Beginners
A very angry Cook and the Cat chase, Dick Whittington, December 2013
Rehearsals and performance of Vote Earth!, Mareel, March 2014
Ben Goddard’s visit, May 2014
Beginners was an ongoing term time drama project for 7-12 year olds in Shetland, run by Stomping Ground in partnership with Shetland Arts. It ran from September 2013-December 2014. Our weekly workshops explored a range of drama skills, focusing on a different aspect of theatre each term while developing our acting abilities and of course having lots of fun! Our focus was always on enjoyment and imaginative play, and the term culminated in a performance for friends and family.
After Sian (our Creative Director) moved back to England, Beginners classes ended in December 2014. Shetland Arts have continued our model, and now run drama classes for the same age group on Saturday mornings at Mareel.
Please contact John Haswell at Shetland Arts to find out more: john.haswell@shetlandarts.org
Make a Scene II
In August 2014, Stomping Ground and Shetland Arts brought back their successful summer project for a second year, this time running two consecutive weeks of theatre making, game playing, character creating and storytelling.
Using Theatre of the Absurd as a starting point, we gave the participants stimulus connected with nonsense, and from there their imaginations took over to create two wildly different but equally brilliant short plays. Here a few photos from both weeks:
Week One: The Adventures of Dr. Stilts
Ideas generated by the group, from a series of nonsense images given to them:
Fish siblings:
Making a potion to create a robot suit:
The demise of Sheep Hot Air Balloon:
Week Two: Yack Man!
Our Absurd nonsense play:
A little boy sitting on a rock shouting “Nonsense!”:
There was a noise…it was getting CLOSER!:
Yack Man appeared:
Mr. Stilts VS. Yack Man:
Yack Man and his Hot Yack Balloon collide with a tree:
Make A Scene
Shetland Arts and Stomping Ground came together in the summer of 2013 to produce a brand new summer project full of theatre making, for anyone aged between 7 and 21. Participants learnt about lots of different drama techniques, told stories, created new characters, played fun games and made lots of new friends.
The project was split into two groups, with Stomping Ground running the 7-12 age group and John Haswell from Shetland Arts running the 12-21 group. Both groups used the same stimulus of melodrama to create two entirely different performances at The Garrison Theatre, which were created entirely using our participants’ ideas and facilitated by us.
The younger group created a fantastical story about a terrible ringmaster called Zango the Great, who kidnapped a young girl and re-named her Evil-Ella. She was however saved by the bravery of her pet bird, and six cousins!
The older group created a brand new melodrama concerning a despicable, poverty stricken aristocrat who pursued the daughter of a rich trade family. It was full of intrigue, music, desperate deeds and theatrical cliché.
The audience loved them both!
Testimonials from the project:
“The children had a great week – everybody did, judging by the performance on Friday, which was brilliant. No suggestions for improvement, except more of the same.”
“Absolutely excellent week at the Garrison, and the show on Friday was witty and entertaining. I hope that there are more workshops in the near future.”
“The children had a wonderful time and were so excited…..I still have the circus tune playing in my head!! It was great for them to meet other children here and feel included as we are just visiting Shetland. One of them has based her holiday homework (the best event of the summer) on her week at the drama.”
“What a fabulous week the youngsters had and a great performance. They are all asking ‘What about next year’!”
