Theatre Royal Haymarket Masterclass Trust Theatre Workshops

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Theatre Royal Haymarket Masterclass Trust (Masterclass) worked in partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) to deliver a series of Peter Pan theatre based workshops for the students at The Hospital School to be immersed in the pre production process of putting on a show. We are very grateful to Outset who funded the project.

The workshops were based around Peter Pan and delivered at The Hospital School. The workshops wererun by theatre professionals and linked into the School timetable, covering the following areas:

• Storytelling
• Singing
• Movement
• Poster design
• Costume design
• Acting and play

The objective of the workshops was to create a project that was fun, imaginative and creative, with a focus on increasing confidence, self esteem and fundamentally the happiness of all children and young people taking part whilst giving the children an insight into the theatre making process.

The project ran until the 14th February - see below for our weekly updates on the workshops.

For more information please contact Grace Staniland on grace@masterclass.org.uk.

The project is being funded by Outset.

Outset was founded in 2003 by Candida Gertler and Yana Peel as a philanthropic organisation dedicated to supporting new art. The charitable foundation focuses on bringing private funding from its supporters and trustees to public museums, galleries, and art projects.

Weekly Workshop Updates:

Workshop 1
10th January 2013

Storytelling Key Stage 1 & 2

The workshop facilitator told the story of Peter Pan, in the character of Mrs Darling using puppets, costumes and props. This was a successful storytelling and games workshop that engaged the children, a very fun and magical hour.

Storytelling & Writing Key Stage 3 & 4

The group of young people (11-16) looked at ways of how to tell stories as a group using different methods. They worked well together and really came out of their shell by the end of the session. We got good feedback from the teacher and the young people; they had fun, wishing it had lasted longer.

On the wards

The workshop facilitators went onto the wards to visit people who couldn’t make the workshop. For younger children Mrs Darling told The Peter Pan story using puppets and props at their bedside. With the teenagers the workshop facilitators played games and created stories through word games. Everyone we worked with seemed to really benefit from an imaginative hour!

Workshop 2
17th January 2013

Singing Key Stage 1 & 2

The theme was pirates! The group learnt a sea shanty, instruments were introduced and each child took a bell, cymbal or shaker to tap to the beat. The younger children performed the Shanty to the older group, a lovely moment that captured the essence of the project about coming together to have fun regardless of age, your background or the reason for being in the hospital.

Singing Key Stage 3 & 4

The group successfully created sounds and noises to put into a Groove. They worked nicely in smaller groups and at the end everyone layered the sounds to create the Groove, including the shanty from the little ones! We had some great feedback from the workshop, one girl said ‘I like how it got everyone involved and taking part’.

On the Wards

Today we visited a few people to talk about music, singing and performance. We even sang a Shanty Sea song together on the ward! All of the singing from today has been recorded to put into a soundscape.

Workshop 3
24th January 2013

Keystage 1 & 2 Dancing and Movement

The workshop facilitator focused on the movements of the Mermaids and the Lost Boys. It was a brilliant workshop that allowed everyone to participate. As they were leaving we could hear them positively chatting about what they had done!

Keystage 3 & 4 Dancing (Tutting)
The workshop facilitator focused on learning a routine using Tutting, a style of dance using your arms and hands commonly used amongst hip-hop groups. This was very successful, there was a strong sense of achievement and completion among the group. The technique of tutting was cool and well-pitched for the right age.

On the wards
3 workshop facilitators ran a mini workshop with 5 children (3-5 years) in a playroom on one of the wards. This was a brilliant hour. Very engaging, the children had a lot of fun trying all the costumes on playing parts and talking to The Peter Pan puppet. One young girl said Peter Pan had whispered in her ear that he wanted to be friends with her!

The dancing facilitators took the Tutting workshop to the wards and got lots of people involved in learning this dance! It was someones birthday so this became part of the celebration.

Workshop 4
31st January 2013
Poster Design

Key stage 1 & 2
The theme of this weeks workshop was designing a poster of your own Never Never Land. The group were given templates of islands and encouraged to create a poster of their own Never Never Land filled with all of their favourite things. This ranged from chocolate factories, to roller-coasters, beaches to the ancient Romans! The poster design workshop was very free, calm paced and the children got the chance to create their own happy place out of card and colouring pencils! At the end there was a short show and tell with the older group which the younger group enjoyed.

Key stage 3 & 4
Peter Pan posters were created for an imaginary production that the group were putting on. We looked through various Peter Pan posters and everyone inputted on what they liked or didn’t like about the them. The use of shadow was going to be the basis of the poster and they were taught how to make a silhouette using the lamp and black paper. Most drew silhouettes of their heads with 2 older boys drawing a silhouette of their hands joined together as they wanted to represent the friendship theme in Peter Pan. The poster had to incorporate key facts about the production; location, theme, cost and timings of the show and they decided on these. It was a great workshop which allowed those taking part to work individually or in pairs and be creative using a different art form. There were some great results and all very different. The glitter went done very well!!

On The Wards
The workshop facilitators worked with one 9 year old boy, they tweaked the Never Never Land Poster Design workshop to a one-on-one scale which worked really nicely.

Then on to the dialysis wards to work with 2 girls to create their posters. One designed an urban style Peter Pan which was really creative and a different take on the posters from earlier.

Workshop 5
7^th February 2013
Props and Craft

Key stage 1 & 2

This was a fantastic workshop on creating props and costumes using materials normally associated with "being ill" at Hospital. It was a large class with over 14 children taking part. Today we made Tiger Lilly's Indian head dress, Peter Pan's hat, Captain Hooks Pirate Hat and Tinkerbell's wand. The children were engaged from the start and liked seeing a sick bucket and bed pan being used in this way. We first all made Indian head dress and it was good to see the children creating some really lovely and decorative head dresses. There was constant chatting and engagement from the children. It was lovely seeing the children throughout the day around the hospital with the things they had made.

Key stage 3 & 4

The theme for this workshop was identity. We created cool canvas bag that represented you. The group really enjoy taking the time to create detailed pictures, drawing in pencil first and the finished in pen and glitter! Some of the group decided to do simple images, very contemporary and cool. This also meant they could make multiple bags. The group responded very well to the bag designing session, they were very creative and inventive. The workshop was calm and we shared conversation around the table as everyone designed their bags, discussing what we would use the bags for!

On The Wards

Two workshop facilitators worked with a 14 year old girl they have spent time with every week. The young girl had written a play script which the facilitators had read earlier in the week and brought the necessary props and copies of the script and held a production meeting at the girls bedside. It was decided they would perform the short script on the ward in the final week.They designed a poster to put up next week, cast the parts and blocked the performance. It was great fun, the young girl directed the piece very naturally and they have a pretty good idea as to what the show will be next week! Watch this space….

Another facilitator saw a 16 year old girl we have worked with each week, for a one to one bag design workshop. The young girl decided that she wanted to do her own thing and wrote 'All About Me' in big bubble letters on the bag drew a flower pattern to go on the back of the bag. When the facilitator was leaving the girl asked us to bring over her art equipment that she had been working on. We think we may have got her in the mood for being creative!

Special thanks to Karl Evans Studio for providing us with our wonderful Peter Puppet.

Supporters

Outset generously funded the Peter Pan project.

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