A group of second year BTEC Performing Arts students have just returned from touring with their devised workshop and performance at two local schools, Hawley Place and Calthorpe Park School. The project sought to explore the role of Theatre in Education and how entertainment can be balanced with an educational, thought provoking experience, for Year 9 students. 

Using the Internet as their inspiration, the production and workshop were themed around questions which the group felt were currently prominent in young people’s minds and lives today.

Questions which were examined included: 

• How does our ‘real’ identity interact with the identity we form and present online?
• Has the internet made it harder or easier to be a young person today?
• Has the internet made it harder or easier to make connections with people? Are our internet relationships as genuine as those formed in real life?
• Has the internet, particularly with the rise in popularity of selfies and Instagram, made us more vain or shallow? And have we forgotten about the people around us?
• How can we stay safe online?

Our students were delegated specific roles within the Company, which they named 'T.I.E the Gap' (Theatre-in-Education, bridging the gap between entertainment and education), these included General Manager, Lighting Technician, Scriptwriter and Director, giving them complete control from the initial stages to the final performance.

They also developed leadership skills to prepare for their interactive workshop and focused on developing specialist drama vocabulary, teaching key theatrical devices, which the participants could use in their own drama work at school. 

Emily Southwell and Emily Tobias, who tutor the group, said 'It was a real pleasure to showcase our students' work out in the community, which was received with such appreciation and intrigue and seemed to have left a lasting impression on the budding Drama GCSE students who they worked with.

We would also like to praise the group for their continued professionalism and all the extra hours of rehearsals they had put in, to make the project a complete success'

Amy Lewis, a second year BTEC Performing Arts student, who took part, commented “My experience of touring the schools was an extremely positive one. I got to explore different performing styles that I hadn’t had the opportunity to look into before and enjoyed creating performance content, with the rest of the Company, that I am proud of.  

The experience also allowed me to explore the different aspects of a performance, sourcing and creating music to contribute to the production of the piece in my role as Music Editor. Overall, I found this unit to be very enjoyable and look forward to creating more of this type of work in the future.” 

Stephanie Gaddum, who is also in the Company, added “I have really enjoyed the experience it's taught me so many different aspects of theatre, such as scriptwriting, directing and performing, within a professional environment. Being able to lead a workshop was a fantastic experience and helped to build my confidence. It's been amazing to perform at a variety of venues.  Some of the scenes I have written with other company members, have been included and we have been able to utilize everyone's different talents throughout the piece, allowing us the freedom to experiment with a whole range of theatre styles.”