Keith Park

Last Friday I went to the globe to participate in a workshop with Keith Park and two schools from North London which had students that had complex disabilities.

The workshop was based on Shakespeares 'Romeo and Juliet' It was split into eigtht parts all said as call and response with a very definate rhythm through out. Everything was done in Makaton, and some words were said in Hebrew. Although Keith Park was involved in the workshop the person driving the workshop itself was an autistic teenager called PJ. It was very interesting how he remembered all the lines, made up jokes when we were playing a name game. It was successful because he had so much passion for what he was doing, in some sense it seemed that Drama had allowed him to become a confident individual and to be able to express himself in a way that best suited him. I also felt that having a child with high support needs in charge of a workshop helped the other children feel more enthusiastic about joining in the workshop, perhaps there was a stronger sense of identification?

Drama had helped him do things that are considered to be un-autistic, he made eye contact and was incredibly social. In my opinion Drama might have played a part in helping someone with a learning disability do things that would never have been expected of them.

It's Starting!

Over the last couple of days myself, Rosie Maria and Hardeep have met up to begin thinking about the big project. We talked about possible research areas, types of stories and basically had a think about our role as the creative team, what we can do and what we can create. I see us working closely with the design team in creating initial ideas and I also feel that it would make it more collaborative. I feel that working with the school laison will be important as making and doing workshops about the story we might want to do will be important.

We also went and had a look around Chiswick house to get some inspiration and it is a very beautiful place which we could transform into something magical, I can see a lot of fairy lights! There is also an amphitheatre there which is a possible thing to think about within creating the performance.

If anyone has any ideas for stories or characters or themes or structures or anything please tell us!