1 week Summer Schools
(Primary, Secondary and FE)
From a starting point of exploring
theatre games and exercises that unlock creativity and imagination,
and that promote team-building and cooperation, a process will
be undertaken which explores the need for active engagement in
the tasks at hand, trust and collaboration as a means to success.
Over the duration of the Summer School students will participate
in and develop a ‘Tool Box’ of skills to draw confidence
from when working in the future and a simple set of rules to empower
a group working towards making theatre. The structure of the week
long residency will include all of the following elements, incorporating
an informal ‘showing’ as the culmination of each day.
Group work & Team Building Day
Designed to examine cooperation between participants and the promotion
of group sensitivity. Students will explore a variety of exercises
aimed at the group working as a unit, with shared awareness and
control of ‘moments’. A structure will be put in place
in which participants can create a simple whole group improvisation.
This work promotes trust, self-confidence, team work and communication
skills.
This day will be followed by a timetable of four skill areas -
each designed to present a range of challenges to young people,
but also containing ‘hidden development areas’:
1. Circus
Students will be able to try a number of circus skills, with access
to the following - Stilts, Unicycles, Low Wire, Rolla-Bolla, Juggling,
Diablo, Spinning Plates and Devil Sticks.
2. Acrobatics and Physical Comedy
A variety of moves and set pieces
will be taught : tumbling, lifts, and work in pairs - allowing
students to put together their own sequences and routines. The
focus of the work is very light, allowing very close physical
work and trust and respect to be key learning outcomes. The atmosphere
of ‘physical comedy’ allows young people to recreate
with success slapstick ‘prat -falls’ and other acrobatic
set pieces.
(Both of these workshops aim to develop students understanding
and awareness of their own flexibility, balance and coordination.
They are also an opportunity to begin to develop trust and cooperation.
These sessions will have elements of group teaching and demonstrations,
but are aimed to be hands-on experiences. Deliberately fun and
entertaining, this work develops self-esteem and confidence.
3. Mask work
Participants will have the opportunity to explore the use of masks
as improvisational tools, as training devices and as opportunities
to perform in immediately successful manner. Using character masks,
a variety of exercises will be undertaken which allow students
to discover their own physical habits and to develop silent storytelling
pieces which are illuminated by the mask. Issues are explored,
behaviour is challenged and young people have the opportunity
of reflecting on the situations that the masks find themselves
in. This is one of the most liberating and successful workshops
Spike delivers with young people.
4. Puppetry and object animation.
These workshops are hands-on collaborative animation/performance
sessions, allowing participants to concentrate on the creative
processes of producing something to animate from scratch. As puppetry
requires participants to work with others in ‘bringing to
life’ the characters that they have made, it requires close
participation and cooperation. With both the audience’s
and the puppeteer’s focus on the puppet, less confident
participants are able to discover skills and strengths that don’t
require them to be centre of attention. They are able to be creative
in their performance and animation because it is not ‘them’
who is the focus of the story or comic moment.
