Over this past academic year Canon Lee has been building a partnership with York Theatre Royal, primarily through their PET Project Scheme (Partnership with Education and Theatre). This partnership is set to carry on and keep getting stronger in the next academic year.
As part of the Theatre's education program, it provides access to an extensive resource and their facilities as a theatre, aswell as a highly skilled education team. The projects that we do with the theatre are bespoke to a particular need by the department/subject that is involved.
Recent projects include:
Year 10 arts students were selected to take part in a project that challenged them to ask the question "What is art?". The project involved these students visiting The Artspace, a local art gallery, to view their exhibitions entitled "What is art?", and to tae part in a discussion about what makes something art and how does that effect their own art. Students had one month to produce their own piece of art work which was displayed in their own exhibition at The Artspace and it was judged by a local artist. The pieces that won went on display at York Theatre Royal. This project, in partnership with the theatre and The Artspace, was designed to highlight the subject matter of their production of ART, which is a play that explores the very question "What is art?" The Cube Club was a project run in the spring term and involved Year 5 students from our cluster primary schools taking part in a drama club at Canon Lee. These students met once a week for a whole term and explored theatre/acting skills for half a term and then put on a small production of Snow White in the second half of their time in the project. The Project was led by Julian Ollive from York Theatre Royal. The culmination of the project was a performance of Snow White in The Cube, which parents and teachers were invited to watch. This project involved 40 Design and Graphics students who took a trip to York Theatre Royal to have a backstage tour and a talk from the marketing department. They were challenged to design a ticket holder and envelope for the theatre, and returned back to school with two months to realise a practical and creative design. To end the project the marketing department visited Canon Lee to attend a lunch and exhibition of the best 20 selected designs. Some of these designs were then selected to go on display at the Theatre. This project is ongoing and involves students from our Year 7 transition group working with Jenna Drury from York Theatre Royal in their history lessons. Students have worked on role play and drama surrounding the Romans and the Medieval history topics that are covered as part of the Y7 scheme of work. This project serves a dual purpose of a) providing students with access to specialist drama teaching and b) providing training for staff to deliver history through story telling and role play techniques. As part of our partnership with York Theatre Royal fourteen of our students from across all the years are part of the theatre's Young Ambassador Scheme. As part of this scheme students are invited to press nights for productions and plays and are write reviews for school. These reviews go up on our Young Ambassador notice board so other students can see what is on and read the reviews. They also go onto the York Theatre Royal website. So far this year out students have reviewed a number of plays including Art, African Snow, The Price, Blame and Wuthering Heights. Below are a few extracts of the reviews that they wrote for these plays. by Yasmin Reza Directed by Damien Cruden "This cutting edge play, originally written by the French Yasmin Reza, is both philosophically brilliant and thought provoking. Art in the past ten years has become an international phenomenon that no one could ever have predicted...Damien Cruden's slick directing really has brought to life this play beyond even that of his predecessors, giving York a riveting and virtuoso play that shall be remembered for a long time". "Serge has bought a painting for 200,000 francs. We then find out that the painting is white and on a white canvas and if you look at it from a certain angle it has diagonal white stripes. Serge's friend Marc thinks that he is completely crazy, and quite frankly so did I. Rather weirdly as the show progressed I found myself becoming rather attracted to the painting. The actors portray the characters really well, and you can see the emotional change shifting around the characters. When the story finishes on stage it certainly does not finish in your mind, as the 90 minute show leaves you with two questions. Are your friends quite the people who you think they are, and what is art?"
The Cube Club
The Corporate Identity Project
Story Telling Through History
Young Ambassadors
Art
Chris Y10
Dominic Y11
by Murray Watts
Directed by Paul Burbridge
"On Tuesday the 18th of April 2007, I went to see African Snow at the York Theatre Royal, with the Young Ambassadors. The play was skillfully written and allowed the audience to engage and understand the characters' feelings and emotions through superb acting. It was a dramatic and exciting experience and one not easily forgotten."
"The thing I really liked about this production was the set. The moving wall was very effective when indicating where everyone was, and in what conditions...
What I though was not good was the actors having so many characters. At moments, it was hard to tell who the actors were playing. One minute someone was playing a sailor, the next a lady or a slave. It was a bit confusing at times".
The Price
by Arthur Miller
Directed by Neil Sissons
"Considering the play consisted of only four characters, the actors used this totally to their advantage. The individuality of the characters allowed the audience to find each of them on different levels and see more than one side of each character. This perhaps wouldn't have been possible if the play had less focus on dialogs and included extras".
by Jane Thornton (adapted from the novel by Emily Bronte)
Directed by Sue Dunderdale
"One thing that I found rather confusing about the play was that the five actors played a total of 12 characters. The first half of the play was the best half. It really emphasised the relationships and beliefs...I liked the moments in the play where the actors slipped out of character to explain the next part of the story or their characters feelings. This was very effective and it gave them a chance to take the unnecessary props off stage and put the needed ones on...I would recommend this play to my mother and grand parents as I believe they would enjoy it most. This was a very interesting play to watch and I am glad I got the chance to see it. An overall stunning play.