Down To Earth

Down To Earth at Clapham Manor Primary School

On Monday 20th December we finished our Down To Earth project with A Rocha UK at Clapham Manor Primary School. We have travelled to 8 schools in all on this project: Featherstone Primary School, Hayes, North Primary School, Southall, Blair Peach Primary School, Ealing, MaCaulay Primary School, Clapham, Jubilee Primary School, Tulse Hill, Fenstanton Primary School, Tulse Hill, Dairy Meadow Primary School, Southall and Clapham Manor Primary School, Clapham. In Clapham Manor we worked with Year 5 rehearsing our scenes for the performance at the end of the day. After lunch we had time to talk about what we were doing in our own lives to help look after the planet. Jenny Greenhouse from A Rocha UK challenged the children not to throw away plastic bags.  She explained that the wind can carry them into our seas. They float on the surface of the water and many sea creatures like the Sea Turtle mistake them for jelly fish and  eat them. This has the affect of making the animals feel that they are full and so they stop feeding and starve to death.  Seeing this connection and how we can be culpable by our actions seemed to hit home to the young people. We challenged everyone to put their passion and desire to help the planet into the performance at the end of the day so that the audience could understand the message too. We had a wonderful audience from reception to year 2 who gave us lots of encouragement and smiles. It was nice to finish our 8 school tour with the full team of  Jenny Greenhouse and Pippa Tennent from A Rocha and my good self representing Scene Change Theatre. We have really enjoyed working together and have seen the power of combining drama with environmental issues. One thing that has been very noticeable throughout this tour is the level of knowledge children have on this subject. That bodes well for the future so long as our generation don't damage the earth beyond repair before they get a chance to do anything! We hope to display photo's from each of the 8 venues and will create a photo book as a record of the tour which can be viewed and ordered online. Thank you to  CMS and  West Hill Endowment Trust for their financial backing and support and  to A Rocha UK for a being a great partner organisation in this project.

Down To Earth at Dairy Meadow Primary School, Southall

On Friday 17th December our Down To Earth project went to Dairy Meadow Primary School in Southall.  It was the last day of term so we were due to perform at 1.15pm as school finished early. It meant we had 2 hours rehearsal time in the morning, lunch break and then the performance to the whole school.  We started the day with a very short warm up and then straight into the workshops.  In spite of the time constraint we managed to finish the morning with time to spare. Year 5 worked very well and kept on task throughout. Performing to the whole school is always slightly more daunting than just to a class or two and you always want to be better prepared than you actually feel.  In every performance there is always one memorable moment and today it took place in the Museum of Extinct and Endangered Animals Scene. We visit a museum where the children recreate a Californian Condor, an Indian Cobra and Salt Water Crocodiles. The Crocs start by holding a still pose wearing crocodile masks, at which point Elton John's Crocodile Rock kicks in and the Crocodiles start dancing. When the music stops the Crocs resume their original pose. This idea was inspired by an Eddie Izzard sketch where he said that cats that purr are actually drilling. Whenever we take our eyes off them they get their drills out and put their goggles on and drill.  Classic Eddie Izzard!  In rehearsal the Crocs were very self conscious and didn't really want to do the dance bit, however in performance it was very different! With the whole school watching they got their confidence and stole the show with some very individual and original dance moves. It was interesting that children felt strongly about animals suffering because of climate change and human activity.  During the performance one little girl in the audience from year 2 spoke out about the killing of an elephant in the Indian scene. She was shocked that a sacred animal could be shot by someone. I guess if we all lived with this value towards the earth we might not be doing this project.  Our Down to Earth/ A Rocha project draws to a conclusion on Monday 20th December at Clapham manor primary school.

Down to Earth at Fenstanton Primary School, Tulse Hill.

On Wednesday we found ourselves just about half a mile up the road from Jubilee School, last weeks project, to be at Fenstanton Primary School. We worked with 3 classes from year 2 which presented a challenge as the Down to Earth  project is geared for Key stage 2 (Year 4 to 6). Interestingly the children's knowledge of the subject was impressive and after questioning them about the environment they were not slow in talking about recycling and reusing. After the warm up the classes split into two groups in a face off on the stage. They represent two tribes, one being wasteful and the other grateful. We explain that these two tribes live in all of is. Sometimes we are grateful for the planet and we take care of it, we turn off the lights or pick up litter. On the other hand we can be wasteful throwing wrappers on the floor or leaving lights on.  I worked separately with a group of four children who represent the wasteful gang and they are challenged to change their ways or lose the planet. The other children create the other workshop scenes that the gang of four visit in order to make their decision. They go to China to see the pollution  caused by  industry, to India to see how humans and elephants can live side by side peacefully and finally to a museum of extinct and endangered species to see that humans too are threatened by poor management of the planet.  The children put on a stella performance to Year 1  children who looked on in admiration. Well done Year 2! Our next project goes back to Southall to Dairy- Meadow Primary school on Friday.

Down to Earth in Jubilee Primary School, Tulse Hill

Last week Down to Earth visited Jubilee Primary School in Tulse Hill. The day was made more interesting, as my twin brother Dan also works in this school, so there was the potential for a bit of misunderstanding. As we introduced ourselves to the children the murmur of "Is it Dan?" could be heard under the whispers. James, Beccy and I then led the children in a warm up to give them some basic principles of working together as a group of performers, whilst at the same time introducing our theme of caring for the environment.  One of the skills we try to give to the children is the idea of focusing. The challenge is to stand somewhere in the room facing the front without moving.  Some children are naturally able to do this while other find it excruciatingly difficult. The idea of looking at a specific point and focusing on that really helps the more fidgety and this is a skill we also apply to caring for the planet. Unless we are able to focus on reducing our destructive lifestyles then climate change could become irreversible. With lots of other things going on in the life of the school the children were also able to groove this skill  practically during the day and eventually by putting into the performance. Thanks to Jubilee school and their teachers for their support throughout a busy day. Photos will be displayed in due cousre. Next week we will be visiting Fenstanton Primary School also in Tulse Hill and then Dairy Meadow Primary in Southall.