Archive News Education

The following news items represent a selection of the MED Education projects that take place throughout each year.

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2011:

• Dartmoor's Forgotten Playwright... - The play John Ford's Story is about real Dartmoor characters from the 17th century, notably John Ford, the playwright from Dartmoor who was a contemporary of Shakespeare. Young people trained by MED Theatre created a "polished and professional" performance at the National Trust's location of Buckland Abbey on September 24th. The talented teens created every part of the production from the writing and film to the masks and music.

• Mining Mahem in Lamerton! - Every pupil at Lamerton Primary School took part in learning about the mining heritage and stories from their local area, and then worked together to devise and write their own play which they performed at the end of the week, along with making their own props and costumes. This project was supported by West Devon Borough Council.

• Play Creation - Kenn Primary School years 5 and 6 students worked with MED Theatre's education officer on creating a play from sratch inspired by their happiest memories at their school. They devised scenes which were then written up into a script which they performed at the end of term, integrated with song and animation.

• Spy School action film! - Bovey Tracey Primary created their own film about a war between two different schools. Spy Schools was storyboarded, shot, acted and directed by the pupils at the end of the summer term.

• New Life in Trees - MED Theatre carried out the third workshop in their Trees series on Sunday 8th May as part of the National Trust's Full Bloom Festival that took place at Parke in Bovey Tracey. Drama exercises and games were used to explore a story about an orchard from greek mythology, which was vividly brought life as the workshop was taking place in the setting the National Trust orchard. Family participants learnt about and discussed how and why trees are important to us ecologically and personally.

Family learners create a 'hedge' with their bodies in New Life in Trees workshop, May 2011

• Tree Stories - Eighteen family learning participants workshopped the importance of trees in our everyday lives and explored folklore inspired by trees, on Friday 25th February at the National Trust property Castle Drogo. They used drama and storytelling to bring to life the stories with professionals from MED Theatre.

• Gifted and Talented - Young people from Hatherleigh, Boasley Cross and Northlew primary schools worked with MED Theatre's proffessional playwright Mark Beeson on the key elements of verse in literature, and wrote their own play in verse. The presented their play to family and teachers at a rehearsed reading.

• A film in a day! - MED Theatre led the 'Live Action on Stage' film course where year 8 students from Coombeshead College made a film on the subject of light, rocks and microbes... all in one day!

2010:

• Dartfest 2010 - The two day festival held over the weekend of 3rd and 4th December celebrated young playwrights on Dartmoor, through the performance of a collection of fast-paced, edgy plays written, acted and directed by young people. The young people not only wrote, directed and performed the plays, they also had input into elements such as costume and makeup, and they designed and painted the floor canvas which acted as the minimalistic but dramatic 'horizontal backdop' for each of the eight plays performed. One audience member commented "I've never seen so much condensed talent in all my life."

Director Mollie Millward-Nicholls paints design on actor Evie Faulkner

• Who are we? - MED Theatre's education officer delivered a bespoke drama workshop to Kingsbridge Community College pupils which informed them about the performance industry and gave them a taster in physical theatre, specifically stage combat.

• Playwriting and Performance - Moretonhampstead Primary School received a 10 week course from MED Theatre. The year 6 class created their own play from start to finish: as a group they came up with the idea for the story on the theme linking Dartmoor and North America. They then wrote the scenes in small writing teams, and eventually directed eachother and performed in the play that was shared with the rest of the school and family members in December. The play was about a group of children from Dartmoor and a group of children from North America whose planes crash on an island in the atlantic. In their efforts to survive they meet a tribe and a stranger who all need the island for different things.

• Family Learning Fun! - Thirteen family learning learning participants took part in the Living Trees workshop. They explored how important trees are to our every day lives and connections to climate change by using drama and storytelling to unravel folklore and poetry about trees with professionals from MED Theatre on Saturday 18th September in Moretonhampstead Parish Hall.

Family Learning workshop taking place in Moretonhampstead Village Hall, Sept 2010

• Exeter Phoenix summer season - MED Theatre led a workshop in the Exeter Phoenix Arts Centre's summer holiday programme. The 8-12 year olds had a fun-packed session of games, improvisation and performance!

