After a busy term of Youth Groups, craft activities and Ageing Creatively projects, half term soon crept upon the ever growing Learning and Participation department. It was time for us to dim the lights, sweep the stage and warm up our vocals as we took over the stage at the Corn Exchange for Play in a Day!
On a very (arguably) romantic day, on Tuesday 14th February, twelve budding young actors and directors took to the stage to create their own play, in… well… a day! Under the guidance of our Learning & Participation team, the group explored character, story lines and ensemble theatre to create their own versions of some popular fairy tales.
The morning was spent getting to know one another with team building games, before investigating the different fairy tale stories we knew. After much deliberation (but thankfully no tantrums!) the group chose to create mini performances of The Three Little Pigs, Hansel and Gretel, and Cinderella.
The theatrical dozen chose to create an ensemble piece of theatre, in which everyone had a speaking part and everyone could be on stage for the majority of the performance. This was a big challenge for our budding performers, so they used some physical theatre techniques they learnt earlier on in the workshop. They built the gingerbread house, the forest and even clocks just using their bodies, voices and facial expressions.
Tension grew at the Corn Exchange, as 4pm approached and anxious parents gathered in the foyer to see their loved ones making their debut on our stage.
Meanwhile the performers were busy perfecting and polishing their 20 minute fairy-tale masterpiece, until finally, SHOW TIME!
Met with a huge applause and smiling faces, the young actors were reunited with their proud parents and we can all unanimously agree that; the group performed with confidence and flair and we were so impressed with the standard of acting after only spending a day with each other. We look forward to hopefully seeing those theatrical characters again in future projects and groups. The Education team would have them all back in a heartbeat.