The King's Quest Blog

The King's Quest at Bristol Cathedral

Last week Scene Change Theatre finished the Spring term at Bristol Cathedral working with 70 children from local schools. Amie Buhari and David Pollendine led the children through a voice and movement warm up to give the children a crash course  in "theatre" before they joined the Scene Change Theatre team to rehearse the workshop scenes. The aim of the King's Quest day is to educate the children about the history of how the KJV came about but we alsopose the question so what? What difference does it make  my life? By lunch time we have scratched the itch of this question in our rehearsal and we pose the question to the children again. One area we focus on is the impact the KJV had on Victorian England and especially social reformers. One such reformer was Dr Banardo who at his death in 1867 had over 90 ragged schools set up.  How does this impact on us today? Today there are over 390 Banardo projects across the UK.  In fact I a personal link to this story as my Grandmother was raised in a Dr Banardos' home in Cullacoats bay, Newcastle. At 2pm the children put on their costumes and put on a very good performance. We now have a rest after a very successful first term and we look forward to our next venue at Southwell Minster on May 24th and 25th.

The King's Quest at Southwark Cathedral

This week Scene Change Theatre's King's Quest drama project went to Southwark Cathedral. We worked with 120 children from schools from south London. The opening scene is always a lot of fun to do as we recreate the atmosphere at the coronation of King James 1st. The cathedral is a perfect setting for this as the  children represent 3 different groups that would have been there. The Parliamentarians all dressed in dark dowdy colours chant "Equal rights for all" In contrast the Bishops and Knights dressed in colourful extravegant clothes proclaim, "God save the King" and the common people of England shout from the streets "Get your jellied eels or you'll end up dead" referring to the bubonic plague. Check out pictures from the day here. Next week we go to Bristol Cathedral.

The King's Quest Chichester Cathedral

Yesterday The King's Quest visited Chichester Cathedral.  The Scene Change Theatre team worked with 100 children from local schools to put on a performance looking at the impact this book had on English culture and beyond. Before lunch we always run a session where we look in more detail at how this book has shaped both our country and who we are. Amie shared her own connection to this book as she is from Freetown, Sierra Leone and has ancestors who experienced the horrors of the slave trade. It was through the message from the KJV that in God's eyes all men are equal that people like Samuel Sharpe, Olaudah Equiano and William Wilberforce successfully fought against and abolished the slave trade.  Check out pictures from the day here.  More will be added in due course. Our next venue will be  Southwark Cathedral at the end of March.

The King's Quest at Gloucester Cathedral

Last week our King's Quest Project went to Gloucester Cathedral. We worked with around 80 children from North Nibley and Kingsway Primary schools. The play explores the history of how the King James Bible came into being and delves into the historical context of the day. In this scene the children recite versus from Shakespeare,  a contemporary of  King James. We also explore the bubonic plague in London and the gun powder plot of Guy Fawkes. While the day focuses on the consequensces this bible translation has had on our culture and society, the children enjoy exploring the history of the day. This comment from a teacher from Kingsway Primary sums up the enjoyment the children had exploring this project:

"What a lovely play for all! The pupils were taken through history with ease. It was great to see such a fantastic performance where there was smiles and laughter. Well done and thank you for such a lovely day."

Check out some pictures from the day here and a report of our project day in Chichester Cathedral will follow

The King's Quest at St Paul's Cathedral (Day 2)

It is such a privilege to perform in spaces where history was made. Nearly 500 years ago the pages of Tyndale's Bible were burnt on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral, as King Henry VIII opposed such an idea of a bible translation in English. Ironically St Paul's Cathedral now holds one of the only three remaining Tyndale Bible's in the world dating from 1520.  Today Scene Change Theatre worked with a school from Tower Hamlets. We slightly modified our performance to add volume to our scenes by creating "chorus responses" from the children. Amie Buhari my colleague created a scene with 30 of the children to show what life was like on the Jacobean streets of London. The Children peformed Shakespeare in chorus  "To be or not to be? that is the question...," and "Alas poor Yoric I knew him well!",  They sang "Ring a Ring a Roses" to remind us all of the bubonic plague rife in London at this time and became street traders selling all kinds of   foods  such as, Jellied Eel, salted Cod and hot coddling (baked apple).  Not a a lot has changed!  We worked with 60 children in all with 30 from year 6 and 30 from year 3. We decided from the start to mix everybody up and it was great  to see in the performance how the children worked together and the age gap didn't notice. The play finishes with "Oh When the Saints come marching in" and all the children fill the stage playing trumpets, Saxophones, double bases and cymbals. It was a great moment  to see all these young people, who may have never been to a Cathedral before, dancing and  becoming part of a jazz band in the middle of St Paul's Cathedral. A great image some 500 hundred years after Tyndale's  pages  had been burnt. Who'd have thought it!  King's Quest will visit Gloucester Cathedral next on March 10th. Check out more  photo's from the day.

