Friday, May 18, 2012
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Welcome to the Drama Resource Newsletter

April 2012 - Issue 78

Dear friends of Drama Resource,

Welcome to the April Newsletter and your monthly helping of news, tips and reviews.

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This month we have news of workshops at the V&A museum, a review of a new book on teaching Romeo and Juliet and a Teaching Tip on moving from still images into improvisation, with of course our complementary Drama Game of the Week. Thanks to everyone who entered our competitions last month - Lucia Bini from Tasmania won the Early Shakespeare CD-ROM and Mel Goodwin from Barnet in the UK won Drama Games for Devising by Jessica Swale.

School Workshops at the V&A
Discover free activities and special workshops for Secondary School students studying drama, music or design. From free sessions with a beat-boxing sound artist, to in-depth stage and costume design workshops looking at set models including those for War Horse. For more information email bookings.office@vam.ac.uk.

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Other News
We are taking bookings for our autumn one-day courses - two announced so far: Drama Across the Curriculum on 26th September and Literacy Through Storytelling on 21st November. In the meantime I will be popping over to Oporto in Portugal in mid-April to run a training day for the British School and will be back to help run the Olympic Drama days up and down the UK. Have a wonderful April, everyone.

Kind regards,

David Farmer,
Director.

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Game of the Week

  • Pass The Buck Pass The Buck
    Game of the Week is taken from 101 Drama Games and Activities.

    A good way of developing alertness and group awareness.  Everybody walks around the room.  One person holds an easy to handle object, which is to be passed between the group members.  The object may only be passed when you have eye contact with another person.  The person passing the object counts out loud – each time the object is passed, the count increases from 1 to 20.  If it is done well, people in the group will become very aware of one another.  Once you reach that stage, a second object can be introduced.  The count increases each time either of the objects is passed on.  If two people count at the same time or an object is dropped, start again. 

    You can use any object, as long as it is not breakable.  Try a water bottle, a book or a broomstick. Try throwing a ball instead of passing an object – although it is doubly important that eye contact is made before throwing, so that the ball is not dropped.

     

    Come back for a new Game next week!

New Reviews

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Romeo and Juliet - Globe Education Shakespeare

The latest addition to the series of new editions for 11-16 year olds tackles Romeo and Juliet. The book is packed with high-quality colour photographs of productions at the Globe alongside engaging interviews with actors, practical exercises and considerable background information. These run alongside the full text of the play with a glossary placed handily on every page.

Read more...

Olympic Drama Day

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We still have some dates available for a visit to your school during the summer term with Olympic Drama - a day of five unique drama workshops for primary schools for Key Stage 1 and 2. These sessions allow each class in the school to work on the Olympic theme, including such topics as creating a ceremony, the story of Jesse Owens, making an Olympic bid and travelling back in time to visit the first Olympics.

Now available to most primary schools across the UK.

Why not book a visit?

Secondary School Workshops at the V&A

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Free Opportunity for Drama/Music Students
Friday 4 May, 10.30–15.00
Work with sound artist Jason Singh to explore beat-boxing. See how the voice can be used to recreate drums, bass lines, vocal textures and more.

Special Set Design Workshops
Various dates, 10.30–16.30
Celebrate the V&A display Transformation to Revelation and take part in a day-long set and costume design workshop. Gain an in-depth experience of the design process and explore highlights including set models for Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball tour and sketches for War Horse.
Workshop costs £250 per group

For more information email bookings.office@vam.ac.uk or call 020 7942 2211

www.vam.ac.uk/schools

Teaching Tip

And ACTION!

clapperboardWorking with freeze-frames and still images is a very accessible drama strategy, suitable for those new to drama as well as old hands. It is only a small step to move from these still images into improvisation - just follow these simple steps.

1  Start with a still image created by a group.

2  Use thought tracking to find out what each of the characters are thinking and feeling.

3  Explain that you would like the group to bring the scene alive for a few moments with speech and movement. Initiate this by saying “Action!” or clapping your hands to start the scene.

4  Let the improvisation run for a short time – ideally before the performers run out of steam – and then end it with another signal such as “Cut!”, “Freeze!” or by clapping your hands a second time. The improvisation does not need to last longer than a minute.

Learning-Through-Drama-shad1The group will enjoy being able to tell the story without worrying about how to start or finish the scene and the teacher can easily control how much is shown. After a few sessions of working in this way students will become more confident about devising and presenting short scenes.

Hundreds more ideas and tips for teaching drama can be found in Learning Through Drama in the Primary Years by David Farmer.