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7 young people are seen dancing on the Almeida stage.

Past Projects: Schools

Our schools programme is designed to ignite and feed a curiosity about theatre and performance. If you’re interested in becoming a partner school then please contact participation@almeida.co.uk.

Read more about our current schools offer

Explore some of our past projects and work with schools below.

Unmute All

This project was part of our 2021 school programme. It was created to enable teachers and students to work with leading professional artists to co-create their own work.

With Unmute All we wanted to fill the schools with creativity particularly post pandemic. The pieces that were created were shared with the school community and allowed the young people to speak out through their work.

The Schools and Artists involved:
Arts and Media School Islington – Director: Jordana Golbourn; Sound Design: Tingying Dong
City of London Academy Highbury Grove – Director: Nastazja Domaradzka; Sound Artist: Jovana Backovic
City of London Academy Highgate Hill – Director: Ebenezer Bamgboye; Designer: Daisy Blower; Assistant Facilitator: Maryam Shaharuddin
Elizabeth Garret Anderson School – Director: Nicola Chambers; Dramaturg/Writer: Miles Mitchell; Assistant Facilitator: Maryam Shaharuddin
Unmute All Lead Artist: Jordana Golbourn
Unmute All Artist & Designer: Grace Venning

Reimagining Projects

Our Reimagining Projects were term-long devising and performance projects that responded in theme to one of our productions. Students worked with a lead and a supporting theatre-maker to create a short 5 –10 minute performance in response to themes or the theatrical form of the chosen production. The final performances were presented on the Almeida Theatre stage for an invited audience.

Discover information about our previous Reimagining Projects below:

6 young people are seen stood on stage all holding their right hand on their heart.

Reimagining Albion

And Did Those Feet – New City College Redbridge
Director Anthony Lau; Co-Director Abi Falase; Sound Designer Beth Duke

Director’s Note
And Did Those Feet is a response piece to Albion, devised with students from New City College alongside directors Anthony Lau and Abi Falase and sound designer Beth Duke. Taking the idea of Britain as a starting point, we looked at what this country means to them. What is their experience living and growing up in this country? What makes them angry? How do they see this country? What are they hopeful for and what do they see for the future?’

A child is kneeling on the Almeida stage, holding their right hand against their heart.

Reimagining Three Sisters

Our Constellations – City of London Academy: Highbury Grove
Director Jordana Golbourn; Writer Yomi Ṣode; Assistant Director Valerie Sadoh

Director’s Note
‘This piece takes some of the key themes from Three Sisters and reimagines directly into the lives and minds of these young people. These are their ideas, stories, secrets, opinions and passions told through poetry that they created under the incredible direction of Yomi Sode who we have been so lucky to partner on with this project. For most of the performers this is their first adventure into theatre making.’

Reimagining Cacophony

A group of school children wearing matching yellow t-shirts are performing on the Almeida stage. They are mixed between standing, kneeling and sitting.
Reimagining Cacophony, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School
4 school children are kneeling on the Almeida stage, looking off to the left.
Reimagining Cacophony, Haverstock School

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.’

A large group of young people are stood on the stage raising their arms above their heads. This is reflected in a mirror above them, showing they are stood in a circle.

Reimagining Machinal

City of London Academy: Highbury Grove
Director: Joe Hancock; Movement Director: Rebecca Steele; Assistant Director: Germma Orleans-Thompson

Director’s Note
‘Working with the students at Highbury Grove, we talked about what expressionism was, what elements of contemporary society made them feel trapped, and what made them feel free. We talked a lot about communication, and whether the concept of being constantly accessible made us feel closer to each other, or more distant. All of the ideas and words on stage have been devised by the students themselves.’

Reimagining Summer and Smoke

A young person is stood on the Almeida stage speaking into a microphone which is in a stand.
Reimagining Summer and Smoke.
A young person is stood in the center of the Almeida stage. There are six other young people stood around them in the background.
Reimagining Summer and Smoke.

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.’

A large group of young people are stood on the Almeida stage. Behind them is the set of Ink which includes a tower made of writing desks.

Reimagining Ink

City of London Academy: Highbury Grove
Director Ben Holland; Writer Michael Bryher

Director’s Note
‘We began by asking a series of questions through different games and conversations which included: How do you form your view of the world? How do you define your influences and tastes, How ruthless or compromised can an individual become?  How far are you prepared to go to get what you want? What is the responsibility of the individual and the collective? What do the “the people” want? What does the next generation demand? What makes a good story?We went on to explore different story telling techniques and the notion of “truth” in a story. What is “truth”?  How many perspectives or “truths” can there be? What is our responsibility as story tellers? How far can we move away from the truth?’

Three young people are stood on the stage. One is in the middle looking ahead whilst the other two are dressing them.

Reimagining Mary Stuart

When I am Queen – Clapton Girl’s Academy
Director Elayce Ismail; Sound Designer Alexandra Faye Braithwaite

Director’s Note
‘Their response is When I am Queen: a theatrical journey through an imagined, modern-day princess’ life as she prepares to be crowned Queen, surrounded by public pressure, paparazzi and a host of palace advisers. Against the backdrop of similar questions hitting the front pages both here and abroad, it was a privilege to work with such a thoughtful, creative and social-minded group of actors. Their compassion shone through most keenly when each performer brought into rehearsals their own manifesto for the type of leader they would be. These manifestos became the backbone of When I am Queen, and present an inspiring snapshot of young women today.’