Category Archives: Drama

Music Working Group

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The subject working group for Music convened for the initial meeting on Monday 3 February

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The subject working group provided an opportunity to discuss the development of creative approaches to music education across sectors. This working group mirrors the groups being brought together from the other Expressive Arts subject areas, Art & Design, Drama and Dance who will feed in to the Expressive Arts conversation days.

We would invite practitioners across sectors to share their thoughts and views.

Rapture Theatre Company Education Project

Rapture Theatre Company, in association with Mull Theatre, will be touring their spring season production of the Scottish comedy Uncle Varick to theatre venues across Scotland from April – June, 2014.
Uncle Varick, written by artist and writer John Byrne (author of Tutti Frutti and The Slab Boys), is a raucously funny adaptation of Chekov’s classic play Uncle Vanya, relocated to 1960’s rural Scotland.
Set against a sensational sixties soundtrack, arranged and performed by Dave “Wildcat” Anderson, the production stars
Scottish theatre legend Jimmy Chisholm (Para Handy and High Road) and is directed by Michael Emans.

Education Programme

Rapture Theatre Company are currently developing their education programme to ensure a relevant and sustainable approach to learning through creative participation.
As part of this programme, a pilot project involving the up-coming production of Uncle Varick is in progress. The intention for this project is to offer a CPD opportunity for up to six teachers from several Local Authorities to work in partnership with the company, resulting in a learning template which compliments the production and will be made available for use within schools across Scotland. The project will focus on the subject of “Adaptation” exploring it from the different perspective of the creative processes involved in writing and producing a successful adaptation. It is also our hope to introduce a series of mentoring and training placements for schools as well as develop our learning programme through the offer of Masterclasses and Participation & Engagement schemes (FREE TRANSPORT – funding dependent).
For more information on this project, group booking details and tour dates, please contact our Project & Education Coordinator by email at: christina-rapturetheatre@outlook.com

School Flyer Education Programme

Primary curriculum conversation day – Friday 7 March

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Education Scotland is holding a conversation day focused on the primary curriculum on Friday 7 March in Duloch Primary School, Dunfermline. This event is aimed at school leaders.  We are keen to take stock of how the curriculum is developing in primary schools and hear school leaders’ views and experiences.

The purpose of the day is to:
•    consider how the curriculum is developing in the primary sector, particularly in relation to the raised expectations; and
•    identify areas that require further support and what that support needs to look like.

There will be opportunities to hear from a variety of colleagues as to how they are taking forward curriculum development at a strategic level in their schools as well as time for discussion.

If you would be interested in attending please contact margaret.mcguinness@educationscotland.gov.uk. Places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Please note travel expenses are not paid for conversation days.

The Alhambra Theatre – Horrible Histories

If you think history is all boring lists of dates of battles & dreary kings & queens then you obviously haven’t discovered Terry Deary’s hugely popular Horrible History books which tell you all about the yucky, disgusting & funny bits of history that teachers don’t tell you! Now history is about to become even more fun with the arrival on stage of two of these Horrible History books. Some of the best bits from ‘Terrible Tudors’ & ‘Awful Egyptians’ have been turned into plays to bring historical figures to life in front of your very eyes

Date : 14th & 15th February

Shows : Terrible Tudors at 11.30am and Awful Egyptians at 3.00pm

Tickets : Adults £14.00, U16 £12.00, Family Ticket £48.00 + booking fee*

Available from – www.ticketmaster.co.uk; tel 08444 99 99 90

Theatre Box Office, opening hours 9am to 4pm, tel : 01383 740384

*A booking fee of £2.00 will be applied to all tickets purchased from the Alhambra Theatre Box Office. Booking fee on tickets purchased through other agencies may vary.

YMTS (Youth Music Theatre Scotland) Fife Projects

YMTS (Youth Music Theatre Scotland) are now based here in Fife and work with Fife Cultural Trust delivering music theatre for young people through the ON creative programme throughout Fife.  We have weekly classes leading to Trinity Guildhall exams and holiday production projects in every school break –  the most expensive in 2013 was £180 for a 3 week production project of Phantom of the Opera(Scottish Youth Premier) last summer.  We are completely open access with no audition to join – we cast from within the course participants. Our practitioner base is drawn from local, national and international teaching artists.

We will have a full ON Fest summer programme for 2014 available from mid February, and our opportunities for young people in Fife to take part in the Fringe soon after.  Applications open now for our Easter ‘HONK!’ and ‘Into the Woods’ projects at Adam Smith Theatre.

