Preparing your class

Education Resources

Preparing Preparing your class for their theatre trip The aim of this resource is to provide advice and suggestions to support your visit to the theatre. A visit to the theatre has the potential to be a life-changing experience, as well as an opportunity for learning. Quality productions can provide an exceptional resource, linking the arts to so many other areas of knowledge: history, geography, language and citizenship for example.

In addition to this, learning through experiencing the performing arts nurtures a unique set of skills: an understanding of dramatic conventions, a specialised vocabulary and the ability to sit and watch a performance without distraction.

In-School Preparations Before your visit it is helpful for pupils to know something about the theatre and what they will be doing there. Unity has dedicated participation staff to support your visit to our venue and we can help with the logistics of your visit and provide useful information and resources. Look out for teachers packs and lesson plans that may accompany the production to help you with ideas for creative work in school to either prepare for or follow-up the performance.

There are no hard and fast rules for how to behave in a theatre. Watching live performance is a unique experience and the collaboration between the audience and the performers is what makes it work.

Class Discussion Discussion could include the following general points: • • • • •

What is a theatre?

What is the difference between watching a performance in a theatre and watching TV or a film at the cinema?

How do these differences influence the way we behave as an audience member?

What sort of theatre is it? (old, young, big, small) Does that affect the kind of shows you will see there and how they are put on?

There are many different aspects to the experience to enjoy: the plot, the staging, the acting, the stage and costume design, the lighting and sound.

Education Resources Think about whether to discuss the plot of the play you will be seeing with your class. Often there is so much to take in that children can find it harder to follow the storyline. On the other hand, surprise could be more stimulating. You obviously know the children in your class better than anyone and what would benefit them the most.

Following your visit Think back to your first experience of going to see a play or other performance at the theatre – It can often be a defining moment that stays with you for the rest of your life. Children often surprise with their insights and analysis after watching a piece of theatre. As well as thinking about the play, children should be encouraged to remember how much they enjoyed the performance.

Managing Children’s Responses It is important to avoid making discussions of the play feel like a test.

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It can help to personalise questions e.g. don’t ask what the play was about, ask what they think the play was about. By asking questions in this way there is no right or wrong answer.

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Ask open-ended, non-leading questions about how the play made them feel and what they thought the play was trying to communicate.

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Explain that it is fine for children to disagree with each other as they might have experienced the performance in a different way to others.

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If the production was successfully engaging, you may find the discussion veering off into interesting areas that you hadn’t planned for as the children make free associations with their own worlds or with other imagery with which they’re familiar. This can be very telling and sometimes funny.

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Be prepared to accept all interpretations and connections, however improbable, because these are usually genuine ways of responding to something which maybe outside children’s current experience.

By accepting the more unusual responses you encourage children to think about theatre in new ways, help them make theatre relevant to their own lives.

Other Ideas Pupils could express themselves using art forms such as drawing, painting or poetry and these can be used as stimulus for further class discussion. For instance, if they drew one of the characters from the play you could ask why they used those colours, why they chose that character, or how they think that character is feeling.

You can also ask children to act out different parts of the play. Often it’s better to not worry too much about the exact lines but just to recreate the feelings from the play or explore the key themes. It can be fun to ask children to improvise scenes from the play or even to improvise the characters in different settings or contexts.

Education Resources Extra resources Sometimes children might not have the language or context to respond to a play as fully as they would wish. We have provided a glossary of theatre terms and a synopsis of the play which may give some pupils a helping hand with this.

Take some time to look through the resources in your teachers pack – there are various activities including creative ideas for arts and drama projects. There will be additional materials online including comprehension, punctuation and grammar lesson plans. Visit http://thepiedpiperliverpool.co.uk/ Feedback from both teaching staff and pupils is very valuable to us in planning future projects and productions. We’d love to see copies of any art or written work done by pupils in response to the production. We have also provided copies of our evaluation forms and would be most grateful if you would return them to us: Pied Piper Feedback, Unity theatre, 1 Hope Place, Liverpool, L1 9BG. If you’d prefer to an e-copy to email back to us please let us know via louiseflooks@unitytheatre.co.uk