Down To Earth

Dolphin School, London

Scene Change Theatre Company visited Dolphin School on Northcote Road yesterday to work with the whole school with our Down To Earth project.  Children from Y1 through to Y6 engaged with the drama to produce a great day that will stay with them for a long time!

Dave, James and Mike led the day in the school which is based within a church.  As you can see from the pictures, we used the main church space for the majority of the day and performed to a small audience of parents and teachers.

James took on the role of the slightly quirky Museum curator in the Museum of extinct and endangered  species where the exhibits strangely come to live.  He revealed to the children that the future of humankind was also at risk if we continue to live as we are.

Pictures of the day here.

This was the last Down To Earth day for a while - but the project is still available and dates throughout the autumn are now being booked.

If you would like to bring DOWN TO EARTH or any other Scene Change Theatre Company project to your school, contact David by email or ring him on 07862 728056.

Liverpool Cathedral

It's always great to get to Liverpool Cathedral!  This is our third visit with our third project - DOWN TO EARTH.  The largest cathedral in Britain and the fifth largest in the world - what a venue for the 80 children to perform in!

The children focused quickly through our warm up activities and showed they had been thinking about the environment a little before the day.  After the warm up - Dave took half the group down the cathedral to work on the Museum scene which shows the future of some of the species on earth, and ultimately shows the future of humankind.

Mike took the other half of the group to explore the wonders of China.  The colour and culture of China are displayed through the two Chinese Dragons who enter at the start of the scene.  These are followed on by the natural resources of the world.  Finally, the factories move in - swallowing up the natural resources to create 'stuff' that is soon shipped to the UK and USA.  It's always a challenge for the children to show the line of production and how we play our part in damaging the world.

We watched the 'Story of Stuff' DVD before the final performance at 2pm.  Here's what some of the children said about the day:

"I enjoyed the day and learned that you need to look after the world more."  Cameron

"I was influenced by the short film and will definitely recycle and buy fair trade more - thank you."  Kate

And my favourite comment of the day... "I must say, I thought it was fascinating.  Thank you."  Claire

Pictures of the day here.

Worcester Cathedral day 3

What a great way to finish our time at Worcester Cathedral with a huge day of over 110 children from local schools!

Amie, Dave and Mike led the day which contained the world premier of a new scene to start the performance.  Amie put together this new scene that revealed the life of the sun to the audience.  With the sun's gases shooting out into space towards the earth - we see how powerful this star is and how it both keeps the earth alive and threatens its existence should the earth lose its protective ozone layer.

Many thanks to Sue Adeney, Education Officer to the Cathedral for looking after us so well this week and co-ordinating the nearly 200 children through the doors.  The children on Friday mixed across schools really well and the audience were amazed at how much had been achieved in just a short time.  Well done everyone!

Pictures here.

A Walking bus at Worcester Cathedral! "Down to Earth" (Day 1 & 2).

This week Scene Change Theatre took the Down to Earth project to Worcester Cathedral. On Wednesday 12th James Manning and Amie Buhari worked with a small group of 35 children and Thursday 13th Davie P and Amie B worked with 50 children from two local schools. Both days went very well and the children not only learnt about Climate Change but also challenged us in their own ways of dealing with it. After the children had performed we challenged everyone to write an action that they would do to help the planet. Everyone wrote their pledge on a post-it-note and then stuck it to the giant CMS globe. One boy pledged to collect bottle tops so that he could make pictures out of them. We were not able to take photos of the schools on this occasion but I took a picture of a vest one school wore on their journey to the Cathedral. On it was a picture of a bus and the words "Walking bus" On Friday we will work with 120 children from 3 schools and will be performing a new scene. The write up and pics for Friday  will follow soon.

Gloucester Cathedral day 2 - A vision of death for the planet

On Friday we visited Gloucester Cathedral for the second time working with schools from Malvern and North Nibley. We were delighted to welcome on board to the "Down to Earth" team, Amy Watson who inspired a rap step to accompany our finale rap "We've got a solution to stop the pollution." Another powerful moment took place when Amie B, who plays the Arbitrator for the earth's future shows a vision of the future, if humanity continues to take the environment for granted. One sweep of her hand and the whole room (except for the audience) fall down on the floor dead. It really is a powerful moment, yet it doesn't last as humanity makes the right decision and chooses to put the earth first. Photos of the day can be seen here or click in the side bar.

Guildford Cathedral Day 2 - The Day the Crocodiles Rocked!

Today Amie and Dave worked with 60 pupils from Boxgrove school looking at the challenge we all face to tackle climate change. The children engaged very well with the subject and showed a lot of knowledge and awareness around the theme. When I asked for a hand show to see who recycled nearly everyone put up their hand.

Perhaps the moment that stole the day for me was the scene where we recreate a Museum of endangered and extinct animals. As the Arbitrator (Amie)  takes a non enthusiastic and wasteful gang around the exhibits of the museum, they meet a Californian Condor, an Indian Cobra and some Salt Water Crocodiles. We watch the crocodiles lying motionless while some facts about their plight are read out. Then Elton John's Crocodile rock starts playing and the Crocs start to dance. However these crocs had worked out a whole dance routine, with a bit of Busby Barltey style shapes and movement. I managed to get my camera out and "snap" a part of it (excuse the pun). This and more pictures of what we got up to are here.