• CPD session for teachers "How to use location as inspiration through drama" - Primary school teachers gathered in the lovely setting of Saltram House to explore ways to use location as a starting point for creating drama through a very physical session!

• Radio Play Summer School - Coombeshead College hosted a summer school for 10-13 year olds over a four day period at the start of the holiday. MED Theatre facilitated the young people to write and produce their very own radio play, taking inspiration on a trip to Vennford Reservoir on Dartmoor, where they heard about myths linked to water, the turbulent social history of reservoir building on Dartmoor, and they even saw an adder!

• Primary School Film Courses - MED Theatre has run two film courses for primary schools during end of the summer term. Bovey Tracey Primary produced a film about the history of their village which involved contemporising local mythology and they premiered their film at the Bovey Tracey Charter Celeberation. Whilst Kenn Primary year six produced a film as their leavers project, which enabled them to reflect on their memories and time at the school.

• Primary School Playwriting - In July we continued work with Widecombe Primary School to create and perform a play called The Dividing River, which involved a field trip to their local river to get inspiration for creative writing.

• The Magic of the Hare - The Dartmoor National Park Authority funded MED Theatre's education branch to create a movement-drama workshop based on the magical animal, the brown hare, a species that is becoming increasingly rare in our local National Park. The workshop was piloted to both a primary and a secondary school in Princetown and Crediton, as well as to a family learning group. The mix of ecology, folklore, drama and movement makes for a stimulating workshop for any age group. For details of a press release, click here.

 Brown Hare workshop movement assistant Daisy Martinez demonstrates

• Finch Foundry, National Trust Property - In partnership with the National Trust, MED Theatre has developed a new workshop 'Local History Investigation' where the students are greeted at Finch Foundry by a Victorian character who, through storytelling and demonstration, encourage the children to investigate a true incident that occurred at the location. Exbourne Primary were the first to sample this brand new workshop.

• Hatherleigh Radio Play - Gifted and Talented students from four local primary schools, wrote and recorded their own play The Hidden Truth which was inspired by local mythology.

• After School Drama Clubs around Dartmoor - Through DAISI (Devon Arts in Schools Initiative) MED Theatre was asked to lead a series of after school workshops to a group of very enthusiastic students from Boasley Cross Primary School.

• Teacher Training workshops with Phoenix Arts Centre - MED Theatre was pleased to lead a workshop to primary school teachers from the local area on how to use drama techniques as a teaching tool, in partnership with the Phoenix Arts Centre in Exeter.

2009:

• Castle Drogo Lantern Procession - MED Theatre and the National Trust partnered on a transition project working with year six students from Chagford Primary and year seven students from Okehampton College. The students worked together in learning about the history of the last castle built in England, and created lanterns under the guidance of artist Sandy Berridge, and performances with help from MED Theatre. The lantern procession took place on a crisp, cold winter night in the festive season.

• All That Was Left Behind... Dartmoor Prison 1815 - Wild Nights Young Company performed a site-specific play at Dartmoor Prison's Dairy Farm in November. The performance included a war dance from a dance troop of young people from the Princetown area and a short film that was shot on Dartmoor. The Honorary French Consul, Alain Sibril, attended the performance and commended the young people on creating an atmosphere that would've been very similar to 200 years before.

The Honorary French Consul present the young participants with a gift in recognition of their poingnant site-specific performance

• Teengaers lead Primary School Workshops - Young people from MED Theatre who are part of the War Prison at Princetown Project have trained and led drama and puppet making workshops to primary school children, as a creative method of passing on the knowledge that they had acquired throughout the course of the project about their local heritage. Tavistock Primary and Princetown Primary School pupils gave the teens warm welcomes.

• Most popular course! Playwriting and Performance - Moretonhampstead, Widecombe, Kenn and Bovey Primary Schools all received MED Theatre's longest standing course this year, Playwriting and Performance. The course, led by a professional playwright and a professional actor empowers the students to come up with the plot, write or devise the script and act and direct in their very own play.