The King's Quest at St Paul's Cathedral (Day 1)

 Today Scene Change Theatre took  the King's Quest Project to St Paul's Cathedral.  Arriving at the North Transept door we were left in no doubt how small we were in comparison to this incredible building. At the beginning of the day we sat the 50 plus children from St Peter's London Dock School under the Cathedral dome and whispering gallery to show them the space we would be performing in.  We then went underneath into the crypt to rehearse our play that tells the story of how the King James Bible came into being and what impact this  has had on us all.  The challenge for us  was taking our play from the crypt  underground into the main Cathedral, without any rehearsal in the space. The play starts with the coronation of King James. As the children split into three groups representing Parliamentarians and Bishops and Knights in the Cathedral and the common people on the streets of London, they all chant lines which represent who they  are. The Parliamentarians chant for equality, The commoners tell of their plight without food and threatened by the plague and the Bishops and Knights proclaim their love for the King. As their voices died down fanfare music is played and the King and his closest bishops appeared from the back of the Cathedral and process into the space, before sitting on a red velvet throne. It was a truly magical moment which transported both  the audience and performes back 400 years. Many parents came to support their children and visitors to the cathedral sat to see this spectacle. Thank you to the Children and families team at St Paul's and the teachers from St Peter's School, who fitted into our team and not only offered support but became co directors in various scenes. I have managed to upload some photos but more will follow. Our final  performance at St Paul's will take place on Thursday.

The King's Quest at Worcester Cathedral, day 2

Today was a very different day to yesterday as we were working with not just 40 but 120 children! It means we have experienced the two extremes of delivering a play in a day in our first two projects. The Scene Change Theatre  team of  Amie Buhari, James Manning  and myself met early to discuss how we would manage the day, but as always the real skill of delivering a day to a large group like this is to be flexible and willing to alter things if they can be done in a better way.  The children all came from Lakon Childe school in Shropshire and filled the cathedral space with excitement as to what would happen next. At the beginning of our play we start with the coronation of King James and the children are divided into 3 groups to represent some of the participants that would have been at the ceremony 400 years ago. One group are the bishop and Knights who are dress in bishops robes and brightly coloured shawls and gowns.  The other group are the parliamentarians. They are dressed much less elaborately in black jackets and cloaks. The children learn the The  Puritans were religious people who dressed and lived the simple life and they  influenced parliament heavily at that time. They were not that keen on a King  that was put on the throne by God and who could make decisions that could not be challenged. The Puritans were the  pioneers of democracy in their day. The final group are of course the common people, dressed in yeoman type smocks and were often tired and hungry from a hard days work out in the fields. Part of the magic of the day is to help the children get into the characters and culture of the time and the coronation scene is a great opportunity to enter into this. Well done to the  Lekin Childs school for putting on a solid performance at the end. After the performance today and yesterday we have been given a little treat. All the children were asked to sit on the floor and David the Cathedral archivist appeared in white gloves carrying a big bible. This bible was a later edition of the King James Bible from 1638, but it was a special moment to see a book that was actually read by the people that we represented in our play at that time. As one boy commented:

"The Bible frpm 1638 that we saw at the end was the oldest book i've ever seen!"  James senior (no  relation to the King)

Thank you to all the Cathedral staff and especially to Sue Adeney. Our next project venue will be St Paul's Cathedral on 14th and 17th February and I believe they have a Tyndale original from a hundred years earlier. More photo's will follow soon.

King's Quest Drama Project Opens at Worcester Cathedral

"What an amazing day! A great fusion of Christianity, history, language, music, to aid understanding  of the anniversary of the King James Bible."   Teacher, Ipsley C. E. Middle School.

On Wednesday 2nd February Scene Change Theatre's   King's Quest Project opened at Worcester Cathedral. We worked with 40 year 8 children from Ipsley C. E. Middle School from Redditch. In the warm up we introduced some of the themes of the day such as getting the children to call out "Get your  Jellied Eel!", a common food on the streets of London in the 17th Century.  Our play starts with 4 naughty children who skip their homework.  As a punishment they have been sent to the library to find a book to read from cover to cover and report back on. As they start to rearrange the library books they hear a Psst! Over here! To their amazement a book is talking to them and wants them to pull it off the shelf.  As they pull the book off the shelf an old man also comes with the book and encourages them to read it. The play follows some of the discoveries they make in reading the book and culminates in discoveries they actually end up making about themselves. Today's group of 4 children will be a tough act to follow as they all performed really well and in the big open space of the cathedral had no problems projecting their voices. All the children put on a polished  final performance and it was a great start to our tour! A big thanks to Sue Adeney the cathedral's Education officer who hosted us and made it possible for us to open in Worcester. Pictures of the day will follow.