All the World’s a stage… even the classroom

I attended the annual Drama Network conference on Friday which was held at the Citizen’s Theatre in Glasgow.

I had a fantastic time meeting up with old friends and taking part in two exciting workshops that will definately be able to help me with our courses at Knox Academy.

The first workshop I attended was by the National Theatre of Scotland and looking at Boal’s techniques to explore the relationship between drama and movement and enable a partnership in performance. This really brought back some memories of Drama School and I love these workshops as it always recaps games and excercises that you have forgot.

The second workshop was ran by American practitioner Khanisha Foster who has taken an acting technique called ‘Viewpoints‘ and how we can explore the text by deeper understanding through gesture, play and meaning.

I really enjoy these workshops and already looking forward to next year.

If you are interested in attending please contact Learn and Teach Scotland.

I have been at Knox Academy now for two years and I have to say, i’m loving every minute of it. In the past two years I have been encouraged to experience new things and given space, by my line Manager Lynn Black and Head Teacher Janis Craig, to build and develop the department.

In my first year I was given time to create courses, develop resources and build up the department. I taught S1, S2 and Core S6.

This Year I continued to teach S1, S2 but welcomed two S3 Standard Grade classes into the department, as well as 22 pupils sitting crash Higher Drama. I was delighted when E Garwood said she’d help in the department by taking some Junior classes and we also had our first teaching student in the department.

We are now moving to the new timetable and our numbers are up again; as well as seeing my two great S3 SG classes moving into S4, we will welcome 3 new S3 SG classes (which is brilliant), 22 pupils taking crash Higher Drama and now we see the challange of offering two new courses at Knox; Intermediate Two Drama and Advanced Higher Drama. I amalso extremely excited to be told we are getting an NQT in the department for next session.

I am so happy the pupils at Knox are enjoying being in the Drama department and enjoy are courses, it means a lot to see the work I enjoy being rewarded in new courses being offered, more pupils opting in and the school allowing the dept to grow.

I couldn’t have done this without saying thank you to Ellie Garwood this year, who’s been an amazing support in the department by teaching S1 and S2. Also to my line Manager Lynn Black who supports our work within the school and also to Janis Craig, our Head Teacher, who alwyas encourages our work. Thank you.

Last week seen the annual Knox Academy Activities Week and I ran this years trip to London. We took 20 S2/S3 pupils down to the Capital for 4 days.

Day One seen us leave school on a coach and head down, we arrived in London at about 3pm, unpacked and went to Lecister Square for dinner before going to see West End and Broadway Hit ‘Hairspray’. What an amazing, feel good show. The pupils loved it and loved meeting the cast afterwards too! Leanne Jones (the actress who plays Tracey) said how sweet and polite our pupils were.

Day Two we were up early to head to London Dungeons, pupils were given the chance to see a different kind of theatrical experience at the hands of this tourist attraction. After lunch in Tower Bridge we headed to BBC studios to take a tour of the famous building and find out how news, weather and programmes are made. Following dinner at Victoria we went to see my favourite West End show just now…. Wicked! After a standing ovation we headed back to our beds.

Day Three: Up early again and we headed for some culture as we were taken on a tour of Houses of Parliment and listened to the history of the building, I always find this fascinating (if not a little focused on England). Following a little look around the sites of London we headed to Covent Gardens for shopping and lunch, where very randomly I banged into one of ex pupils who is studying music in the city. Our evening meal was at TGI Fridays and we then filmed a short documentary about our time in London (after all this was the Lonodn Theatre and Film experience).  We then went to see long time running play ‘The Woman in Black’, to which our pupils were a credit to the school. They sat in complete silence as the ghost story was told in front of them, the audience members around us stated how polite they were… but I think they were quiet as they were scared out their wits!

Day four: We left early and headed to Alton Towers where it was raining but that didn’t stop them having fun, after an exciting and tiring 4 days we arrived back in Haddington at 10.30pm!

I would like to thank The Cast of Hairspray who were lovely to our pupils, The staff at the London Dungeons were fantastic, The pupils who were a pleasure to be with, Miss Good for helping on the trip and to Mrs Craig at Knox for always encouraging her staff to run trips.

Well my pupils have sat their Higher Drama Exam and I would have to say I thought the paper was quite fair. Section A questions seem to the usual variety of asking pupils to think of themselves as either an actor or director and some good questions in relation to key scenes or characters. Section B slightly surprised me by using a random episode right at the end of the play and Section C (Scottish) had a good variety of questions in Gender and Politics, if I were them I would have chosen to write the essay discussing the relationship between women in Scottish Theatre.

