Getting InvolvedLearning & Participation at Birmingham Repertory Theatre

Welcome

Published by Birmingham Repertory Theatre

Centenary Square, Broad Street,

Birmingham B1 2EP

Box Office 0121 236 4455

www.birmingham-rep.co.uk

Registered in England 295910

Charity No. 223660

Birmingham Repertory Theatre is one of the UK’s leading theatresproducing exciting work for audiences across the region.

But we don’t just create theatre – our stages, staffand productions provide endless opportunities toopen doors and minds. Learning and participationis central to The REP, our innovative work withschools and communities driven by ourcommitment to lifelong learning is bringing actorsand audiences together, transforming lives andencouraging us all to learn about theatre andthrough theatre. Come and join us and GetInvolved!

2

Rachel Kavanaugh

Artistic Director

Steve Ball

Associate Producer(Learning & Participation

Contents:Early Years.................................................3

Behind the Scenes ....................................4

The Young REP ..........................................5

The REP for Writers ...............................6-7

Training......................................................8

Working with Schools .........................9-10

Working with the Community.................11

In October 2004, The REP launched its REP’sChildren project, through which the family of everybaby born at City and Sandwell Hospitals in thatmonth could sign up for a free theatre experienceevery year for ten years. Since then Early Years hasbecome a key part of our learning and participationactivity and produced some of our most excitingand original work. Our partnership withBirmingham’s Family Learning Service has createdopportunities to develop new relationships withsettings across the city, in which our Early YearsWorker supports family learning through drama andstory-making with 2 – 5 year olds, their parentsand carers.

As well as maintaining the regular First Stagesprogramme of visiting performances for youngchildren, we annually produce a “REP’s Children”production with performances at The REP and innurseries across the region. In 2007, Princess AndGinger was created through a unique processinvolving children aged 2-4 and their families.Every aspect of the play from the characters to theset design was based on the ideas of the 45children involved including Ikea the spider, SpecialK the flying elephant and the “BouncingBannagans” – fictional creatures who demonstratethe boundless imagination and creative capacity ofthe very young.

Early Years

“It was better than a biscuit”Princess And Ginger audience member

3

Princess And Ginger

Behind the Scenes

4

Backstage Tours

An opportunity to go behind the scenes at theregion’s largest producing house. During our toursparticipants get to explore one of the largest stagesin the country, observe the processes behinddesigning and making sets, costumes and wigsand learn about the challenges of operating a showfrom a technical and stage managementperspective. Tours can be tailored to meet yourgroup’s requirements or to cover areas of specialinterest in more depth.

Family Days

To accompany our exciting programme of children’stheatre we lead workshops designed for children andtheir families. Using a range of creative activities,including drama, dance and visual art, these eventsprovide children with an opportunity to creativelyexplore the themes and characters of a play.

Page to Stage

An opportunity to explore the process of writing,developing and producing a new play, together withthe writer, director and other members of thecreative team.

Spotlights and After Darks

Spotlights take place prior to evening performancesand After Darks take place directly afterwards. Theseevents are designed to give students and membersof the audience a greater insight into the thinkingbehind a production through listening to discussionand having the opportunity to pose questions tomembers of the creative team and cast.

Theatre Days

Theatre Days take place on our main stage prior toselected matinee performances and offer studentsa unique insight into the creative process involvedin putting on a main stage production. Rehearsaltechniques, acting, directing, lighting, sound, stagemanagement as well as themes, characters andissues contained in the text are all explored duringthese events.

For further informationcontact the Learning &

Participation Departmenton 0121 245 2092

The REP offers a range of events that bring people right into theheart of the building, allowing participants to explore behind thescenes and take part in activities on our main stage and in The Door,and meet members of staff from our creative and technical teams.

The Young REP

5

We offer young people a broad range of artisticexperiences in traditional theatre and non theatresettings as well as running social events for ourmembers to meet and share their experiences.

We run weekly sessions at The REP and at oursatellite venues in Birmingham and Telford.

Throughout the year members of each group takepart in a wide range of productions and sharings atThe REP, the satellite locations and venues acrossthe city.

