Thanks so much for getting us involved in the project. As a group of performers the challenge for us was how to create a piece of theatre that was interactive but clearly communicated certain ideas without sounding patronizing. We sought to create something that allowed the young people to come to their own conclusions rather than repeat messages that we had given them. We were also challenged by how to present more negative views without directly referring to people such as teachers or parents. We came up with a number of strategies one of those being 'The International Barrier Bureau: putting up barriers where there need be none'. Through this we could explore certain beliefs and opinions that may get in the way of young people achieving their full potential such as 'University is for posh people only!" We were delighted and amused when one young person counter argued it with the statement "No it's not. My sister went and she's not posh!" We were also really pleased at the levels of engagement and from the staff that we also asked to participate. We feel certain elements had a good impact such as:
the participation from everyone at the start when building the house, encouraged everyone to join in throughout
the use of drama as stimulus for discussion rather than the young people passively watching a performance about careers
the use of humour to tackle some key ideas such as Howard Gardeners multiple intelligences
For myself the significant moment was when I was talking to a girl about her dream job. She wanted to rescue animals. We discussed what her first steps would be to get into the job and she thought long and hard but was struggling. I offered the idea of Science being really important due to habitats, biology of animals etc and her reaction was great. She hadn't realised Science connected to what she wanted to do and it was great to see the penny drop for her and this will hopefully have an impact for her as she can now see the relevance of Science in her chosen career.
We thoroughly enjoyed both the creation and delivery of the work and found the young people really giving in their answers and were able to identify key points themselves so that they had ownership over those ideas rather than us just telling them to be ambitious they realised it for themselves!
Emma
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