World War 1 Theatre and film workshops with the centenary of the First world war just around the corner MED Theatre’s education programme is offering and exciting array of new schools workshops
MED Theatre delivered a ‘Play in a Day’ workshop to years 4, 5 and 6 pupils at Princetown Primary School. Using an old school log book (dated 1935) as inspiration, the children devised a play about the history of the school, interweaving both time travel and the ghostly Dartmoor myth of ‘Jan Coo’. The children devised their play in less than a day, just in time to perform to the rest of the school before the end of the day!
‘Traitor in the Shadows’ – Film making at Teign Academy
As part of Teign Academy’s enrichment week MED Theatre were invited to carry out a 4 day film-making course where students from years 7, 8 and 9 worked together to make their own film. The students were responsible for the creation of the film from start to finish – day one was a creative brainstorming day where they pooled ideas for the plot line of the film, then days two to four were intensive film shoot days where they not only acted and directed, composed and recorded music, and became makeup artists, but they were the technical film crew too.
After being polished up at the MED Theatre editing suite the final product is an action packed, tongue-in-cheek film with a story that explores themes of bullying and drugs… with a few outtakes for good measure too! Watch this space for a link to view the finished product!
MED Theatre worked with the whole of Lydford Primary School over an intensive play creation week at the start of June 2013. The children interviewed older residents of the local community to discover any stories or happenings that have taken place in and around Lydford in the past. They were also introduced to a number of historical myths all based on Lydford. As a result the children were inspired to create a plot line, write a script and rehearse and direct a play, as well as create all of the set and props. The last day of the week culminated in a jam-packed outdoor performance of their play ‘Lydford’s Living Legends’ for an invited audience from the local community. Some might say it was a lucky performance because with the last words of the play a single rain drop fell, signalling a deluge once everyone was safe and dry inside!
‘The Village’ – Playwriting at Moreton Primary
MED Theatre worked with year sixes at Moretonhampstead Primary, delivering our long-standing course ‘Playwriting and Performance’. Throughout the course a professional playwright and actor mentored the pupils to come up with a plotline for a play, write it in teams, and then direct each other and act the play. ‘The Village’ was a creepy story about how a village turns against a girl who is believed to be a witch because of her strange background and connections to the mist…
