Past Projects: Schools

There Is Another Version Of Me – Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School
Director Nicola Chambers; Sound Designer David Ridley

Director’s Note
‘How many versions of you are there? Is there a ‘real’ you and who gets to see it? Through a process of interviews, questionnaires, discussion and devising, the group have created a revealing piece responding to their understanding of identity; online and in the ‘real’ world.’

You & Me – Haverstock School
Director Seda Yildiz; Sound Designer David Ridley

Director’s Note
‘Over the course of the sessions, we have been working on ensemble building exercises. We’ve focussed on free writing exercises, physical theatre and improvisation. Throughout these exercises, we’ve been exploring their own personal lived experiences, with a view that allowing ourselves to be fully seen can create authentic connections. The play Cacophony explores the voices of young people taking a stand for what they believe in. In a world where how we act and present ourselves is so closely magnified through social media, I wanted to create a space where being seen as yourself, with no filters, is an empowering political act in itself.’

Redefining Perfect – Highbury Fields School
Director Roberta Zuric; Movement Director Ingrid Mackinnon

Director’s Note
‘With Highbury Fields School, we started by examining shame and how, and why, we as humans use shame. As an all-female group, we then focussed the lens on society’s shaming of women and young girls as a way of controlling and conforming. We spoke about what it means to be a woman and our relationship to feeling powerful. So this is our honouring. To the women that walked before us. To the women we are and are becoming. To all the women that will walk after us.’

Viva La Vida – Hackney Community College
Director Emma Dennis Edwards; Supporting Artist Rachael Nanyonjo; Assistant Director Lauren La Roque

Director’s Note
‘Viva La Vida merges movement, poetry and dramatic scenes to explore the theme of Family Conflict, inspired by the Tennessee Williams’ classic play Summer and Smoke. The students at Hackney Community College have worked tirelessly devising this piece over 4 weeks; bravely drawing on their own individual experiences of family, home and what makes us feel safe.’

Clapton Girls’ Academy
Director Tamsin Fessey; Supporting Artist Philippa Hogg; Assistant Director Germma Orleans-Thompson

Director’s Note
‘We talked about the pressures and anxieties of being a young woman now and we were fascinated by the multiple selves and personas who appear at different moments in our lives. It is apparently ‘normal’ to have twelve sub-personalities existing within ourselves at any time but the problems begin when several appear at once or when we can no longer merge these personalities into an integral view of ourselves and we don’t know who we are anymore. We carried out interviews with friends and then worked with a verbatim method to bring these descriptions to life, trying to replicate the pauses, breaths and intonations of these recordings as accurately as possible.’