• Building a Character Workshop - West Exe Technology College requested a bespoke workshop to complement the curriculum needs of their year 10 drama students. After working on a character building workshop with MED Theatre they later ventured out to the theatre company's studio on Dartmoor to share the short performances that had been inspired by these characters.

• Exeter University MA - After visiting MED Theatre's base on the Dartmoor National Park and being taken out on to the moor to explore the surrounding environment, students from the applied drama course at the university received an About Community Theatre workshop, to get MED Theatre's slant on community theatre practice.

• A play in a day! - Yes, it is as jam-packed as it sounds! Students from Teignmouth Community College worked intensively with MED Theatre over the course of a day. They created a series of short plays which they had written and performed by the end of the day.

• Junior Drama Club- January 2009 - Junior Drama Club members performed their exciting collection of short plays that they have been writing on tuesday evenings. They had the valuable experience of taking responsibility for their own performance which was a delight to watch for family and friends invited.

• New workshop SNOW RESPONSES - February 2009 - In conjunction with MED Theatre’s community play Snow , sponsored by the Met Office, about the extreme weather conditions of the winter of 1962/63, students will be led in a workshop exploring the themes of snow, past memories, and capturing moments in history through drama. The changing climate in our locality will be investigated, focusing on how people coped with weather conditions in the past and what we would do today.

2008: 

• Dartfest 2008 - The Dartmoor festival of young people's playwriting took place for a second year. The young company performed their previously written Shakespeare on Dartmoor alongside a brand new play The Deceased Truth.

• NEXT Steps - the 14th May. We very much enjoyed the final presentation by the community participants and students of the MA Applied Drama Course at Exeter University. The group formed in February this year, and has produced two original audio plays. Clips are on Gemini FM Radio's website, and are due to be played on Radio Devon.

• The Quest - Bovey Tracey Primary School Playwriting Programme for 2008.  The drama club at the school have successfully performed their own play, called The Quest.  The story explored family relationships, friendships, and learning to care for and help each other when two girls get lost on Dartmoor.

• The Last Polar Bear project - A special public event took place on Thursday 27th March, from 6.30pm, Coombeshead College Theatre, Newton Abbot. A series of curriculum-based and out-of school activities on climate change have taken place at Coombeshead College since January 2008.  MED helped co-ordinate the inputs, including film workshops for Year 8.  More about The Last Polar Bear.

• Castle Drogo Sock Puppet Workshops! - Members of our Wild Nights Young Company, with the support of visual artist Kat Thomas and Education Officer, Carly Mays, led sock puppet workshops in three schools. Pupils at Moretonhampstead Primary, Bovery Tracey Primary and Chagford Primary Schools all enjoyed these fun, creative workshops.

• The Miller's Tale.  A performance of our play about a Miller caught for adulterating flour in Victorian times, took place at Ashburton Primary School on Wednesday 27 February. Our team of community actors worked with the class of pupils to run the court case exploring the dilemma of Mr John Horn. 

• The Last Tree Puppet Workshop. On 16th February '08 Education Officer Carly Mays ran a family learning puppet-making workshop in Haldon Hills. At the Centre for Contemporary Art in the Natural World, families created puppets based on the story of The Last Tree, using materials found in the forest.

• Fairy Tale Workshop at Kenn C of E Primary School

We had a great start to the New Year at Kenn C of E Primary School on Monday 14th January 2008. We ran 3 workshops across the morning with years 2 to 6. It was a very creative morning of learning more about Cinderella and making up our own fairy tales!

• EDUCATION PROGRAMME 1 year old! One year has passed since our Education Launch, and to celebrate we held a Community Ceilidh in Moretonhampstead Parish Hall on Saturday 26th January - it was great fun! We have had a very busy year, and have really enjoyed getting to know lots of new schools, school pupils and other people through our projects. We look forward to continuing the development in 2008.

