Context

St Cecilia’s is a co-educational voluntary-aided comprehensive school for pupils aged 11 - 18 years in the Diocese of Southwark and the London Borough of Wandsworth. It opened in September 2003 with 150 pupils in

Year 7 and will increase year on year until numbers stabilise at approximately 900 pupils, including the Sixth Form, by 2009.

The school has been purpose-built for the twenty-first century and comprises state-of-the-art facilities for all curriculum areas, including specialist accommodation for the teaching of music, the subject in which the school specialises. 

Play in a Day was put on as part of the school’s annual activities week, and was offered to all 6th-formers who were interested in drama and the creative processes behind it.

St Cecilia’s knew of Create through one its assistant headteachers, who had previously worked with Create at another school.

Aims & principles

• To strengthen relationships between the young people and improve communication within the group
• To examine attitudes towards celebrity culture
• To enable the young people to work collaboratively to create a story in one day
• To devise original writing as a group
• To develop improvisational skills

The school’s aims were:

• To enhance and enrich the programme of activities offered by St Cecilia’s, Wandsworth by providing a one-day drama masterclass workshop during the school’s Activities Week.
• To provide participants with an opportunity to work with a professional playwright, helping them to develop/enhance their creative thinking and improvisation skills enabling them to use drama as a communication tool.
• To provide participants with opportunities for small group work, helping them to develop relationships with Create’s playwright and one another and develop/enhance their teamwork skills.
• To provide participants with opportunities to contribute to the whole group enabling participants to develop skills in communication, listening, cooperation, respect and confidence.

Summary

A playwright from Create (an arts charity) helped pupils to write and perform their own complete play in just one school day.  Twelve pupils devised and improvised a drama that followed the trials and tribulations of James - a successful British tennis player - as he prepares to compete in the Wimbledon final. The final piece was performed to teachers at the end of the day.

In Practice

The playwright took the pupils through activities that built their confidence and strengthened relationships.  In the morning session they took part in warm-up and imagination games in order to inspire ideas for the work, while the afternoon session was dedicated to deciding the plot and structure - the play’s nuts and bolts.  This was followed by the performance to teachers, in which pupils improvised around the day’s work to stage a vibrant piece of drama. 

The pupils were asked to create a character by thinking about his or her past, present or future; the character’s memories; their desires and wants; what is stopping them from getting what they want; what’s in his fridge, or what’s in her pocket.  Subsequently they went on to discuss elements of dramatic theory, mainly about pacing and structure, and participants were encouraged to come up with their own themes for development - hence the (then) topical Wimbledon storyline, which encompassed a variety of traditional dramatic themes - triumph over adversity, betrayal etc. - as well as the participants’ current concerns about the consumerist, press-driven society. 

The play tackled themes of cultural and personal identity and development, as well as revealing the teenagers’ attitudes to the celebrity-obsessed, consumerist nature of 21st century life. The workshop was held as part of St Cecilia’s activities week, and was designed to enable pupils to develop their improvisation skills.  In devising the play from scratch, the young people were given an insight into many aspects of theatrical production, from development of basic themes and plot to direction, production and lighting design, and stage management.
The artist, Rachel Barnett, was chosen on the basis of her previous experience. Rachel had extensive experience leading workshops in schools. She is also an up-and-coming writer, having been designated one of the BBC and Royal Court Theatre’s “The 50” young writers as part of the Royal Court’s 50th year.
In practice, if the project was to be repeated it would be effective for the young people to perform the devised piece to their peers or perhaps a community-based audience rather than just to their teachers and facilitators.

Partnerships

The project was run in partnership with St Cecilia’s School and the arts charity Create (http://www.createarts.org.uk )Create is in the process of starting a partnership with St Cecilia’s, and Play in a Day, the first project Create has run at the school, will form part of the school’s application for specialist Arts School status.  If and when the school obtains this status, both parties hope that the relationship will grow as St Cecilia’s aims to run more projects addressing diversity and outreach.

Outcomes

“Play in a Day has given pupils at this inner city school a chance to work with our professional playwright to produce work of real quality, while also giving them an introduction to the world of playwriting and theatre.  By bringing pupils together to work on the play, the workshops have strengthened relationships between the participants, and, perhaps most importantly, the project has considerably bolstered the young people’s self esteem.  I think they surprised themselves by coming up, from scratch, with a play that they could perform in just one day.  Their creativity, energy and inclusive approach to the process inspired me!” Create’s Co-Founder and Executive Director, Nicky Goulder
“I have learned to work nicely with people I don’t get on with. My ideas were listened to and put into the play.  ... It was fun.” One of the participating pupils

Contacts

Nicky Goulder, Executive Director, Create,

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