Bespoke Projects
As part of our ongoing commitment to bringing theatre to young people, we have undertaken various bespoke projects in schools across London. Our bespoke projects aim to bring out the best in your students through theatre. Whether it’s writing a play, polishing their performance skills or introducing them to theatre. Bespoke projects are at the request of the school. For more information please email youngcourt@royalcourttheatre.com
Previous bespoke projects include a five day residency in Mulberry Primary School. Three classes of Year Two students devised and performed their own short plays. This project developed imagination within the students, whilst allowing them to expand their creative skills. At Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, the students worked with industry professionals to learn about different careers within theatre, and at Camelot Primary School, the entire school took part in workshops before watching a piece performed by years 5 & 6. Last summer, we partnered with The Wellside Centre in Tottenham to put on a series of workshops for kids aged 7-13 exploring why they love Tottenham and what it means to them.
Pimlico Academy Partnership
Young Court and Beyond the Court have partnered with Pimlico Academy to support the delivery of their Drama BTEC for their Year 10 class, for the last two years. Using devising the students have used theatre as a medium to discuss topics of interest to them. The students used various art forms, including music, monologues and dance which contributed to their final mark. Previous performances include: If You Don’t Stand For Something You’ll Fall For Anything. A performance interrogating identity, sexism, prejudice and political apathy. And Follow Me – an exploration of the internet generation and the effects of being a generation where the internet has always existed.
Montbelle
Over the course of a week, 56, Year 6 students worked with playwright Robert Alan Evans, the Young Court team and sound designer Xana to write and create their own piece. This project is part of our ongoing collaboration with Eltham Hill School where we are working to nurture a new generation of female playwrights. At Montbelle, students were given opportunities to see through different lenses, the journey of a play from inception to performance. They worked with a playwright, producer, director and sound designer and brought together all these skills to showcase their work to the rest of the school.
‘I enjoyed practising the Script and reading it out loud and sharing all our ideas to put together a play to show our school. Thank you for all your time and effort you put into it.’ Pupil from Montbelle
‘It was accessible to all students and it gave them a hands – on approach to trying a completely fresh style of learning.’ Pupil from Montbelle
Eltham Hill Girls School
The Shine Project is a collaboration between Eltham Hill School and the Royal Court’s Young Court department. Between April – July 2018 we worked with a group of 20 girls from low socio-economic backgrounds, for many of whom English is an additional language, some had additional behavioural challenges and/ or low literacy levels. The group worked for 10 weeks learning about writing and theatre with writers; Somalia Seaton, Zella Compton, Matilda Ibini and Emma Dennis-Edwards. They worked under the guidance of each of these writers’ learning about; the individual style of each, how they generate ideas, and how they start writing. Each student wrote a monologue, 12 of which were made into a short film, to mirror the work of Snatches; Moments from 100 years of women’s lives, curated by Royal Court Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone.
Since the starting the project there has been a marked improvement in the behaviour of specific students and generally and a more positive attitude demonstrated in English and Drama lessons. 94% of the group have been assessed and are exceeding targets for progress in both English and Drama.
Ickburgh SEN School
We previously worked with Ickburgh for our Primetime tour, and wanted to continue a relationship to explore storytelling with their students.
Over the course of 5 weeks, we created a performance piece around World War two, their focus curriculum area. We made soundscapes, created characters, chose costume and each of the students was able to contribute to the writing of the piece. We provided them with an opportunity to work alongside local theatre Hackney Empire; the students were there for the day and they performed their piece as well as sharing their work with parents and peers at their school.