School:  Rathfern Primary School, Catford, London SE6

Artist residencies took place in 1998 and 1999 in a local primary school in Catford, South East London, where physical theatre workshops were led by Judy Gordon with 23 children in Year 4 aged between 8 and 9, including a number of the children with learning difficulties and their carers. Both residencies led to performances for the Infants and Primary school and staff and parents.

The second workshop in 1999 was more developed and worked towards devising a full theatre piece. The children used group skills and individual skills in movement and sound to improvise around the theme of the production, “Seasons”, creating a piece from their own understanding and imagination. They also used their IT skills to send questions via the email to gain information regarding the weather. The scenes grew out of the listening and movement games they had done in the previous workshop, animating the elements as pupils became fire, frost and snow as well as human characters. As we rehearsed the scenes, the children who were not acting, played musical instruments and made sounds to emphasise the dramatic content.

The school was involved on many levels with the class teacher working very closely with Judy and the children. The parents actively took part in the project in helping the children find props and costumes for the performance. The final show in the school hall gave them a valuable insight into the children’s drama and arts skills while being entertained.

Funded by Lewisham Small Grants 1999