What a joy it was to be back in Moretonhampstead Primary with their year 6 class for our Playwriting and Performance course! This time our inspiration was World War Two, which the group had been studying in their local history classes.
The first session we treated the class to a performance of ‘Devon’s War Girls’ and this was followed by sessions in devising, idea sharing, storytelling, playwriting, rehearsal and, finally, the performance of their original play to years 3, 4 and 5!
MED Theatre were welcomed into Christow Primary in November 2021 to carry out a two hour workshop with their years 5 and 6 about the Vikings!
With stories of Viking raids, England’s first Queen and the downfall of the Anglo-Saxons, we had lots of fun telling stories, re-enacting scenes from MED Theatre’s ‘The Shadow of the Vikings’ play and creating Viking longships with physical theatre techniques. Thank you to Mr Statham and the class!
As part of the RIVER TEIGN RESTORATION PROJECT partnership, MED Theatre are hosting free schools workshops educating students from the Teign catchment area on the importance of caring for their river.
Our first workshop was with the year 6 class from Chudleigh Knighton, who we had an amazing morning with exploring the life cycle of Salmon, the health of Devon’s rivers and writing poetry inspired by the river.
Thank you to the class for being our first participants in this fun workshop and for the fantastic and beautiful Haikus that you wrote!
In July 2021, MED Theatre were commissioned by DAISI (Devon Arts In Schools Initiative) to work with students at King’s School in Ottery St Mary on a film making project.
In this day long workshop, the students were invited to explore the two questions of “What do other people expect from you” versus “What do you want or dream of for yourself?” They were then given a tuition in use of our professional camera equipment and mentored through the production of a short film, featuring interviews between the students and some images of things that make them feel happy.
This Summer we were delighted to work once again with Beacon Arts, providing three days of drama activities for their young people.
Posy and Helen shared with the group two special Dartmoor Pixies stories, which they then transformed into short plays of their own. These two plays were shared on the third day with their friends and family, and were followed by teaching them all our favourite game from the workshops – ‘CHAOS’!
As part of a festival of research workshops at Exeter University, MED Theatre were asked to come and lead a session on Outdoor and Experimental Theatre. It was a lovely morning with students from all year groups and we loved seeing their interpretations of some of our animal and elements texts, which were given a site-specific feel!
Students were particularly keen to hear about how MED Theatre uses the Dartmoor landscape as inspiration and how we go about turning scientific or environmental topics into performance art.
MED Theatre were invited to deliver a session for students of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. The session focused on MED Theatre’s Environmental work and how the environment influences our work with the community.
Students were given a short presentation on three of MED Theatre’s past projects, The Living Rock; Hot Air and The Wood. They were then introduced to our ‘stealth project’, taking texts about or from the perspective of natural elements or animals and shaping these into physicalised performances.
Thank you to all who took part and to Dr Michelle Nicholson-Sanz!
Applied Theatre students at the University of Plymouth recently took part in a workshop over Zoom, in which we shared our creative practice. We talked to them about how we integrate history, ecology and folklore into our work, and how we devise exercises and productions
Students were given the following blurb:
Come prepared to engage in both physical and text based exercises as we will use extracts of MED Theatre’s original plays to explore the interface between the human and natural world, share games that we use in the training of our community members, and make sure you bring your brain as we may ask you to be creative too!
Living Rock; Hot Air and The Wood. They were then introduced to our ‘stealth project’, taking texts about or from the perspective of natural elements or animals and shaping these into physicalised performances.
Thank you to all who took part and to Dr Michelle Nicholson-Sanz!
Schools that we have performed Devon’s War Girls for:
North Tawton, Tedburn St Mary’s, Chagford, Moretonhampstead
As part of our National Lottery Heritage Fund project, ‘Dartmoor, Devon and World War Two’, this short play has been created by MED Theatre staff to tour around school and community venues in the Devon area.
When war breaks out in 1939, Molly’s plans to go to university are shattered and instead she finds herself signing up as a Land Girl and boarding a train to Devon.
Meanwhile, a farmer’s daughter, Enid, is thrust into new experiences when Dartmoor suddenly becomes home to evacuees, soldiers, medics and, of course, the Land Girls.
This fast-paced, two-hander performance pulls inspiration from true local stories explored through the eyes of two young women and the wartime events that bring them together. Written and performed by MED Theatre’s professional staff, the stories draw from extensive research into local history. We would like to thank Bill Hardiman of Moretonhampstead History Society, and Dartmoor historian Dr. Tom Greeves for their inspiration and support.
At a time when theatres were dark, schools still weren’t able to welcome all students back and our connection to others was limited, MED Theatre invited you to be Inspired By…
Our new online arts platform, Inspired By, was created especially to keep creativity alive and accessible to those feeling isolated.
After lockdown began in March 2020, MED Theatre released a series of Dartmoor and Devon themed stories, images, music and films to kick-start your own creativity.
