 Happy New School Year! We have sharpened our pencils, put our new school shoes on (they feel a bit tight!), packed our lunchboxes and we are ready to go back to school! After a great holiday we are raring to go. In fact we are so raring to go that our new school term actually started last week!
New summer schools taking place in high schools across the country aim to help disadvantaged pupils make a successful transition from primary to secondary school. The summer schools focused on literacy and numeracy and Act On Info were there to create a Play in a Day with the pupils as an educational but fun way to celebrate their achievements during the week. The pupils rehearsed the play then performed it for an invited audience including parents at the end of the day. We want to thank all the schools that took part and wish the transition students well in their new school.
It seems that Myths and Legends were the order of the day with King Arthur and Theseus and the Minotaur being the most popular – but don’t forget that we have a range of play in a day scripts and drama workshops to choose from that span the curriculum. If you would like to make a booking please get in touch using our quick enquiry form to the right. Surely school shouldn’t be this much fun?
 - Avast!
Ahoy me hearties! This half term we have been delivering lots of our usual Shakespeare and Anti-Bullying drama workshops and Play in a Day aye, but shiver me timbers it seems that the bulk of the work this half term has been very nautical! Specifically we have been asked to do a lot of drama workshops around pirates – aaarrrrrrrrr!
With this is mind, shipmates, we are now offering schools our new pirate drama workshop. Our Pirate Captain’s last crew was eaten by a large sea monster – arrrr! So we be recruiting a new crew for our ship, mateys. Is your class bold enough to become our new crew and seek the pirate treasure? This drama workshop is suitable for sea dogs in Years 1, 2 and 3 – for more details click here.
But we haven’t left Years 4, 5 and 6 cast adrift – for these classes we have our great Treasure Island Play in a Day (Pieces of eight, pieces of eight!), a tale of pirates, adventure and treasure on the high seas.
If you would like to work with your class developing their pirate characters, here are some great pirate things for you land lubbers to enjoy.
Pirate Name Generator
Each sailor has to think of a 2 numbers between 1 – 10, so say 2 and 7. The third word of their pirate name is always there first or second name. For example 3 and 5 from a scurvy dog called Jack would result in the name Long Beard Jack. Add in your own words to make it fun!
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1st Word |
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2nd Word
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| 1 |
Blue
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1
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Neck
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| 2 |
Knock
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2
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Hook
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| 3 |
Long
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3
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Knees
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| 4 |
Scurvy
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4
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Leg
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| 5 |
Anchor
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5
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Beard
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| 6 |
Black
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6
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Sword
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| 7 |
Shark
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7
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Eyed
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| 8 |
Silver
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8
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Fingered
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| 9 |
Sea Dog
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9
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Belly
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| 10 |
Fish
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10
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Stump
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 On your marks! Happy new half term everyone! Phew, we feel all out of breath and are trying to catch ourselves up whilst working on our excellent Olympic Play in a Day for next term. We have two plays which are being booked up a treat up and down the country:
Play 1 – The Olympics – On your marks, get set, go! Travel back in time with us to Mount Olympus, find out how and why it all began, and then sprint off the blocks to find out how this developed into the games we have today. Meet some extraordinary characters, from Greek Gods to amazing athletes. Everyone who takes part in this play is a winner!
Play 2 – Olympic Values – The Olympic values that top class athletes believe in are friendship, respect, and excellence. In this Play in a Day we explore what these values mean to the children and what they mean to the athletes competing in the Olympics.
If you would like to explore the Olympics in more detail with your KS2 class do get in touch now!
We are also having a great time in Manchester with our fantastic facilitator Kate working on a community drama project with a women’s group of refugee and asylum seekers who are producing what is shaping up to be a fantastic performance to be shown on the 5th March as part of International Women’s week. We can’t wait to see it!
From Play in a Day to Shakespeare, Respect to Rainforests, Fairytales to Fables we love the way this half term is going already and it’s only just started!
 We always love working on Shakespeare with young people and have been delivering drama workshops and Play in a Day to get children excited about his plays across the country.
With this in mind we are really looking forward to the World Shakespeare Festival (WSF) which starts on 23rd April and runs to November 2012. It will be a celebration of Shakespeare, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, in collaboration with leading UK and international arts organisations.
Artists from around the world will take part in 70 productions, as well as events and exhibitions, right across the UK. This festival forms part of London 2012 Festival, which is the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad.
We have used the Whoosh technique in schools in our Shakespeare drama workshops; it works really well and can be utilized easily by teachers. This technique was devised by Dr Joe Winston of The University of Warwick and is used regularly by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Whoosh!
Get the group into a circle, either standing or sitting. Tell the group that everyone will have a chance to participate in the telling of a story, Shakespeare or otherwise, by becoming a character or an object in the tale. The rule is that when you say “Whoosh!” they must immediately return to their place in the circle. Start the story and when a key character, event or object is mentioned, indicate to a pupil to step into the circle to make a shape or strike a pose. If more than one character is introduced, indicate they can all enter the circle at the same time.
