This Summer, we were very lucky to work with 23 talented 6-11 year olds for a whole week. This was one of our Theatre Weeks, which we ran this year with Exeter Northcott Theatre. The idea is that a group of children will work together for a week, learning drama skills and creating their own original work which, at the end of the week, they share back on a professional stage to their friends and family.
This time, we wanted our group to tell a particular story - Clare’s. We were really interested to find out what this group of children would engage with from Clare’s narrative, and which parts of her story they would think were the most important to tell. In the end, we covered her entire life, from birth in Leicester through to her death at 105, with a particular focus on her fantastic war career.
The children used costumes, suitcases, songs, physical theatre and narration to bring her story to life and they were AMAZING! By the end of 4 days we had created a 40 minute show, and the young performers were absolute professionals on the stage, working so hard to support each other and to put on a show that was jammed full of their ideas. We were so proud of them all.
We were particularly impressed by the amount of research the children did - bringing in information that they’d researched at home, with one child having been to the Imperial War Museum specifically to research the period. It was great to see the group of children realise what an incredible figure Clare was, and what we’ve lost with her passing. The way they worked to remind the audience of all the great things Clare was - ‘a journalist… a feminist… a rebel…’ really inspired us and gave us some ideas that we might take for our own show.
Thank you to everyone who came along for the week, and for all the supportive families who came to see the show. We hope you enjoyed it - and rest assured, we’ll be running Theatre Weeks again very soon...