Although I didn’t have pupils sitting the SG exam this year I have heard that a lot of teachers weren’t happy with the paper so will be interesting to see what they are talking about when the paper comes out.

So we’ll have to wait and see till August how well the pupils have done…. but i’m sure they’ve ‘done me proud so they have’.

In case you hadn’t yet heard.  Augusto Boal has passed away.
These are sad days, but joyous too in remembering all he achieved and the enormous amount he taught us.

Augusto Boal 1931-2009

Augusto Boal was a giant in so many ways: theatre director, scholar, teacher; pedagogy colleague of Paulo Freire; political representative and statesman in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil; international speaker and teacher; Nobel Peace Prize nominee; and the visionary who conceived and patiently developed one of the most revolutionary cultural and artistic practices of the last millennia, the Theatre of the Oppressed.

The Theatre of the Oppressed has been a genre of theatre that has helped and engaged so many people and groups across the world in looking at the issues that affect them and the world in which they live in.

During my time at QMUC we studied Boal in great depth and what was amazing about his work was that he thought about the people and did it to help them; his work was thought provoking yet fun, engaging and insightful.

This is a real loss to theatre and I’m just happy that his work will continue throughout schools, community groups, theatre’s, towns and countries across the world.

For more information about Boal and his work click here.

I was interviewed by the Edinburgh Evening News for my work as a Teacher of Drama and Theatre Director. For those who missed it (it was published yesterday - Friday) then here it is…

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/features/Ten-Questions-Theatre-director-John.5179937.jp

So for the first week of my Easter Holidays I was in production for my theatre company (random ACT) latest production of ‘The Laramie Project’ which is a verbatim theatre piece based on the murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming, in 1998.

Matthew was murdered because he was gay and was left beaten and tied to a fence till he was found. This is a very emotional play and I am so glad we got the message across that Gay Hate actually exists. Only last year a young man in Liverpool was murdered because of his sexuality.

The play shows people true emotions in a a small community about difference. As an openly gay man I have faced homophobia when I lived in Dumfries and Galloway and it was during my time there that I came across this play and realised how relevant it was to 21st centuary Scotland.

One Email we received said

‘Thanks to you and all the cast for such a great evening tonight. Fantastic - powerful - moving. I was close to tears so many times, but Lisa’s singing of Amazing Grace was what pushed me over the edge. The performance has given me pause for thought on all kinds of things, from hate crimes to the death penalty, from the power of religion for good to the power of religion for bad, from forgiveness to retribution - and back.Brilliant stuff. Thank you.’

There is currently the ‘Some People are Gay, get over it’ campaign but I actually strongly believe that we need to address homophobia on a much bigger scale in schools. I was also proud to see many of my students along to support the play (and also something a bit different from your musical, or period drama).

If you came, thank you for supporting us. The work I do at random ACT has a huge effect on the work I do in the classroom too. It was very rewarding to both the cast and crew to see the audience leave the theatre visually upset and moved by the story and the production.

Well this week I had the pleasure of presenting 18 pupils to the SQA for their Higher Drama Acting Exam. This is an external exam which is now worth 50% of their overall grade.

We have had a tough time at Knox as all the pupils sitting the Higher are doing what we call a ‘crash higher’ in the subject; which means they are sitting the subject with no previous school experience, that is not to say that they have not risen to the challenge.

The year has been building up to this moment where all 18 pupils got the chance to showcase their talent in front of an audience of keen Standard Graders and the SQA marker. (I don’t know who was more nervous, me or them?!) We had performed to parents on the Monday Evening as an Open Dress rehearsal and I think they were surprised at just how professional these young people actually were!

The Exam asks the pupils to perform two roles; one from a Classic Text and a contrasting role from a Scottish Contemporary Theatre text. Our pupils performed Classic scenes from

• Antigone
• The Importance of Being Ernest
• Lovers
• A Taste of Honey
• The Crucible
• The House of Bernarda Alba

Although our set text is Antigone I wanted the examier to see a variety of scenes but also I didn’t want pupils to feel they were beking compared if they repeated scenes from the same play.

The second roles were from the following Scottish Texts

• Men Should Weep
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
• The Architect
• Sleeping Around
• Borders of Paradise
• Perfect Days

It was a long day, both mentally and physically exhausting however I am so proud of all of them, they really shone and hopefully will do well oncethe results come out in August.

The Higher Drama is a hard course, I bet we all say that, but honestly the course asks pupils to be Writers, Directors, Actors, Dramaturgs, Researchers and Academics. I suppose the SQA did not want to see the course being seen as some see it as a ‘Mickey Mouse’ subject, I for one know that we are not and indeed, having just studied the play, i’m sure Miss Brodie would have had a word or two to say about it!