Members of The Young REP take part in TheNational Student Drama Festival,The Edinburgh Festival and other local andInternational theatre events.

The Young REP is formed by groups based ongenre rather than age. The groups are:

Musical TheatreOpen for all young people aged 11 - 18

This group focuses on developing skills such asvoice development, group harmonies, dance andactor-musicianship. We explore the different genresof musicals and work with members to create newmusicals.

Plays & WritingOpen for all young people aged 11 - 18

The main focus of this group is on learning theprocess of producing plays and developing actingtechniques. We primarily work with professionalwriters and directors to produce new writing forperformance.

MentoringOpen for all young people aged 16 - 18

The mentoring project offers young people theopportunity to take part in a twelve month trainingscheme. Members receive a tailor-madeprogramme of work that is supported byprofessional artists.

New SkillsOpen for all young people aged 11 - 18

Young people work with visiting artists and inhouse specialists to develop new skills forperformance. These have recently included aerialand rope skills, mask making, acting for radio,stage combat and improvisation. This group’sperformances focus on the work of theatrepractitioners, most recently Brecht, Sophocles andShakespeare.

Junior Young REPOpen for all young people aged 8 - 10

This workshop is open to all our younger membersand aims to provide an introduction to performanceand workshop skills. This group also acts as atraining ground for The Young REP and focuses onfun and developing creative expression.

The Young REP is The REP’s YouthTheatre Company for young peopleaged 8-18. We aim to present a variedand challenging programme of exciting,high quality theatre experiences foryoung people through workshops and performances

For more information aboutThe Young REPplease contact

The Young REP Directoron 0121 245 2155

The REP for Writers

6

Young Writers at The REP

The REP’s Transmissions project has givenhundreds of 12 to 25 year-olds the tools to bringstories they want to tell to the stage. Working withprofessional actors, directors and writers, youngpeople discover the craft of playwriting, from firstinspiration to seeing their own work up on stage.

The REP’s Decypher Collective celebrates the lyricalvoices of young writers fusing grime and hip-hopbeats to create innovative, urban spoken wordtheatre.

The REP is one of Britain’s leading producers of new plays. The Dooris the only dedicated new writing theatre outside London, where thecareers of some of the country’s finest playwrights have beenlaunched. Our programme of new plays from a diversity of writers is,we believe, unsurpassed by any company in the world.

We commission playwrights from the region, nationally and internationally for our two theatres as well aslarge-scale community and Young REP productions. Every year Door on Tour takes a new play, written toconnect with new, younger audience members, out to community and education venues.

Our Attachment programme gives opportunities for new writers from a range of backgrounds to develop aplay with practical support from The REP. It also gives more established writers a chance to explore newdirections in their writing. As well as productions at The REP writers on Attachment have gone on toaward-winning theatre work elsewhere, and film, radio and television writing.

The REPfor Writers

7

Transmissions in Schools takes playwriting into theclassroom. Material developed betweenprofessional theatre artists and educationspecialists has developed skills and creativeexpression in students of all abilities.

The REP’s work with International writers includesan innovative web-based partnership with youngChicago writers, continuing links with writers andschools in China, and playwrights in North Americaand Europe.

For more informationcontact The REP’s

Literary Department on0121 245 2045

8

The REP provides a number of training opportunities in partnershipwith Gallery 37, The University of the First Age and Birmingham CityCouncil’s Flying Start scheme.

Masterclasses

Masterclasses include all aspects of theatreproduction including costume, lighting, stagemanagement and marketing and are led by ourdirectors and production staff.

Proactive

Workshops for professional actors led by leadingprofessionals including our Artistic Director andAssociate Directors. These include AuditionTechnique and Acting for Radio.

Work Experience

We provide work experience opportunities forstudents of all ages and work with Connexions andthe Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre to hostannual Careers In The Performing Arts events,enabling students to meet performers, technicaland production, staff and managers in order tomake informed decisions about their training andcareer options.

