 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.
 Watch out for brussel sprouts! What an amazing week we had in schools during anti-bullying week last week and thanks to all the pupils, teachers and facilitators who worked so hard to make the days a success. Our Kingdom of Respect drama days were and still are being held in primary schools up and down the country.
We thought it would be nice to share with you some of the excellent work that has been created by the pupils.Some of the Kingdoms created by St Peters Primary School in Bolton included Yr 6′s Respecterton S.P whereby everybody had to earn respect points by behaving according to the rules. We had a national anthem played on brass instruments, a Peace in the World rap/dance and the Kingdom included all kinds of interesting places including the jail where if you didn’t respect people you were force fed brussel sprouts and broccoli and made to sit on the uncomfortable chair – the horror!
From Year 5 we had the imaginative Bullyneverland where the French professor, Professor Bulliance made three robots – Cyber, Physical
 Respect today - keep the robots at bay! andCyber, Physical and Verbal RobotsVerbal Robots -to keep the bullies in check, the robots would freeze anybody who was bullying and their slogan was - “Respect today, keep the robots at bay!”
 Only the brightest stars.... We also had from Year 3 the fabulous –Starworld “Only the brightest stars shine in Starworld.”
 The tree of flags  Yr 2's amazing Kingdom From Year 4 the fabulous Kingdom of Care and Share.
From Year 2 Rainbow Kingdom where “Niceness is Priceless”
Yr 1 told us to “Keep in mind, always be kind”.
Not to be outdone the reception class came up with Chameleon Kingdom where everyone is different and that’s ok. Reception showed us their skills on the computer by making pictures of their friends!
 Receptions friendly faces  Thanks St Peter's! Thanks, St Peters for making us have such a rianbow coloured and robot shaped week, for making us so welcome and joining in the spirit of the Drama Days so beautifully. Keep your eyes peeled for more school photos later in the week!
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!
We can’t believe its half term already! Where has the time gone? We have spent it in schools doing drama workshops and assemblies on everything from Space Exploration to Telling the Truth, with various characters from Harry Potter to King Arthur!
Half term is a fantastic time for us to take a big deep breath and prepare for anti-bullying week in November. This year we will be delivering drama workshops in schools in many different guises. We have anti-bullying and resisting peer pressure forum theatre workshops, Kingdom of Respect Days and Play in a Day’s happening in primary and high schools across the country. Also we are really looking forward to our work in Peterborough Schools on their fantastic Powerdown fortnight project, with the slogan “Switch Off and Save”. This project is all about increasing pupils and staffs energy awareness and we will be providing a whole school assemblies and drama workshops for schools in the Peterborough area. This is a vitally important issue as schools account for a large proportion of a local council’s carbon emissions, we need to educate future generations into caring about environmental issues and making them see that by everyone doing a little it can make a big difference.
We are now taking bookings for next term – and as well as our existing drama workshops we are further developing our History Drama Days and also promoting reading and writing in schools through our Literacy Drama Workshops. Have a look at the website and do get in touch if you think we can help your school. We look forward to meeting you!
We have been working very hard now that term is well and truly underway and have been having a great time in schools on our new projects.
 - Book your drama workshop now!
The enquiries for this November’s anti-bullying week are coming in thick and fast, and already we are scratching our heads wondering how we are going to accommodate all the schools out there that want our anti-bullying drama workshops!
With this in mind for all you people out there who leave it to the last minute to book things as you already have mountains of work on your plate we thought we’d put together some dates for you for this and next year so you can keep on top of when to book us.
Book Now!
Monday 14th – Friday 18th November – Anti-Bullying Week
We have a range of anti-bullying drama workshops for KS 1, 2 and 3 to take advantage of. From our forum theatre workshops, to our Kingdom of Respect Drama Day to our Anti-Bullying Play in a Day, we are sure we have something which can fulfil your needs for this year’s programme of events.
