachers and parents tend to be conservative in their choices and commissions; Vicky Ireland formerly of the Polka, said that children's playwrights were totally underused by big theatres, who should commission them instead of endlessly adapting classic children's literature. Wood confirmed that the visit to theatres was crucial; he'd hate to think of drama used merely as an educational tool.
From the floor, a teacher in Peckham bemoaned only having had one hour a week in teacher training on theatre. She also said even £5 or £6 was too expensive for a theatre ticket for her kids. A head teacher in Cricklewood said the government was to blame for beating them with a stick over targets then expecting them to make room for five hours a week of culture.
This was a big conflict. One school had said to David Wood: "We don't have time for fun any more." Vicky Ireland said that if Mayor Boris Johnson announced free coach travel for schools to the theatre, the situation would be transformed. Several delegates emphasised the importance of the professionals and funding bodies targeting head teachers over theatre work.
A teacher in Gospel Oak, north London, pleaded for more handing on of skills in schools. He noted that in London there were many city-wide music events but that drama seemed to be company, or borough led... he seemed to be calling for wider integrated strategy across the city.
Vicky Ireland drew the conference's attention to the launch of the Children's Arts Manifesto at the Unicorn on 21st July. There is provision in European law for the rights of children in the arts.
Nick Stuart summed up by saying that he noted the passion and engagement of the conference and how powerful drama could be in bringing parents into an involvement in their children's education. On behalf of the Charity, addressing the delegates, he said we should continue to support and encourage what you do.
The stage was then cleared and Snowfields Primary School in Southwark performed their contribution to the Hamlet educational project at the Globe earlier this year, the first scene of Hamlet. Professional actors then read two short plays from the Soho Connect's Under 11 Playwriting scheme: Teenage Trouble by Imma Begum, a vivid slice of peer group friendship and trouble at home where the daughter felt like a "suitcase kid"; and Dreams in the Sky in which a bird-obsessed girl was bullied at school and pushed off the church tower - and flew! She was free. Finally two actors read the "Humpty Dumpty" scene from James Campbell's Cutlery Wars, a good example of the high quality drama being written and performed in the sector today.
Report by Michael Coveney, Theatre Advisor to John Lyon's Charity