As the story progresses and more characters or objects are introduced, make sure you move around the circle so that all the pupils are given a chance to take part. If it’s appropriate the whole group can take part at once. Continue telling the story with more pupils stepping in as required – in the first instance they are just striking poses to build up a tableau or frozen picture.
Once the pupils have made a still image, and are feeling more confident, then they can start to add movement to the story. You can build this up to them interacting with one another, and adding improvised dialogue or lines from the play. If you feel the group is able, you can add props for pupils to improvise with.
At any time if the activity inside the circle becomes too unfocused or too boisterous simply say “Whoosh!” and everyone returns to their original place in the circle. The story continues to be told to the end. “Whoosh!” is a very useful tool and can be used as many times as you feel is necessary.
Do get in touch if you would like us to deliver a Shakespeare drama workshop or Play in a Day in your school.
Well, we are back in school with a vengeance, covering everything from Fairytales to Volcanoes, with Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greeks thrown in there for good measure.
The Ancient Greeks brought us a lot of things including drama for which we are very thankful, but they also brought us the Olympics, which in case you haven’t noticed is happening this summer in our capital city of London!
We know a lot of schools are studying topics on the Olympics next term and with this is mind we have some exciting Play in a Day around this theme.
The Ancient Greeks – Athena and Ares are fighting again, and Poseidon is raising a storm. Our Olympic athletes compete and Athens and Sparta fight to reign supreme. Watch out for thunderbolts!
The Olympics – where did it all begin? Travel back in time with us to Mount Olympus, find out how and why it all began, what games were involved and how did it develop into the games we have today.
Olympic Values – The values that top class athletes believe in are friendship, respect, and excellence. In this Play in a Day we explore what these values mean to the children and what they mean to the athletes competing in the Olympics.
We are currently taking bookings for our Olympic Plays for next term, so get in touch now. For more details go to our Play in a Day page.
Don’t forget we also have a number of other Play in a Day for KS2 and for KS3 covering all aspects of the national curriculum.
 We are winding down here as we have just done our last day in school in 2011!
This term we have had a fantastic time doing Road Safety Workshops, our KS1 show showing how toys Fairy Princess Buttercup, Captain Fearless and Sheriff Howdeedoodee find their way home safely across the road after being left behind in the park. Our KS2 Road Safety Show is based around a game show – Don’t Get Splatted, and is a fast paced, fun interactive experience for the children to learn some serious messages and has been greatly recieved in schools across the Northwest.
Our Kingdom of Respect Drama Days took place up and down the country, and we have seen some fantastically creative work from pupils. We have had drama plays, stories being acted out, raps, national anthems, and amazing Kingdoms including – Kindland, the Territory of Tolerance, Respect-alot amongst others, well done everyone for all your hard work!
We have also completed our tour of primary schools as part of the Powerdown Fortnight in Peterborough, our fantastic team of actors doing numerous whole school assemblies and class workshops about saving energy with the message to – Switch Off and Save! We had fantastic fun being futuristic in the year 2031, where everything is silver and time machines can be made by your grandad in the shed! The pupils also came up with some fantastic adverts encouraging other children to Switch Off and Save, setting their adverts on a volcano, in a light bulb and even in a toilet! Watch out for some photos of this show coming in the next few weeks.
All this as well as various Play in a Days and Drama Workshops around varied topics such as Space, King Arthur, Robin Hood, Shakespeare, Telling The Truth, Ancient Greeks and Literacy projects. Phew! We are looking forward to having a break over Christmas but we are always here to take enquiries about bookings for next year. We are already getting booked up for summer term doing various Play in a Days and drama workshops around Ancient Greeks and Olympic values, so get in touch now.
 Feedback from a Yr 3 class.
Half way through November already, how did that happen!? This week is anti-bullying week and we are already enjoying our time in schools, offering forum theatre workshops and Kingdom of Respect drama days. Our tour rehearsals are nearly complete for our Switch Off and Save energy efficiency tour as part of Powerdown Fortnight for Peterborough City Council.
But we are also looking forward to Christmas! If you haven’t thought about what you are doing with your classes for a Christmas treat don’t forget we can provide you with a Panto in a Day – oh yes we can!
Our director (He’s behind you!) works with your class for the whole day to create a 15 minute Panto that can be showed to the rest of the school and any audience you choose to invite at the end of the day. It a great, fun treat for the children with all the educational benefits of a Play in a Day.
 - Oh yes we can!
Pantomimes available:
Aladdin
Cinderella
Dick Whittington
Snow White
Peter Pan
Wizard of Oz
We also have our own version of A Christmas Carol available as a Play in a Day so get in touch today to make your pupils Christmas!
There are a number of things you can use in order to stimulate and enrich an interesting drama lesson or drama workshop in school. Here are some ideas we here at Act On Info have used in the past.
Music
Music is very evocative and can be used to great effect in a drama lesson or drama workshop to energize a class at the start of as well as relaxing them at the end. It also can be used to stimulate imaginations and discuss issues. Ask your class what images a certain piece of music brings to mind then ask them to make a frozen picture or tableau to illustrate this. Use a song about an issue to explore dilemmas.
