Nothing boosts a child’s desire to engage than an exciting session of interactive learning. MARY HOPLEY reports on what happens when Sky Blue Theatre Company rocks into school for a breathtaking Shakespeare workshop.
Facing a morning off from lessons, the excitement of the children was palpable as they filed into the hall for their Midsummer Night’s Dream workshop created and performed by members of Sky Blue Theatre Company led by director John Mitton.
Coming from a theatrical background, with both grandmother and mother having been on the stage, it seemed natural that John would forge a career in the theatre. Inspired by his mother’s enthusiasm for theatre workshops which she started in 2008 in Cambridge, he decided on graduating from East 15, to start up his own workshops. And so in 2011, Sky Blue Theatre Company was born. From the outset, Sky Blue was to be a group of young actors going into primary and secondary schools to foster a love of theatre among Key Stage 2 and 3 pupils and, in particular, to inspire in them the joys of Shakespeare’s plays.
The workshops tend to follow the same format with the pupils taking to the stage, given costumes and props and, being led through the play by the actors, they are encouraged to perform, improvise and generally entertain their audience of classmates. The actors then perform a key scene from one of Shakespeare’s plays and involve the audience in redirecting the scene and discussing the outcome.
It was clear that the children I observed were engaged from the moment they sat down. First they were asked about any Shakespeare plays they knew or had heard about, and each answer was followed up by John giving a short, but entertaining description of the play, especially the death scenes! When asked who wanted to take part in the play, a sea of hands shot up and the pupils chosen by the actors were obviously very keen.
Once into costume they all performed their parts as directed by the actors with great enthusiasm and were very entertaining in their improvisations. The play within the play characters were able to choose their own professions and I particularly liked Snout’s description of how he would cook a human heart, chopping it up, throwing it into a bowl, lighting a fire and then cooking it for two days on Gas mark 1!
At the end of the play, after the applause had died down, the three actors performed the Witches scene from Macbeth, screeching and howling in a fairly unintelligible way. They then asked the audience for suggestions as to how to make the scene more frighteningly believable and, following those directions redid the scene, leaping towards the children at the end with a great howl. All of us, including the staff members watching, were truly frightened!
Quotes from some of the children on their reactions to the day included “brilliant”, “very funny” and “I didn’t expect X to be able to perform like that”.
John and his fellow actors, Rob and James, exuded enormous energy throughout, never once letting the interest lapse and as a result, all of the 60 children were clearly enthused and engaged for the whole of the 90 minutes. This, I felt was a thoroughly entertaining and educational experience which may well have left a lasting impression on many of the children and a realisation that Shakespeare’s plays can indeed be worth learning about and even performing in, given the opportunity.
IMAGE: John Mitton in full costume!
