Freelance drama workshops for various schools and organisations. Here are a few examples of my work:

Cross Lane Primary, Elland

A project called ‘The Voice Within’ targeted at developing communication skills amongst a small group of year 1 and 2 boys. A week-long project exploring drama and storytelling and culminating in the creation of a new story.

Applefields Special School, York

Three creative whole-school week long projects exploring the Olympics,  the Grand Depart and creating stories. Also a celebration of the school’s new performance space/hall. These projects culminated in whole-school sharing events.

Applefields Olympic flame and mascot

Barmby Moor Primary – school pantomime

Writing and Directing a school pantomime for the whole of KS2 to perform. For more information about this particular project click here

York Stories

I was heavily involved in the City of York Council’s York Stories 2012 initiative that aimed to collect the stories of the people of York for their York 800 celebrations and store them for posterity. Activities included running staff training sessions on gathering storyboxes, children’s storymaking workshops, and interviewing York residents; recording and writing up their recollections.

Creative Partnerships – Priory Woods and Beverley Special Schools, Middlesbrough

Using drama to help understand and express emotions among students with little language and communication skills. Helping a group of mixed age students with special needs to understand and express emotions (in line with Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) through the use of drama and dance. For this project I collaborated with a b-boy specialist and we devised a new story in which the students explored the expressing of emotion through mime, improvisation, dance and limited language. This project also incorporated staff training and the creation of a resource pack.

Creative Partnerships – St. Mary’s Primary, Selby

Exploring the positive impact that drama can have on children that are underachieving or from vulnerable groups with the intention of increasing attainment and self-belief.

Creative Partnerships – McMillan Children’s Centre Hull

In this project I was working with children aged 3-4 and their parents, both in the nursery setting and off-site in a woodland area. The project focused on exploring natural surroundings and nurturing imaginative play through, or inspired by, storytelling. As a performer I encouraged interactive telling and sharing of stories, both established and improvised. This project had a great emphasis on evaluation, both written and visual (in the form of photographs and video which I edited) and it is hoped that the combined evaluation will create a support pack/research tool for the future. This developed into an ongoing relationship with Mcmillan Children’s Centre in Hull and St. Paul’s Nursery in York where I continue to run storytelling projects and offer Early Years Staff Training sessions based on Storytelling.

Gruffalo Mud sculpture/herb garden

Creative Partnerships – St. Georges CofE Primary, Middleton St. George

Examining the telling of stories in a range of environments based on the principles of multi-modality. One class worked towards a performance of Roald Dahl’s Red Riding Hood, incorporating music from Sondheim’s Into the Woods which I arranged for various instruments. Another class looked at the filming of a TV scene; they scripted, filmed and edited their own scene, identifying areas of the school as shoot locations. A third class explored the themes from their set book (Kensuke’s Kingdom) and devised an outdoor promenade performance of short scenes depicting those themes

Other companies include:

York Theatre Royal – adult and youth theatre classes

Badapple Theatre

Bigfoot

Crossroads

Stagecentre

Stagecoach

Lynx TIE

City of York Council

In addition I have run workshops for:

Bootham Junior

Ampleforth Junior

Tockwith Players

Northern College of Accupuncture

St. Paul’s Nursery

Copmanthorpe Primary

York Musical Theatre Company

Bishop Wilton Primary

Boroughbridge Primary

Panda Playgroup

The University of Birmingham

City of York Council

S.N.A.P.P.Y.

 

For more information or to discuss availability please contact me at richard@richardkay.net