October 31st – Halloween
We have a spooky and creepy Halloween Play in a Day looking at the origins of this traditional holiday for KS2.
November 5th – Bonfire Night
For KS1 we have a history drama day recreating the events of that eventful night back in 1605. We also have a Guy Fawkes Play in a Day for KS2 as a great way to get the older children involved in teaching the younger ones all about the origins of bonfire night.
Christmas
We have Play in a Day’s version of “A Christmas Carol” and our very special Panto in a Day – Oh yes we can!!!
Sat 28th Jan – Sat 4th Feb - The 12th Annual National Storytelling Week
Have a look at our Bring Your Story to Life drama workshop which does exactly what it says on the tin. You choose a story, or we can suggest one and we bring it to life with the pupils using drama games and techniques. A really great way to make reading and writing exciting for your pupils.
Thursday 1st March 2012 – World Book Day
Have a look at our new literacy section under Primary Schools we have a number of drama workshops to bring literacy for life for your
pupils.
March/ April –Shakespeare revision workshops
Check out our Shakespeare drama workshops, a great tool in the revision for SATs to bring what can be a difficult subject to life for your
pupils.
14th March – No Smoking Day
Have a look at our Smoking Prevention Workshops for KS2 and KS3, a perfect time to put across some important health messages to your pupils about the choices and consequences surrounding smoking.
April 7th - World Health Day
We have a number of drama workshops and health and wellbeing; have a look at our PSHE page to pick which workshop is best for you to put across important health messages to your pupils.
 Working hard on the website! Hi there,
Welcome back to the new school year! Hopefully you’ve had as much of a productive few weeks as we have. We have been developing many new drama workshops and assemblies in response to demand and are very happy to be back in schools to see how well they work!
Some of you may have noticed that our website has changed quite a bit and is still in the process of changing even more! We are attempting to make it much more user friendly for people and to better reflect what we can offer in terms of drama workshops.
This is a long process for us though, and we are now frantically editing the website (which is not our strongest skill!) in between dealing with the beginning of term rush of bookings and shows, but we are hoping it will be done and up and running as soon as possible!
If you are a high school please don’t think we have stopped doing high school shows as we just haven’t got round to adding that bit of the website! Get in touch if you have any queries about what shows we do offer.
We look forward to working with you this year!
Alison and Helen x
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.
 Role Play As young people grow older, they are faced with some challenging decisions, some are simple but some involve serious moral questions. Its human nature for them to listen to other people in their age group, and peers influence their life, even if they don’t realize it, and is all peer pressure bad?
Positive peer pressure can happen – for example, if one student is excited about their new favorite book, and gets everyone into reading it. However, quite often peers influence each other in negative ways, young people want to do what they know is right but they don’t want to be the one who stands out. Or they simply want to try something that “everybody else” is doing.
So how you work with your class on the topic of peer pressure using drama?
Role Play
Role playing can be a really useful classroom activity, allowing students to understand the effects of peer pressure and can lead into to a great group discussion on the topic.
- Divide the classroom into smaller groups of up to 5.
- Either ask them to think of an incident of peer pressure or give them cards with prompt words on.
- Ask for volunteers in each group to act out their scenarios. Then give them a short amount of time to rehearse. (5 minutes is plenty)
- Ask them to show their scenarios to the rest of the group.
- Have a group discussion on each scenario about what was going on, who was pressuring who, was it positive or negative pressure. Ask them what were their reactions and feelings about the scenario, how would they react if it was happening to them?
- If you have a good group who you think are able to work well, try hot seating, allow the characters to be questioned by their classmates about why they behaved the way they did, and what their feelings were.
- After the role-playing, return to the normal classroom format and open it up to a general discussion on the effects of peer pressure.
P.S. Don’t forget its anti-bullying week on the 14th – 18thNovember, so get in touch if you would like us to help you with an anti-bullying drama workshop!
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Sunday, February 5, 7:09 am
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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.
