Funded Projects
The Play House receives funding from varied and generous donors to support the delivery of drama-focused, educational projects in the Birmingham and surrounding areas. The Play House projects are unique and highly engaging, with outstanding feedback.
Journey of a Windrush Heroine
2024
Funded by Near Neighbours
In celebration of National Windrush Day 2024, The Play House worked with writer and performer Grace Bennett, to share an interactive storytelling performance across schools and libraries in and around Birmingham. The story followed the educational and entertaining journey of Precious, a young adult who travels from the island of Jamaica to the UK in 1948, on the HMT Empire Windrush ship, seeking both work and a new experience of living in the motherland, England.
Suitable for the whole family, this story aims to spread knowledge of what the Windrush was and how it has impacted the UK today.
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Does Birmingham Belong to me?
2023-2025
Funded by Paul Hamlyn
The Play House are working with primary schools across the city, to explore the idea of a Birmingham identity with the children: Co-constructing programmes of arts-based learning to explore their stories and experiences, celebrating the differences between us and marking the things that also bind us together. The project will explore a model for using experiences and stories from the people within a school community to examine issues around citizenship and identity with the children. Parents will be engaged within the artistic practice. Through asking the question ‘Does Birmingham belong to me?’ We will explore the stories and experiences of the children, their parents and teachers living in Birmingham.
Proud to be a Brummie
2023-2024
Funded by Birmingham Arts School
The Play House worked with 3 primary schools to develop a co-creation piece, which elevated the children's own opinions and voices within a fictional context. They were the writers, directors and actors of their own theatre offering- a new folk-lore story- which celebrates diversity and inclusion, urging the audience and performers to embrace all that Birmingham has to offer. Linked to the project 'Does Birmingham Belong to Me', the project embraced the culture and experiences of the children in the room, and considered how those fit within the context of Birmingham. This project was a celebration of the individual child, and of their place within the collective of that school, which in turn contributes to the richness of Birmingham itself.
Imagine a City
2022-2023
Funded by Millenium Point Trust
Imagine a City: a site specific engineering and Immersive Drama project that was undertaken in two Birmingham Primary schools, the University of Wolverhampton and the University of Birmingham. The project explored the positive links between engineering mindsets and children’s wellbeing. The children took part in interactive drama and civil engineering workshops to design and build prototype cityscapes. Engineering students from the Universities Of Birmingham and Wolverhampton worked with the children and become STEM Ambassadors for each school. An exhibition of the imagined cities was created on both campuses for participants and the public to visit.
Outside the Box
2021-2022
Funded by B2022 Commonwealth Games Cultural Programme
Outside the Box: a celebration of the game of squash, created by The Play House and Untied Theatre Company. Collaborating with four Birmingham schools, Outside the Box was performed by a cast of professional squash players, actors and Birmingham schoolchildren. Prior to the performances, an outreach programme delivered by The Play House provided inspirational workshops in the primary schools, igniting children’s imaginations about the game, before giving them the opportunity to play at visiting squash courts within Birmingham New Street station. The children were invited to perform in the final shows at the University of Birmingham.
Maker Space
2022-2023
Funded by The Royal Academy of Engineering
The Play House and the University of Birmingham worked together to create and deliver an exciting engineering and drama project with four Birmingham primary schools. The Maker Space project involved pupils, teachers and parents working alongside young PhD engineers from the University of Birmingham and drama facilitators from The Play House on a series of fictional engineering challenges. Supporting the development of STEM subjects in schools, along with building the children’s resilience, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, the project fostered the children’s innovation skills through hands-on experimentation. The project culminated in a presentation at the University of Birmingham’s newly created Maker Space.
New Histories - Lye
2021-2022
Funded by Stourbridge Community Development Trust
Working with two schools in Lye, the New Histories project brought communities together through the co-creation of creative artworks and performances. The project enabled the local community to develop and create a shared digital civic monument. It challenges the historical definition of what is celebrated in civic monuments and public spaces by including the voice and story of many individuals who make up our society. As part of the New Histories project The Play House created an opportunity for two Primary schools in Lye to share stories, both ordinary and extraordinary, on the themes of family, friends, home, and community. The children’s stories were developed, recorded and shared at an event in school.
Civic Histories - St Albans
2022-2023
Funded by Birmingham Arts School
The Play House worked with St Albans Primary school to engage their pupils in local research. The company worked with the pupils to produce an artistic response to their findings. This was to help pupils creatively connect with their surroundings and community, and to provide new artistic experiences: broadening the pupils' perspectives and life experiences, and supporting a new approach to learning history.
Daughters of Invention
2021-2022
Funded by The Royal Academy of Engineering
Daughters of Invention: a drama and engineering project that developed primary school children's understanding of engineering and STEM subjects and raised their aspirations to enter higher education. The Play House worked with four Birmingham schools to deliver the project that consisted of a series of interactive and immersive drama and engineering workshops. The workshops were led by experienced drama practitioners from The Play House and a team of eight PhD and MEng Biomedical Engineering students from our partner: the University of Birmingham's Mechanical Engineering Department