Two TAEDS Year 2 students and their tutor, Cathy Wardale, devised and facilitated a series of four drama workshops at the Coombes School, with the stimulus of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Their task was to explore the play and broaden the Year 6 children’s understanding of the concepts and themes, whilst also showcasing for the teachers which roles each child would be most suitable for in their very own end of year production of the piece, to be staged in July. Traditionally Coombes uses drama workshops as an alternative to auditions because it gives all the children an opportunity to not only grow as performers but also for the staff to get a much better idea of what each child’s strengths are within the performance environment.
As the workshops progressed, the activities became more focused on performance skills. The children gained in confidence and contributed some very moving and innovative ideas that will be used within their end of year performance, for example the ghostly dagger speaking key lines. This was important, as they had the satisfaction of seeing their own input to the devising process. It was delightful to see individuals come out of their shell and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wishes to work in Theatre in Education groups or train as a teacher. For me as a student it was an extremely enjoyable and valuable experience to take part in a progressive workshop, where I was able to build a relationship with the children.
Roxanne Scotten