Sir Ken Robinson PhD is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources. In 1998, he led a national commission on creativity, education and the economy for the UK Government. ‘All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education’ (The Robinson Report) was published to wide acclaim in 1999.
This fascinating short film outlines his perspective of education today, his vision, and what he sees as some potential ways forward.
Tune in to Carl Chinn’s radio programme on BBC Radio WM this Sunday!
From midday you’ll hear Juliet and Malcolm talk about some of the company’s heritage-based projects, from a storytelling project based on the life of the Ladypool Road to participatory theatre-in-education at the Museum Collection Centre in Birmingham.
I’m often asked “How do you come up with your programmes?”, “Where do you get your ideas?” The answer is with big bits of paper, marker pens and tea, lots and lots of tea. Oh! And sometimes biscuits too. (Actually the biscuits feature quite heavily.)
I found myself thinking about this as I unloaded the car at our rehearsal room at the start of term. We were beginning to devise On the Edge, our new PSHE programme about community cohesion and the effects of violent extremism. Clutched in my arms were the aforementioned large bits of paper, marker pens and most crucially a kettle.
The importance of tea cannot and must not be underestimated in the creative process. Soon the walls of the rehearsal room would be adorned with the large sheets of paper, held precariously in place with Blu-tack, and covered in brightly coloured scrawling. Aims and outcomes on one sheet, possible characters on another, a timeline with the key events in the gun powder plot here, symbols, graffiti and slogans over there. These are all fundamental in the creation of a programme but it is at the small table in the corner, its legs bowing under the weight of tea, mugs, milk and if we are very lucky some biscuits, that much of the inspiration strikes.
It is at this table we gather when there is a pause in our strutting and fretting to re-fuel and alongside the slurping and munching much reflecting takes place. It may be thoughtful musings on a film or TV programme or it may be indignant ranting about a news story but it all feeds in and connects.
Coffee does not lubricate the wheels of invention to such a degree and it keeps us up all night when we should be dreaming up great programmes.
Of course the process of developing a new programme starts well before arriving at the rehearsal room and curiously enough tea also plays a prominent role. It goes something like this. The whole team from The Play House get together and put the kettle on and we talk about all sorts of ideas for programmes. They might be a suggestion from a teacher, stories we have read, an opportunity or request to use a specific place or building, something in the zeitgeist, an invitation or a commission to address a particular issue, a curriculum area that we feel has been under represented or an art form we would like to explore. We sound out the nooks and crannies for educational and participatory opportunities, sometimes with members of our teachers group. (I even noticed Jaffa cakes on the table at the last meeting. Is no expense spared? Not when it comes to our teachers group.) And of course the wheels of invention need lubrication, quite a lot of lubrication it turns out.
(How these projects get funded is of course a different story. Deb wrote a blog on this earlier this year if you want to find out more detail, but I should warn you it doesn’t contain nearly the right amount of references to tea as its importance warrants. )
Meetings are set up and held, speculations had, some practical trying out of ideas takes place in which the whole team work together for a day or half day to figure out things like is it possible to replicate the blowing up the Houses of Parliament in a school hall twice daily? Details get thrashed out and thirst gets quenched.
Once the possible parameters of a programme have been wrangled into some sort of shape a “long list” of possible programmes is sent to school and teachers comment on which ones they are most interested in, and of course licking all those stamps is thirsty work. A final short list is drawn up and sent to schools (more stamp licking) and the bookings are made. Our trusty administrator Gavin then pieces together the complex jigsaw that makes up the tour schedules and, oddly enough, needs to be almost constantly refreshed. It’s usually about this time we consider getting an urn. We already have the largest teapot we could find, a fairly recent acquisition, as its predecessor wore out. (You can imagine the anxiety when that news was broken at staff meeting and the frenzied subsequent search for a replacement big enough. Does this give the impression that our staff meetings are like a mad hatter’s tea party? Well I couldn’t possibly comment.)
But if you are passing anytime, drop in, say hello, especially if you have a great idea for a programme. We’d be happy to talk about it with you - the kettle’s always on, and I do mean always. Or you could contact us via the web site, but then you won’t get a biscuit with that, just a cookie!!
Brew anyone?
Deborah has been work with our colleagues over at Tide~ to look at learning outside of the classroom.
She has been looking back on the work that they’ve been doing, and this has just been published on the Tide~ website. You can read her reflections here, along with articles from other members of the group.
To me, The Play House has always been a very visual company and over the years there have been some photographs taken that have managed to encapsulate the thoughts, feeling and emotion of a programme with just one click of the shutter. This is why I get excited when I get asked to photograph a programme in school as I’m always looking to find that one image that conveys the mood of the programme. It’s extremely challenging, as moments can happen so fast, and I often find myself being so absorbed in the drama that I often forget that I’m their to do a job.
