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Theatre
Tours, Workshops and Masterclasses
TCW directs a large number of professional actors and workshop leaders, who tour productions, educational theatre workshops and projects throughout the UK. Our work has taken place on theatre stages, in studio spaces, community centres and in primary, secondary and special needs schools.
Tour dates this year (2010)
The Complete Works is once again working in partnership with Italia Conti Academy of Performing Arts and will be going on tour to London schools with one of Shakespeare’s plays for two weeks during October 2010.
’Not My Problem’ will also be touring secondary schools in for 1 week in April and 1 week in June 2010 as well as during November’s anti-bullying week. We are currently in talks with Tower Hamlets Metropolitan Police which will hopefully enable us to offer this at a subsidised rate. If you are a School or Youth Organisation and you would like to book for this term’s Shakespeare or anti-bullying week tour please email FAO Simone at Theatre@tcw.org.uk.
Productions
In line with much of our work, productions are highly interactive and seek to involve audiences in all aspects of performance. Many performances can be adapted for specific group requirements and provide differentiated learning for all ages and abilities. Issues focused on have included: prejudice, bullying, drugs, violence, health and personal and social education. Also, a number of shows have been devised to fulfil key elements in learning, linking to the literacy and numeracy strategies in the National Curriculum. Examples of productions include Captain Zero and The Puppet Project.
- Captain Zero combines key areas from the Numeracy Strategy. Mathematical concepts of numbers, calculations, tessellation, time, shape and space are explored, as the audience assists Captain Zero to re-load his computer with the necessary knowledge and information to calculate his way back through space, to his home planet. Operating the project as a days residency, the company works with a group in the morning and directs them to take the role of Captain Zero’s crew, who then present the show to an invited audience in the afternoon.
- The Puppet Project focuses on storytelling and literacy. It gives participants the opportunity to work with up to 80 marionette puppets, known as Pelham Puppets (collectable items from the 50’s and 60’s). Storytellers and Puppeteers enable groups to explore stories and characters, through the enjoyment of manipulating the puppets themselves and creating their own dramatic material to perform in front of their chosen audience.
Community Theatre and TIE
We work in association with The Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts and run the Theatre in Education module for the third year of their Performing Arts course. This has resulted in a series of highly successful school tours of Shakespeare’s plays, performed by a large and talented cast. Past productions have included: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, As You Like It, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. These fast moving and accessible productions are abridged to one and a quarter hours and are followed by short question and answer sessions.
Workshops
Theatre practitioners employ drama techniques, dance, movement, puppetry and mask work, to explore a range of themes, in accordance with the needs of each group they work with.
Workshops include Change and Breaking the Circle:
- Change gives participants the opportunity to work with a range of wooden Balinese masks, to explore issues and ideas on a given topic. Throughout the project themes are discussed and developed, and images are created and performed as continuous motion.
- Breaking the Circle examines the themes of bullying, friendship and relationships, through a series of challenging, thought-provoking scenarios. Participants work with role play and debating techniques, to find solutions to break the vicious circle of fear which bullying inevitably creates.
We are always eager to devise new creative workshops to meet specific needs.
Masterclasses
The Shakespeare Masterclass workshops lead students through an educational journey of their chosen play, drawing out the many and varied themes of the text. Professional actors perform excerpts from the text, while audience members are encouraged to redirect scenes according to their own interpretations and question the characters as they are put in the hot-seat.
Youth Theatre
We provide specialist theatre training, as after school activities for groups of young people, from 8 years of age to 16 plus. We have already successfully run youth theatre groups in North London, in association with The Incognito Theatre Company and The Phoenix Theatre (attached to The King Alfred School) and we would welcome the opportunity to extend this work with other organisations. Youth Theatre productions are regularly staged, where spontaneous and prepared improvisation presentations are shown alongside scripted material.
Theatre Training
Professional directors are available to offer instruction in acting, audition techniques, improvisation, writing and devising, for people of all ages and abilities.
Associated Projects
Participants may also have the opportunity to become involved in other activities, commissioned by organisations who work in partnership with us. For further details, please see the Film, Music, Education and Consultation areas of work undertaken by the company.