Training

Working with Schools

9

Harborne Hill SchoolPartnership

We are committed to developing long termpartnerships with schools; one example is thestrong relationship we have with Harborne HillSchool. A member of staff from The REP worksboth at the school and the theatre, creating thevaluable link between both organisations; making iteasier for students and staff to access the theatreand to extend the arts provision both in and outsidethe curriculum.

“Harborne Hill’s link with the Birmingham RepertoryTheatre creates extensive opportunities for studentsand their families to have quality theatreexperiences. Students benefit from having the

theatre’s Arts Development Officer to deliveraspects of their drama curriculum and extendedcurriculum.”

Lesley Roberts, Lead Teacher of Performing andExpressive Arts

Through partnership we aim to support schools in realising their aims and aspirations for their pupils, staffand wider communities. We aim to engage schools through our award winning theatre programme and byproviding access to our backstage and technical resources. In our work we aspire to the highest artisticstandards, aiming to inspire and extend the creative horizons of all involved.

“Through our partnership work with The REP our Year 9 BTEC students have been able to experience thetheatre industry first hand in a meaningful, professional and productive way”.

Katie Fanshawe, Head of Performing Arts, Queensbridge School.

“In our project we explored sensory approaches to storytelling. It was amazing. The story had realmeaning for our children. You could see the impact”,

Caron Davis, Year 2 teacher, Brays School.

Developing innovative and challenging projects in partnership withschools is at the heart of our work. We deliver workshopprogrammes to support our productions, as well as working withschools on short and long term projects.

Working with Schools

10

Spark Toy Theatres Project

This theatre education project took place during theSummer term 2007 and involved Key Stage 2classes from six Birmingham schools, along withclasses from several Stoke on Trent schools. Pupilsfrom each school wrote short plays in classroomworkshops with playwrights, and made their owntoy theatres with professional artists to performthem in.

During the last week of term, two plays from eachclass were performed to other schools at The REPas part of a four day long Festival of Plays. On eachday of the festival, one of the plays was alsorehearsed and performed to the pupils and theirteachers by professional actors in a life sized toytheatre in The Door, The REP’s studio theatre.

The backdrop for each play was painted by thechildren who had written it.

The Toy Theatres project is part of Spark, ProvidentFinancial’s flagship community programme createdto provide opportunities for schoolchildren to learnand develop through the arts and is part of a threeyear long project to provide arts educationopportunities in schools.

Drama Network

We run a drama network for teachers, which supports teachers in sharing good practice, developingnetwork connections and exploring new ideas for using drama.

Working with the Community

11

Work with Housing and HomelessOrganisations

Supported by Birmingham City Housing DepartmentThe REP has developed a number of projects withdifferent housing and homeless organisations.Recent projects include work with St Basils,Ashram Housing Association, South BirminghamYoung Homeless Project and Fireside/SIFA(Supporting Independence from Alcohol).

1st Chance Theatre

1st Chance Theatre was set up by two youngwomen from St Basils. St Basils is one ofBirmingham’s largest housing and homelesssupport agencies, working with young people aged16 – 25. The aim of 1st Chance is to promote andencourage the creativity of young people accessingSt Basils’ services.

The Fireside Project

The Fireside is a drop-in centre in centralBirmingham providing hot meals and resettlementsupport. As part of their activities programme TheREP established a drama group based at thefireside which culminated in a performance at TheREP.

‘Due to the state of flux of the homeless and someof our friends moving into employment and trainingthe final production may seem to benefit only asmall number of players. However, over the courseof the project a much greater number of individualshave benefited to varying degrees from thisexperience’

Hughie, Participant, The Fireside Project

We provide high quality theatre-based projects that support andengage a diverse range of community groups and organisations. Weaim to engage with new audiences and to give a voice toparticipants’ creative ideas and ambitions, and to ensure that TheREP maintains and develops its strong commitment to beingaccessible to all of the region’s communities.

Birmingham Repertory Theatre is a Registered Charity, number 223660

Want toGet Involved?

To find out more visit

www.birmingham-rep.co.ukor contact our Learning & Participation Coordinator on

0121 245 2092education@birmingham-rep.co.uk