I have always been fascinated by how a moment of time can be captured by a camera. Although I did a photography module in college and understand how photography has been made possible through the years, a part of me still believes it is some form of ancient witchcraft. Stop and think about it the next time you are taking a picture; does it seem logical to be able to capture something your eyes can see (and then print it onto a t-shirt for your teddy or something equally as awful)? Anyway, I better get back to my blog before I get carried away with my rant. Don’t even get me started on why 35mm is still better than digital!
I am always very appreciative to the schools for letting us come in to document our programmes and helping with the distribution and chasing of the permission letters. Photographs and video recordings act as an extremely useful resource for when we come to retour a programme and help to capture those special moments when a young person says or does something inspiring.
You can view a selection of programme photographs which are featured on our Flickr site below.
The Play House has become the first theatre company outside of London, and only the third in the country, to be awarded the Social Enterprise Mark.
The Mark is a new countrywide scheme offering an instantly recognisable logo that represents enterprises working for social and environmental aims, trading to benefit people and the planet.
The Play House – or Language Alive! back then - started almost 25 years ago with Steve Ball promoting language development as part of St Paul’s Community Project. It became a company and a charity in 1993 with the withdrawel of local education authority funding. It’s been reliant on project funding, commissions and trade ever since, with all ’profits’ from our work ploughed back into developing new educational projects aimed at children and young people.
You can find out more about the Mark and other organsations that have qualified at http://www.socialenterprisemark.org.uk/
Whilst we sit here in Brum trying to predict the vagaries of the British summer, some of our colleagues are half-way around the world in Belem, Brazil, for IDEA 2010: the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association World Congress.
The IDEA Congress takes place every three years, and The Play House has been represented at all of them in recent years. Last time in Hong Kong we were successful in an Arts Council bid to mount a tour there and send the whole team out for the Congress itself.
This time representatives from 3 applied theatre companies – Deborah Hull, our Artistic & Educational Director, and Artistic Directors Andy Watson from Geese and Johnny O’Hanlon from HamFisted! – came together to participate.
Contact with the team has been a bit sporadic, but Johnny sent his impressions of Belem itself
What can be said of Belem – aside from the heat ‘cos it’s hot, damn hot…
Belem- once a rich city based on gold and rubber, but now a city of contrasts – beautiful buildings butt up against rotting cement shells of buildings – richer middle class shopping malls the like of which you get the world over next to run down markets -and all the while the amazon river flows its way to the sea…
The smells of the city are pungent and human – and indeed the local population are helpful and friendly – though the crime rate is extremely high – pickpockets and muggings at gunpoint have been reported by people attending this conference…
The team don’t seem to be particularly impressed with the organisation of the conference though, with Deborah reporting it was
poorly organised and [there was] a distinct lack of rigour to much of the conference content
…a view echoed by Johnny. So a bit of a mixed bag, a real shame given that Hong Kong proved a fantastic experience for the company. Then we reported…
IDEA provided a fantastic opportunity for the whole company to take the time to both share and celebrate the considerable achievements of the company as well as to be inspired to continue to develop our collective practice into several new and exciting areas.
Part of the benefit of this type of event is meeting new people, engaging with different companies, and becoming more aware of international developments. And as well as attending Deborah has also presented a paper
… things [have] been pretty full on during the conference… managed to have several interesting conversations/contacts and the paper went really well.
The contradictory nature of the event is summed up well by Andy…
Ilana, a Brazilian theatre practitioner currently working in London and working as an interpreter at the IDEA Conference, succinctly summed my experience of the 10 day congress – “Brazil is a country of massive contradictions.” This goes some way to explaining my astonishment at the final, closing celebratory dinner, in which the Bahia Military Police performed the most audacious and spectacular drumming and dance performance I have ever witnessed. Serving police officers singing and dancing a range of classic Portugese songs, African drumming, Afro Brazilian caporera demonstrations, and finally encouraging the whole audience to join them in an extended and energetic Carimbo dance. If this had been presented by professional theatre and dance practitioners it would have been spectacular. The fact that it was presented by serving police officers, and according to Ilana, officers serving in a police force which is notoriously corrupt and alledgedly brutal made the whole experience that much stranger.
It served as a good conclusion to a congress that has been incredibly contradictory: in equal parts frustrating and rewarding; confusing and inspiring.
A bit closer to home they’ll be legacy too, as The Play House, Geese and HamFisted! will continue to meet, forming a mini Applied Theatre network. Longer term we hope this will grow and extend networking opportunities provided by the mini-network to include other applied theatre companies based in the West Midlands.
We’ve now planned all the Foundation and Primary tours for the next academic year, including some exciting new projects and the return of some old favourites.
Climb aboard!
