A Midsummer Night's Dream
This was Star Workshops' biggest challenge yet, as it was the first time we had re-introduced Shakespeare to our workshops. With a well known story line and magical characters we felt this would be a perfect first play to introduce to the children and in some cases, refresh their memories of the play.
The play was cut down by a member of Union Theatre, in order for the performance to last approximately 20-30 minutes, featuring the essential scenes and allowing the children to learn the significance of the play. Throughout the weeks it was essential to not only focus on running through the play itself, but to also look at other elements that go into putting on a successful production and using different techniques to help the children understand more clearly the story of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
In one of our first workshops we decided to do a storyboarding session with the children, which allowed them to read extracts from A Midsummer Night's Dream and then draw their interpretation of the text onto paper, building up a storyboard of events within the play and allowing them a greater understanding. Another really exciting element of our workshops was a composition written by Rosemary Worsley, a member of Union Theatre who is also a professional singing and piano teacher. Using text from the play, Rosemary adapted this into a composition for the children to learn and it was performed at the presentation morning.
Other areas that were covered during the workshops was marketing, including the design of posters and programmes, set design, prop design, make up and costume.
The play was cut down by a member of Union Theatre, in order for the performance to last approximately 20-30 minutes, featuring the essential scenes and allowing the children to learn the significance of the play. Throughout the weeks it was essential to not only focus on running through the play itself, but to also look at other elements that go into putting on a successful production and using different techniques to help the children understand more clearly the story of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
In one of our first workshops we decided to do a storyboarding session with the children, which allowed them to read extracts from A Midsummer Night's Dream and then draw their interpretation of the text onto paper, building up a storyboard of events within the play and allowing them a greater understanding. Another really exciting element of our workshops was a composition written by Rosemary Worsley, a member of Union Theatre who is also a professional singing and piano teacher. Using text from the play, Rosemary adapted this into a composition for the children to learn and it was performed at the presentation morning.
Other areas that were covered during the workshops was marketing, including the design of posters and programmes, set design, prop design, make up and costume.
