DRAMAWORKS
“I want to move on in life, leave all this crime stuff behind me. ‘Cos I ain’t exactly getting anything out of it, except for a four by four cell. And I don’t exactly want to be in there.”
DramaWorks Participant
DramaWorks is an intensive drama programme designed to engage young people facing multiple disadvantages who may not otherwise access the arts. Participants work in small groups using games, improvisation and writing exercises to create a short play. At the end of the programme, participants get a chance to direct professional actors in a staged reading of their play.
DramaWorks is an innovative project that allows participants to build confidence, literacy, communication and emotional literacy skills in a supportive and creative environment.
Read a selection of scripts written by DramaWorks participants:
‘Ells (November 2011)
Breaking Shells (February 2011)
Antwan’s Choice (November 2010)
Frank (August 2010)
Missing Fila (April 2009)
Recent Partners:
High NRG Youth Club
Stonewall Housing
Southwark Theatres Education Partnership
Southwark Social Services
Southwark Intensive Surveillance and Supervision Programme
BLACK HISTORY PROJECTS
“Learning that children in the 60s didn’t have the right to an education, I’ll appreciate school more.”
Collective Artistes provides bespoke projects that help groups explore how black history impacts our lives in Britain today. Recent projects have included:
Black History Month 2011
CA worked with Islington Arts and Media School’s year 11 BTEC students to createand perform two short plays in response to CA’s productions of ‘The Meeting’ and ‘The African Company Presents Richard III’. Participants got a chance to perform with professional actors at the new Platform youth space in Islington.
Read their scripts: The Value of Life and Too Dear
Black History Exhibition & Performance
CA showcased an exhibition of the history and legacy of civil rights in Britain at Hyde Housing’s 2011 Black History Month event. The evening included activities linked to the exhibition, games and a performance by CA Board Memeber Juwon Ogungbe.
Recent Partners:
Islington BME Forum
Islington Arts and Media School
Hyde Plus Housing
LEADERSHIP PROJECT
“If you asked me [about leadership] now, it would be someone who actually worked for their leadership. Not for popularity, but to actually lead people for a reason.”
“I didn’t know any people who were black leaders who helped abolish slavery who were from Britain. I only knew people from America. And I’m not American. I’m from Britain.”
In 2007 and 2008, CA worked with three schools in Southwark, Lewisham and Greenwich to explore the history and legacy of black leaders in the UK. Participants created and toured a play that explored historical personages from Roman times to the present day and investigated the role of leadership in today’s society. They also helped to create a resource pack and led training workshops with teachers, helping them better engage students in black history.
Click here to download the Leadership Project Resource Pack.
Collective Artistes continues to deliver one-off 90-minute Leadership Project workshops for schools and youth groups.