2007:

• The Mine

Moretonhampstead Primary School pupils successfully performed their play The Mine, in front of their school, friends and family on Friday 7th December. MED Theatre worked with Year 6 pupils for 8 weeks on this playwriting project.  The group wrote their own play, which explores the history of the tin-mining industry on Dartmoor through a story about medieval schoolchildren and some unexpected visitors from outer space!

• Dartmoor Myth-making workshop at Marlborough Primary School

We very much enjoyed working with Year 6 pupils at Marlborough Primary School, Plymouth on the 5th December.  The group learned about Dartmoor myths and created drama based on their own myth ideas.

• DARTFEST

Congratulations to Wild Nights Young Company on their first Dartfest Playwriting Festival held on the 23rd and 24th November.  We hope to expand the opportunities provided by this project in 2008.

• The Children's Castle

MED Education worked with our Wild Nights Young Company to produce a promenade performance at Castle Drogo. Performances took place on the 15th and 16th August. Check this link for more information; The Children's Castle.

• Coombeshead College Media, Summer Holiday Project. Radio Playwriting for 10-15 year olds. - Summer Holidays 2007

MED Theatre spent a week with a group of 12 young people, exploring the myths of Dartmoor, and visiting Wistman's Wood. The group were inspired to write their own radio play, which they then acted out and recorded as a radio play.

• The Walk To School - Friday 20 July 2007

Widecombe Primary School Year 6 pupils wrote, directed and acted in their own play. The production was based on the history of their school, in the context of the anniversary of the move of their school to it's current site. They played Victorian schoolchildren, caught up in the Jan Coo myth. They performed to parents, friends, teachers and fellow school pupils.

• Lost Roots - film project. June 2007.

MED Education and the Wild Nights Young Company worked in collaboration with Coombeshead College Media and two independent film-makers to make the First Light funded short film, Lost Roots. For more information, click to; Lost Roots

•  ACTION DRAMA - Festival of nine short plays: 

The Power Struggle, by Derek Keeping. 2007

MED Education worked with 11 undergraduate students at Exeter University on their “Applied Drama” module. The students ran a course with participants from the local area. MED Theatre supported the students in their role as mentors and workshop leaders. Each participant wrote, acted in and/or directed their own plays which were shown at a mini-festival, Exeter University, on Friday 11 May. The project was supported by the Aimhigher Peninsula Programme, through Community Action at Exeter University. MED Theatre is excited to learn that several of the participant's are now forming their own theatre company to develop new writing - we look forward to seeing their first production!

• The Snow People and The Glowing Rocks. 

  BOVEY TRACEY STUDENTS SAVE THE WORLD! Students at Bovey Tracey Primary School recently worked with MED Theatre to explore issues of Climate Change by writing and performing a play titled The Snow People and The Glowing Rocks. The writers explored global warming through a creative storyline of parrallel worlds.

   

Performed for the first time on Thursday 25th March, this was a great success for the team of playwrights. The 20 Bovey Tracey Primary School pupils wrote, directed and acted in their own play.  Visit the Photo Gallery for pictures from the performance.  Photo Gallery.

•  Cassiterides - The Romans on Dartmoor: The community company production completed a very successful run in March. Congratulations to all involved. Workshops exploring Cassiterides were held for MA Applied Drama students at Exeter University and GCSE Drama students at West Exe Technology College, Exeter. We really enjoyed exploring the play with these groups.

          2006:

•  The Evacuees on Dartmoor: Pupils of Moretonhampstead Primary School worked with MED Theatre to write their own play set in WW2. The pupils explored the stories of groups of children living in and evacuated to Dartmoor during the war. They performed this to their school, parents and friends on the 18 th December, 2006.

•  The Miller's Tale:  MED Theatre Education is seeking funding for the continuation of an exciting interactive performance piece for KS2 pupils. In the play, the young participants are invited to meet a Victorian Flour Miller. During the course of their tour of his flour mill, he is arrested and accused of tainting the flour...the pupils help decide his fate. A pilot study with three local primary schools was completed in November, 2006, and proved a great success for MED Theatre and the Museum of Dartmoor Life.