 Poems
Using a narrative poem which has a strong central character or which looks at issues or topics can be very useful for stimulating role play, hot seating or movement work.
Pictures/Photographs
You can use interesting pictures you have found in books, newspapers or any old photographs as agreat way to stimulate drama work.. You can ask the pupils to imagine they are in the picture and ask them what they can see, hear, smell, taste and touch. Get them to imagine they are one of the characters in the picture, ask them to say which character they are and give some extra information like how they feel. From here you can ask them to create extra characters and create their own tableau (frozen picture).
Objects
Any unusual or interesting objects can spark a great drama lesson, but everyday objects work just as well. Use objects to build a
story, for example put a pair of boots on the floor and ask the pupils, who owns them? Why are they so worn? What happened to the person who owns them? Ask the pupils to improvise a scene around the boots. If you want to you can give them a starting line to get them going such as “They are my favourite boots..”.
Stories
Use an extract from a story, leaving it at a cliff-hanger moment is a great way to get your pupils thinking “what happens next?” Then get them to create a dramatic scene based on their ideas as to the ending. This is a great way to encourage the pupils to start creating their own stories or plays.
Fables, Myths and Legends
These are great for stimulating drama work as they contain so many different issues and dilemmas and you can ask the pupils to relate the central characters experiences to their own lives.
These are just a few ideas we have used, however if you would like us to come to your school with a Play in a Day or drama workshop please get in touch, we often find our workshops can be very useful to stimulate ideas in teachers as to creative ways of working with theor pupils.
 - Stop and think – words can hurt
Yes, we know it seems a long way away at the moment as you have just started on your summer holidays, but we already have bookings from much organised teachers wanting our services for 2011’s anti- bullying week so this is just a reminder for you to get in quick!
The theme for anti-bullying week this year is “Stop and think – words can hurt” which ties in nicely to what we can offer schools for anti-bullying week. As all schools are different we offer a number of different options for you, and hope that one of these workshops will meet your needs.
1. Anti-Bullying Play in a Day – This is a great way to introduce or conclude a topic, to promote inclusion and help with revision. Play in a Day is suitable for KS2; the facilitator can work with one class at a time (Up to approx 35 children). The class works with a facilitator starting at the beginning of the school day, and working around your break and lunch times for the day, perform the play for an invited audience of their peers (and parents should you wish to invite them) at the end of the day. The play performed is a 10-15 minute ensemble piece using inventive theatre techniques such as choral speech, stylised movement and mime. This usually takes place at either 2.30pm or 2.45pm.
2. Anti – Bullying Forum Theatre Workshop - Our Happy, Safe and Confident Workshops for Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 pupils aims to raise awareness of bullying and its effects, by using forum theatre techniques to explore the roles of bully, victim and bystander, how bullying makes us feel, and how we can deal with it by developing assertiveness and coping strategies. The workshops for KS 1 and 2 is for one class at a time and for KS3 a maximum of two classes at a time. Workshops last for 30 minutes – 1 hour 15 mins (dependent on age group) and require the use of a school hall or gymnasium. We can do up to a maximum of four workshops in one day.
3. Respect Drama Day – Suitable for KS 1 and 2 we work with 3 or 4 classes throughout the day, each class works with a drama facilitator for 45 minutes – 1 hour to produce a short play/presentation on the theme of anti bullying. When they are not working with the facilitator they are working with their class to create their “Kingdom of Respect”. This includes having a name for their Kingdom and ten rules to live by amongst other things. The classes present their work to the other classes and any other audience you would like to invite at the end of the day. The schedule for the day is dependent on your timetable.
Please get in touch if you would like more information and costs for each drama workshop. There is a discount for two or more days booked together. Enjoy your holidays everyone!
 - Macduff and Macbeth meet in battle
After spending a lot of time working on Friendship Drama Days, we have a bit of a turn around this week working on various Shakespeare projects. It’s great working with young people who at the beginning of the day know practically nothing of the play, and by the end of the day are really keen to tell their version of the story. This week we’ve had false noses, witches on motorised broomsticks, children being turned into frogs, ghosts, beheading, madness, murder and mayhem – it seems that Macbeth is the order of the day! We’d like to say an especially big well done to Selwood School in Frome’s Yr 5 group who not only worked really hard to produce Macbeth for their peers in the afternoon, but also showed their play twice in the evening as part of Selwood Thou Art, the schools Shakespeare evening as part of the Frome Festival. The hardworking, conscientious pupils were an absolute joy to work with and really pulled it off giving two excellent performances for very appreciate audiences. Well done!
We’re looking forward to our last week in school next week and to our projects in the summer holidays. If you would like to enquire about our Play in a Day or drama workshops for the new schools year, do get in touch soon as we are getting booked up!
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Monday, May 20, 9:56 pm
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Happy New School Year! We have sharpened our pencils, put our new school shoes on (they feel a bit tight!), packed our lunchboxes and we are ready to go back to school! After a great holiday we are raring to go. In fact we are so raring to go that our new school term actually started last week!
