Creative projects
Argon the Alien
Artists from Jestaminute Theatre worked with children from Prince Albert, William Cowper and St Georges schools to explore what it would be like to have an alien from another planet visit the area in which they live and what they would show them and what they think a stranger might think of the area in which they live. The children devised a final piece of drama which they performed on stage at The Drum at the final showcase event.
Three School Regeneration
With each school we used ‘Image Theatre’ (a drama technique that allows people to express their views visually), to get the children to create images of where they lived; we then got them to write a list of the bad things, the good things and what they would want to change. Following this they split into small groups and each created a commercial to ‘sell’ their area.
First stop William Cowper School – Newtown ( Year 5)
They created powerful images, many of which were negative –tackling violence/ gangs/ bullying/ litter/ graffiti, which provoked lively discussion. Allowing for some of the boys just ‘showing off’, it was clear that violence was an issue firmly in everyone’s mind. In contrast to the previous negative images, their commercials largely showed positive impressions with a very clear messages saying -‘this (graffiti/litter/violence) should stop’. We introduced the idea of a stranger (Argon the Alien), who wanted to find out about Earth and the discussions and adverts informed the creation of a final performance piece taking Argon on a journey through where they lived; with Argon acting as the catalyst to show that change was possible.
http://www.vimeo.com/4195865
You can download the following PDF documents produced by Jestaminute to find out more about -
- ‘our journey’
- the views of the children about the good the bad and what they’d change
- comments made by staff and the children
Second stop St Georges – Newtown ( Year 5)
Again they came up with some powerful images which the group discussed in depth. One commercial really stood out - three boys seemed obsessed by the recent shooting of a young man. I felt they needed to act this out to get it out of their heads. Everyone was taken aback by their work; rather than show this in a macho way the boys showed great sensitivity and concentrated on the terrible effect this had had on the doctors and the family of the boy who had been shot, reflecting their shock and disgust at what had happened. The fact that they concentrated on the consequences of violence rather than glorifying it, was a very moving moment for the audience. Working with these children it became obvious, that using the Argon the Alien model probably wouldn’t work; however the use of the commercials led to the idea of using the medium of a news broadcast to share their ideas.
http://www.vimeo.com/5199762
You can download the following PDF documents produced by Jestaminute to find out more about -
- ‘our journey’
- the views of the children about the good the bad and what they’d change
- comments made by staff and the children
- the news programme running order
- what Andy said
Last stop Prince Albert school – Aston ( Year 3)
Here it was clear that a visit from our friendly alien Argon would fit with this age group very well. This group’s images showed it a much more positive view of their area than the pupils from the other two schools had had. This maybe because they are younger and have not been as exposed to some of the negative issues such as violence as their older counterparts. However, it soon became apparent that the school itself played an important part in these pupils lives both in and out of school time. Indeed, the school appeared to be viewed as an important place by the wider community. Here they largely wanted to show Argon the places that they enjoyed and were important to them, including their school and homes, the swimming pool, the park, Aston library and Aston Hall.
http://www.vimeo.com/4196253
You can download the following PDF documents produced by Jestaminute to find out more about -
- ‘our journey’ a description as if written by the children about what they did
- a list of the things they showed Argon
- the views of the children about the good the bad and what they’d change
- some comments made by the children
Photo Gallery
I really liked working with Andy, Lizzie, Joe and Laura it was interesting and fun. The thing I most liked about it was the games and singing. Thanks for working with us.