In rehearsals: Our Theatre
Our Theatre is an annual performance by Southwark students on the stages of Shakespeare’s Globe. Supported by PwC, the project is free to all participating schools and for the last 20 years has enabled students not just to visit the Globe or the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, but to take ownership of the stage.
Adam Cunis, Globe Education Practitioner directing students from Kingsdale Foundation School
This week we had our exploratory session in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse; the first time the students had been into our indoor theatre. The space is a very different prospect for performance than their school hall or the Globe itself. It’s much smaller and more intimate, demanding more subtlety, vocal diction and energy. Whilst it is important for the students to work towards the showcase in June, it is paramount to develop their skills throughout the project; building and refreshing these skills as we go, driven by their enthusiasm and the end goal of performance. The first reactions of students upon entering the Playhouse to explore the space and their ideas tell their own story:
‘Wow.’
‘It’s beautiful’
‘How many people are going to be watching us?’
‘Are we going to be on THAT stage.’
Sharing in that first moment of realisation, understanding and awe is a great experience: no longer are we talking about theories in a familiar classroom. Now we’re in a professional theatre, where those ideas are practically applied as a culmination of, and extension to, their work in class. We explored how some students would be telling the story of Richard III from the galleries and balconies and how we have an opportunity to immerse the audience in the world of the play by using different physical levels within the auditorium. There are potential entrances and exits everywhere, with low barriers between audience and stage as well as lots of aisles and doors from which to bring messages, news of Princes in towers and coronation plans, driving the story forwards. Students gleefully explored the practical aspects of making knocking sounds for the gates and entrances, taking their inherent cues from the script itself and applying this direction to the physical space that the play and players will occupy. All the while surrounded by beautiful decoration which lends its own grand sense of occasion.
Teamwork has been our watchword: we’re telling a story together, a story told many times before by many other people for many different audiences. But this is the first (and only) time that this group of students will tell this particular version of the story to this particular audience, which is really exciting. For a play very much about division and conflict we must tell our tale from a place of unity. Every time they walk on stage the feeling is impossible to contain, to capture, to put into any other words than the words of the scene and that moment.
Their spirit of play and willingness to be flexible allows us to iron out the creases and reset our scene in a new space. The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is an inspiring place to be as either audience or actor. The students can only really grasp the enormity of what they have achieved already with Richard III, as well as the work left to do before June 10, within the physical context of THEIR Stage, Our Theatre. The energetic and committed work they’ve already done as a collective will form a basis that we can return to and experiment with in the final few weeks. They have begun to lock in their movement and physicalisation of the various characters being taken on; relying on muscle memory which they can enhance with each subsequent rehearsal more confidently and with great clarity.
The session has seen students with eyes wide with wonderment or furrowed brows searching for the next line. There have been the looks of students surprising themselves when they discover that their voice can fill the whole auditorium and the careful, tentative steps of young feet on wooden stage. These experiences have combined to create a unique workshop and exploratory session that will inform the work to come, reinforce the work that is past and be a memorable experience for the group that will inspire the even more memorable performance in June.
Find out more about Our Theatre and how we work with schools.