For Early Years Just imagine… is an innovative new Early Years programme that is being developed through a partnership between The Play House and Birmingham Rep. A series of story-making sessions are currently being conducted in Early Years settings , and the ideas generated by children in these sessions will be used to create a unique child-led story, inviting children to step into the world of the story and to imagine, play and create for themselves. Climb Aboard sees the return of Jim and his grandma Fernanda, who find the Jamaica Case full of precious things from Fernanda’s life as a girl in Jamaica. Jim and the children explore the objects as they are removed from the case and are taken on a journey back to her childhood…
Into the Garden, inspired by Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant
Key stage 1 has two popular programmes make stheir return. Fit for a King transports infants to the court of Prince Yannis, one of the unhealthiest, laziest and most unhygienic princes ever. Recruited by Yannis’ long-suffering personal chef, Cookie, the pupils must transform his lifestyle before the prince will be allowed to be crowned King Yannis. And using Oscar Wilde’s original story of The Selfish Giant as its inspiration and integrating shadow play, puppetry and storytelling, Into the Garden follows what happens when a group of children decide to ignore the ‘Keep Out’ signs the Giant has put up around his garden and show him what he’s been missing…
Thanks to the Arts Council and Birmingham City Council there are a few new programmes for Key Stage 2. Spinning a Yarn is a new and exciting programme for Years 3 & 4 that tells the story of Hans Christian Anderson’s Emperor’s New Clothes. Through an exciting blend of storytelling, participation and the hands-on exploration of textile techniques, participants explore human rights and global citizenship. Inspired by the traditional story of Jack and the Beanstalk, Bag of Beans is a new and innovative numeracy and storytelling programme for Years 3 & 4 . The trials that Jack encounters in this tale become a frame for the children’s participation, and provide a series of challenges and tasks which involve the children applying the principals of mathematics and logic.
All Good Things, our site-specific programme taking place at BMAG's amazing Collection Centre
Following on from our extremely well-received tour of Tapestry for 13-18s, On the Edge is an exciting new participatory performance for 9 – 11 year olds which explores the implications and consequences of extremism. Younger children have less direct experience of extremism and their ideas, opinions and awareness around this issue are generally less well formed. On the Edge will draw on stories such as William Tell, Robin Hood and The Gunpowder Plot to create an original story through which children will explore questions such as: Do the ends justify the means, who do you believe and is there ever a case for taking the law into your own hands?
Stargazing
We’re able to revisit BMAG’s amazing Collection Centre in the Spring with the return of All Good Things… The Collection Centre is a treasure trove of history and science artifacts, and we creat an exciting drama which will take children on a unique journey back in time as characters from Birmingham’s industrial and scientific past come back to tell their stories and plead their case. And rounding of our Key Stage 2 programmes will be another history tour. Stargazing transports children to a dusty loft in Florence during 1633 to wait for the great scientist and astronomer Galileo to arrive and address them. As they wait they meet Andrea, the child of Galileo’s housekeeper, and together begin to practically explore Galileo’s theories using the models and notes that the great man has left lying around. Their experimentation is interrupted when they learn that Galileo has been arrested as a heretic…
You can find full details of all our tours next year if you go to theplayhouse.org.uk/languagealive
Welcome to the new website. Pardon our appearance whilst we tidy up!
We’re not quite finished yet. There’s still a few bits that don’t work quite how we want them to, and other bits we still need to add (come back next term and hopefully we’ll have some activities for the Interactive WhiteBoard too). Hopefully when we’re done we’ll have a truly interactive resource to support learning, and with fun activities for young people too.
It’s designed to grow though. Each new project will have it’s own mini-site, and we need your help too. You’ll be able to comment on activities, and help us develop by suggesting your own activites to add ours. It’s not quite working yet, but you’ll also be able to embed our activities on your own sites too.
In the mean time have a look at our current tour sites.
Our current Language Alive! tours:
Also touring:
Please let us kow what you think think, either through the comment links or the contact page. Thanks!
You might have noticed it’s gone a bit quiet recently here on the blog. That’s because we’re working feverishly behind the scenes to create a new improved online experience.
About four months ago I blogged about our success with some Arts Council Digitial Content Development funding (Digital Potentials). The result of that R&D was a new bid to completely change the way we offer resources. No more pdfs hidden behind passwords. All our projects will have their own mini-websites with activities, free to access and use. Interactive resources created for each project. Routes through for teachers, young people and other clients. The ability to comment on resources, and submit your own to make the sites a real collaboration.
We’re happy to report the Arts Council shared our enthusiasm for this project, and have provided the rest of the funding we needed. We’re working with web design company Substrakt and social media consultant Pete Ashton, so over the next few months our resources will be changing, becoming more interactive, responsive and free to use. We’ve been trying out some of these ideas over at our pilot site at http://theplayhouse.schools.officelive.com, where you can find out about the layers of the rainforest, explore the history of Sarehole Mill, or listen to podcasts created by participants in The Home Children.
The plan is that over the years more and more project ‘micro-sites’ will be created to accompany our tours and projects, creating a rich resource of free-to-use activities and information. After the initial launch the next step will be bringing online activities developed especially for Promethean and SmartBoard Interactive White Boards. We’d really like many of the activities to be suggested or submitted by teachers or students taking part in our projects.
Watch this space!
