THE FINAL SHOWING
In Week 7, we had our final session with the Year 3 group and the Year 1 group and this consisted of having a little showing of a culmination of our work with the fellow classmates of both of the groups and some of their teachers.
In Week 7, we had our final session with the Year 3 group and the Year 1 group and this consisted of having a little showing of a culmination of our work with the fellow classmates of both of the groups and some of their teachers.
With Year Three, we geared them up to do a show primarily by running them through a quick warmup which we had looked at earlier in the process. Having familiarity with this game was good since they were on board straight away and could quickly engage themselves and focus. This quick warm up was therefore very efficient. Next, we were able to run the play a couple of times where we honed in on detail as facilitators such as projection and exaggeration. The children were really excited and positive about performing, which felt quite lovely to see since it was clear that they had made a lot of progression.
The small showing was hugely successful. We didn't massively need to prompt the Year Three's that much since they fully took ownership of the work and committed rather enthusiastically. This was substantiated by the successful rehearsal process we had conducted for two weeks prior. Many of them ad-libbed in the bits that were essentially led by them, for example the part of the script where they introduced themselves as animals, and it was great to see the more confident ones extending their skills of improvisation and getting a few laughs from their peers in the audience. Our piece was eventually only five minutes long - but the five minutes perfectly summed up the essence of the last 7 weeks of the project, and everyone really enjoyed performing it. The execution flowed well - everyone, including as the Year 13s were on board in knowing their lines. We did face challenges with this group particularly since there were a few members of our group who weren't present for this final session and therefore we had to re-distribute the lines and run certain bits, nevertheless in the final showing this all worked out and it was quite successful.
The idea of feedback has been something we've tried to encourage throughout the planning of all the sessions we've had with the groups - in order to get them to reflect on their work, give constructive criticism and feel proud enough to voice their opinions. After the showing of the work, the audience had the opportunity to say what they liked as well as the Year Three's to give their experiences of the project and the performance. This was great since it challenged the Year Three's to think about the work they'd seen that had represented their local area, Croydon, as a jungle - therefore, they were still gaining an insight into the impact of the work that we had created, and perhaps feeling a sense of the response we'd hopefully given the participants of the project. Many of the people in the audience seemed to understand the feeling of the work, and we got some feedback from teachers who recalled that the piece didn't just reflect what they'd been learning about in lessons, but also the individual progress of the participants of our project were seemingly progressing in those lessons since the beginning of our project. This was so rewarding to hear as it was clear that our work had supported their learning, as well as developed the confidence of the children.
The Year One showing was equally successful, although the execution probably wasn't as swift as it was with the Year Three's. We knew that we had to give the Year One's more support as a younger group therefore myself and Zafra volunteered to lead the piece from the floor so that the Year One's could look to us directly in front of them for support and guidance throughout the piece. I'd argue that this was a good idea strategically as it improved the confidence of the children and made them more enthusiastic about what they were doing. Again, the piece was quite short yet it was followed a clear and tactile structure that the group could understand and work with and that the audience could feel thought provoked by.
Something that occurred differently with the Year 1 showing in comparison to the Year 3 showing was that we included an element of audience interaction. We knew that we'd have a younger audience watching, and we should include them within the piece to make them have as much fun as the participants of the piece. At the end of the showing, we taught the audience the dinosaur dance, led by myself and Zafra and allowed them to take part. This was perhaps one of the most successful aspects of the showing since it extended the focus not just from our community project of 7 weeks but to the other children who weren't included - and it was clear that many of the children hugely enjoyed the experience of learning a dance they'd just seen. As we taught them the dance and did it a few times, the smiles on the faces of some of the children were so big and it was lovely to see. Overall, the audience interaction was really effective. It got the audience to digest what they'd just seen physically rather than having to sustain their attention span.
Overall, both of the showings we had were short but sweet, and perfectly summed up everything we'd tackled over the last seven weeks. It was such a great experience to be able to share the work that we and the children felt proud of to an audience.
The idea of feedback has been something we've tried to encourage throughout the planning of all the sessions we've had with the groups - in order to get them to reflect on their work, give constructive criticism and feel proud enough to voice their opinions. After the showing of the work, the audience had the opportunity to say what they liked as well as the Year Three's to give their experiences of the project and the performance. This was great since it challenged the Year Three's to think about the work they'd seen that had represented their local area, Croydon, as a jungle - therefore, they were still gaining an insight into the impact of the work that we had created, and perhaps feeling a sense of the response we'd hopefully given the participants of the project. Many of the people in the audience seemed to understand the feeling of the work, and we got some feedback from teachers who recalled that the piece didn't just reflect what they'd been learning about in lessons, but also the individual progress of the participants of our project were seemingly progressing in those lessons since the beginning of our project. This was so rewarding to hear as it was clear that our work had supported their learning, as well as developed the confidence of the children.
The Year One showing was equally successful, although the execution probably wasn't as swift as it was with the Year Three's. We knew that we had to give the Year One's more support as a younger group therefore myself and Zafra volunteered to lead the piece from the floor so that the Year One's could look to us directly in front of them for support and guidance throughout the piece. I'd argue that this was a good idea strategically as it improved the confidence of the children and made them more enthusiastic about what they were doing. Again, the piece was quite short yet it was followed a clear and tactile structure that the group could understand and work with and that the audience could feel thought provoked by.
Something that occurred differently with the Year 1 showing in comparison to the Year 3 showing was that we included an element of audience interaction. We knew that we'd have a younger audience watching, and we should include them within the piece to make them have as much fun as the participants of the piece. At the end of the showing, we taught the audience the dinosaur dance, led by myself and Zafra and allowed them to take part. This was perhaps one of the most successful aspects of the showing since it extended the focus not just from our community project of 7 weeks but to the other children who weren't included - and it was clear that many of the children hugely enjoyed the experience of learning a dance they'd just seen. As we taught them the dance and did it a few times, the smiles on the faces of some of the children were so big and it was lovely to see. Overall, the audience interaction was really effective. It got the audience to digest what they'd just seen physically rather than having to sustain their attention span.
Overall, both of the showings we had were short but sweet, and perfectly summed up everything we'd tackled over the last seven weeks. It was such a great experience to be able to share the work that we and the children felt proud of to an audience.
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