Case Study
By Paul Daintry, Head of Drama, Walthamstow Academy
Our students come from areas of great social and economic disadvantage. Most have not been to the theatre before and their families would find it very hard to justify the expense of a full-price theatre ticket. In the past we provided few trips, and then to smaller-scale, local productions.
The London Theatre Challenge has opened up a new world to our students, and begun to open their eyes to the possibilities that theatre has to offer. These include the simple cultural value of going to see shows, and I'm delighted by how valuable and vital an experience our students have found it to be. The sheer joy they have experienced is immensely gratifying. "Life-changing" would not be an overstatement.
I have noticed considerable impact on my students' work. They have absorbed ideas, expertise, techniques and skills. A case in point was our trip to The Odyssey at the Lyric Hammersmith. My students didn't know what had hit them. However, back in school it was clear that the experience had got through. Suddenly their work was much more imaginative. One group showed a toy being sucked up into a vacuum cleaner by having a student pick up the toy, lift it through the air and disappear it into their hand, with complete attention to detail. I am convinced that the group would never have come up with such a dramatic device without having seen the show. And as time goes by, they are more able to articulate their experience.
So the trips have been more important to us than simply being subsidised theatre, due to the skill with which MTP chooses plays, as well as the Q & A and Insight Sessions. I took my Year 10 students to the Blue Man Group Insight and they've never shut up about it. The students loved the hands-on elements and the acting workshop and the session deepened their experience of the show, which was acclaimed as the best they'd seen.
We were also lucky enough to be allocated tickets to Billy Elliot the Musical, which I used to reward students who had given continued commitment to drama in school. Our group had the experience of a lifetime, and weren't exaggerating I'm sure when they replied on their post-show questionnaires that they now liked theatre more than film.
I can't thank MTP enough for these opportunities. They've given us access that we would not otherwise have had, to work at a higher level than we would have been able to reach. They've enabled my students to transform and develop their work, and the results are visible in the classroom daily. Finally, they've supported me as a professional, enhancing my delivery strategies and providing more effective resources for my students.