New Stages

The New Stages Project, funded by the LBRuT Family Learning Department was extended in 2010 to run for twenty weeks. The project’s aim was to use drama and other creative arts to improve language skills and widen participation in cultural activities in the borough. Between January and June, participants met weekly with a drama facilitator and an EAL tutor at St Mary’s University College to take part in workshops exploring subjects from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and poetry to physical theatre and devised work. In March they visited the theatre to take part in a Blood Brothers workshop before watching the matinee performance. Over the course of the project we worked with 25 participants, with a core group of 17 attending weekly. The project ended with a sharing of work at St Mary’s University College in June, where the participants led exercises and activities and demonstrated the skills that they had acquired. The participants ranged from 2 to 56 years in age. Some of the younger participants completed the young people’s Arts Award (Bronze Level) and some of the adult participants completed a unit towards the Level 2 ESOL certification.