ON at Fife Theatres – Spring 2014 – Secondary Schools

Below are all the performances available at theatres across Fife ( Adam Smith Theatre, Carnegie Hall, Lochgelly Centre and Rothes Halls), suitable for secondary aged pupils.

ON at Adam Smith Theatre

  • National  Theatre Live Broadcast Coriolanus
  • Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler is brought to the stage at Adam Smith Theatre by Icarus Theatre Collective bringing one of the earliest challenges to modern patriarchy, a brazen precursor to feminism and gender equality.
  • The World Premiere of Dare To Care is a co-production between Stellar Quines and Fife Cultural Trust and highlights the difficulties faced by women facing a spell behind bars. Suitable for age 14+.Special School price £5. Dare to Care also at Lochgelly Centre.
  • Also suitable for age 14+, Borderline Theatre Company in Association with the Palace Theatre Kilmarnock presents – A Slow Air, a play written and directed by the Olivier Award winning writer, David Harrower. Special Schools price £5
  • The Unremarkable Death of Marlyn Monroe is a one-woman show which shows Monroe as you’ve never seen her before. Suitable for age 14+ with a special schools price of £5.
  • National theatre Live Broadcast – King Lear

ON at Carnegie Hall

  • Tortoise in a Nutshell in Co-production with Cumbernauld Theatre present Feral. An innovative piece of visual theatre that combines puppetry, film and live sound. Suitable for Age 13+. Special schools price £5. Free workshops are also available in conjuncture with the production.
  • Adapted by Ian Wilkinson from the book by Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped is brought to Carnegie Hall by Sell A Door Theatre Company. This is an imaginative re-telling of the classic story and is perfect for young and old audiences alike. Suitable of age 6+. Special schools price £7. Workshops will be available – details to be confirmed.
  • The Ballad of Pondlife McGurk is a coming of age tale about friendship, bullying and overcoming adversity brought to Carnegie Hall by Catherine Wheels. Suitable for Age 9+
  • Visible Fictions present Robin Hood, a silly and unexpected take on Robin Hood. Suitable for Age 7+

ON at Rothes Halls

  • Suitable for ages 11-18 yrs, Charioteer Theatre present To Be Or….Note! Through performances and interactive workshops students will learn how to overcome indecision, map out their identities and deal with the difficulties of ‘growing up’.

ON at Lochgelly Centre

  • Suitable for ages 11-18 yrs, Charioteer Theatre present Treasure Island. Through performances and interactive workshops students will learn how to overcome indecision, map out their identities and deal with the difficulties of ‘growing up’.

BBC Commonwealth Film making competition

School story competition – promoting your school, community and Commonwealth values (extended deadline: 21 February 2014).

The BBC are looking for 3 schools – 1 in the UK and 2 from other Commonwealth countries who will make a film with the help of a TV crew, which best reflects the Commonwealth values and shares what it means to be a global citizen.

Winning schools will have their films featured on the BBC Commonwealth Class website www.bbc.co.uk/commonwealthclass.

Youth Music Theatre UK – auditions

Throughout January and February, Youth Music Theatre UK, the UK’s national music theatre company for young people (aged 11 – 21), will be heading to 24 cities across the UK looking for talented young performers and musicians to star in their new body of music theatre this summer. Now in their 10th year, they will be performing nine brand new shows right across the UK from London to Belfast as well as at the Aberdeen International Youth Festival in summer 2014.

They’re holding four auditions dates in Scotland: Sat 15 Feb – Glasgow (Scottish Youth Theatre), Sun 16 Feb – Edinburgh (The Studio at the Festival Theatre), Mon 17 Feb – Inverness (Spectrum Centre), Tue 18 Feb – Aberdeen (Danscentre).

For more information, download the flyers below:

Performer Audtions Flyer

Musician Auditions Flyer

Education Scotland’s Learning Blog recent post: Expressive Arts Conversation Day 2

As agreed prior to the initial Expressive Arts Conversation Day that was held in Stirling on 25th November 2013,  for those local authorities who were unable to send representatives to the first event, a second national Expressive Arts Conversation Day will take place at Eden Court Theatre on Friday 28th March, from 9.45 am to 3.45 pm.

The event will have two key purposes:

  • to identify and discuss emerging and known issues in relation to expressive arts education with a view to agreeing actions to overcome the challenges associated with these issues
  • to establish a national primary expressive arts community