                                                                                                                                                                        So we have now been back almost a month and I have to say The Knox Academy NYC Drama Trip was amazing!

With 42 pupils and 7 staff we boarded our Virgin Atlantic Flight to JFK and spent 6 days in the city that never does sleep!

Highlights of the trip included our guided sightseeing tour of NYC, Empire State Building on a clear and crisp night, a Q&A session with Broadway performer Mary Illes, Mamma Mia and In The Heights, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Personal favourite was our time spent with Mary Illes, who’s appeared in many Broadway shows including Cats and The Scarlet Pimpernel. She gave us a private concert before answering questions from both staff and pupils about the life of a performer. She also mentioned the same advice I gave my Highers at the start of the year… so hopefully now they will take it on board!

During spare time I went to the Top of the Rock and have to admit that this was a far better view that from the Empire State Building.

The Pupils of the trip were not only fantastic ambassadors for Knox Academy but also for Scotland. They were a pleasure to spend time with.

We arrived back tired and exhausted but most of all buzzing from such an exciting and memorable trip!

Many thanks to our Head Teacher (Janis) for her continual support in the Drama Department, To Kirsty at EF Tours for a wonderful trip and Bob our Tour Guide.

Next NYC trip????!!!! Watch this space!

On Friday I had a S5 pupil looking at universities and Drama Schools for when she leaves school next year, she asked me my opinion on the Drama and Performance course at Queen Margaret’s as she thought, as an Ex Graduate I would know. I didn’t! I have to say last time I questioned QM about the new course I received a very rude answer and the phone call was ended abruptly, however we move on!

So I looked at the course and now I’ve been thinking about the proposed new course that is to replace the Acting, Theatre Production and DTA course.

In the past four years I have had several former pupils who have been lucky to attend courses at University or NCDT Drama schools, one currently at QM doing the Drama and Theatre Arts course.

This proposed new course - does it currently meet the needs of those leaving school and looking for a career in the industry upon graduation?

In the past year and a half a large amount of qualified staff have resigned including the head of costume, head of community theatre, head of DTA and the author of a leading stage management book. These professionals are what made the course at Queen Margaret great. I’m sure the current members of staff are also excellent but questions should be raised why there has been such a high staff turn over and the impact this is having on teaching and learning?

As far as I could tell from the course outline and information available the person in charge of the new course isn’t actually experienced in the related fields of Drama and Performance. Again what impact is this going to have on the learning outcomes and overall course content?

I am raising these questions as a concerned teacher and ex graduated.

As acting subject coordinator for Drama in East Lothian we have not been consulted as a region as to the needs of our pupils, the continuity of Drama from Standard Grade through to Higher Still and then onto degree level. I am also aware that The University of Edinburgh, School of Education hasn’t been consulted over the new course and it’s impact it’s going to have on teacher training in Scotland.

The Higher Still courses asks pupil to specialise in various areas of Drama and I’m concerned of the lack of training in Scotland for pupils to continue with their specialised interest.

Moray House turn out a large majority of Scotland’s Secondary school teachers of Drama and the graduates from the Drama and Theatre Arts course excel in the post graduate course because of the content and learning experience we had during our training. Those who took Community Theatre were ideal candidates for the teaching course.

Having been a teacher now for a number of years and set up Drama departments in two separate schools the DTA course was ideal for those wanting to be a teacher, as well as other carers.I have used my knowlededge to create engaging courses that would enable young people the chance to go onto higher/further education and be equipped with the skills need to excel.

According to students currently at QM the new course will not have the in-depth sepcialism time that we had (going from 120 credits to 60 - I think, can someone from QM clarify this?) What impact is this going to have on the industry?

Another major concern I have is that the Head of School isn’t actually a Drama professional but media and from what I can see a new course being offered in Stage and Screen between the School of Drama and School of Media is going to pave way for a super faculty of Drama and Media, merging the two schools. So in theory we would have lost the school of Drama all together.

I am passionate, as we all our, about our subjects and my concern is what I see as a ‘dumbing down’ of three fantastic courses. I had an amazing time at the university, taught by some outstanding people.

As a teacher and as a professional I am deeply concerned about what is happening at Queen Margaret, as I’m sure a lot of others are too. What do people think? Am I wrong in questioning? Do our young people deserve better opportunities?

I suppose I am raising these questions as a concerned teacher, educator, professional and ex graduate! I know I am not the only teacher in Scotland to feel like this. I have asked QM to meet the teachers of Drama in East Lothian to discuss with us the new course.

I’m opening it up for debate!