Theatre Centre brings world-class theatre straight into the heart of schools. We've been touring for nearly 70 years and providing exciting, creative resources for teachers and students. We commission professional artists, designers, writers, teachers and practitioners to create cutting edge work with young people (and theatre!) at the centre. Theatre Centre is an Arts Council registered National Portfolio Organisation.
Theatre Centre brings world-class theatre straight into the heart of schools. We've been touring for nearly 70 years and providing exciting, creative resources for teachers and students. We commission professional artists, designers, writers, teachers and practitioners to create cutting edge work with young people (and theatre!) at the centre. Theatre Centre is an Arts Council registered National Portfolio Organisation.
An exploration of anxiety through the use of a short radio play. This first lesson is free and can be taught in isolation. The entire scheme of work is available to purchase.
In this lesson students will listen to a 2 and a half minute scene where Ella and her boyfriend, Harry, discuss plans for the school prom. Students will consider what aspects of Ella’s life are making her feel anxious and what support she could seek. They will also consider Harry’s response to her anxiety and discuss how his wellbeing could also be considered.
Objectives:
To understand how pressures can contribute to anxiety
To be able to explain symptoms of anxiety
To explore ways to manage anxiety for self and others
This resource includes the first scene of the radio play in audio and written format, a ppt lesson and supporting worksheets.
Suitable for both Drama lessons and PSHE.
This journal is for KS3 though due to the open ended nature, can be appropiate for KS4 and 5. Suitable for remote learning.
Through the 13 Chapters, young people will be given the space to observe, reflect and respond to big topics and themes central to our current world to promote positive mental health and wellbeing. This is a space to stretch your imagination and be creative.
The Chapters can be completed in order or hand-picked for the context of your class. Students will follow the same explorative structure to create reflective work for each Chapter. See how to guide to learn more.
This chapter explores the theme of change, looking at other artists interpretations to the theme as a starting point to devising a creative response.
Liven up evaluative discussion around performance work with these performance and self evaluation dice.
There are 3 templates included here for you to cut out and stick together to make three separate sentence starter dice.
Students roll the dice and complete the sentence that the dice lands on.
This resource offers lots of flexibility for use. They can be used individually in class to encourage more varied verbal responses or as sentence starters for written work. These could also be passed around during class discussion to kick start conversations around themes and techniques after watching performance work.
Blank template also provided to write sentence starters more specific to the piece being studied or to further develop thinking. Students can use the blank template to create their own evaluation dice and challenge a classmate to complete their sentence starters.
Differentiate your evaluative and reflective moments of the lesson with freedom of choice, by asking students to roll two or more dice and allowing them to select which sentence to complete.
Sentences focus on a range of performance, technical and group work skills.
Eg:
Theme/context -
• The performance left me wondering about…
Acting skills -
• An example of where an actor used voice to show their character’s feelings was…
Self evaluation -
• If I could perform the piece again, I could improve it by….
What are Switched On toolkits?
Teaching resources that support engaging PSHE lessons at KS3 and KS4.
Each Toolkit contains:
Short professional radio play
4 hours of lesson plans
Student work booklet
Powerpoint
Guidelines for creating a safe space for teaching PSHE
Theatre Centre specialise in using realistic third-person scenarios to open up safe classroom discussions about difficult subjects. Each scheme of work is centered around a professional radio play. This bundle contains FOUR teaching toolkits on the following topics:
CONSENT
MENTAL HEALTH
FINANCIAL LITERACY
ONLINE SAFETY
More information on the content covered in the lessons:
Toolkit 1: RSE (Consent) - Viral. Students will be learning :
Relationships Strand
To establish clear personal boundaries around those aspects of their lives they wish to be private, shared only with specific people, and made public. To understand their right to privacy
That consent is freely given and that being pressurised, manipulated or coerced to agree to something is not consent; that the seeker of consent is responsible for ensuring that consent has been given and if consent is not given or is withdrawn, that decision should always be respected
The law in relation to consent (including the legal age of consent for sexual activity, the legal definition of consent and the responsibility in law for the seeker of consent to ensure that consent has been given)
How to seek the consent of another person and be sure that consent has been given; how to assertively withhold or withdraw consent
Toolkit 2: Mental Health - Perfect Pressure. Students will be learning:
Wellbeing strand
To evaluate the extent to which their self-confidence and self-esteem are affected by the judgements of others
The characteristics of emotional and mental health and the causes, symptoms and treatments of some mental and emotional health disorders (including stress, anxiety and depression)
Strategies for managing mental health including stress, anxiety and depression; a broader range of strategies for promoting their own emotional wellbeing
Relationships Strand
Strategies to manage strong emotions and feelings
The characteristic and benefits of positive, strong, supportive, equal relationships
Managing changes in personal relationships including the ending of relationships
The role peers can play in supporting one another (including helping vulnerable friends to access reliable, accurate and appropriate support)
Living in the wider world strand
To evaluate their own personal strengths and areas for development and to use this to inform goal setting
About the information, advice and guidance available to them and how to access it
Toolkit 3: Financial Literacy - Tick. Students will be learning:
Living in the wider world strand
To assess and manage risk in relation to financial decisions that young people make
To explore social and moral dilemmas about the use of money, (including how the choices young people make as consumers affect others’ economies and environments)
Toolkit 4: Online Safety - One Million Likes. Students will be learning:
Relationships strand
The safe and responsible use of information communication technology (including safe management of own and others’ personal data including images)
To understand the terms ‘habit’, ‘dependence’ and ‘addiction’ in a wide variety of contexts (including substance use and information technology) and where and how to access support if they have concerns
Living in the wider world strand
How social media can offer opportunities to engage with a wide variety of views on different issues
To recognise how social media can also distort situations or issues; can narrow understanding and appear to validate these narrow views
**Included: **
Radio Play
Student Workbook
Lesson plans
PowerPoint
This fresh and modern radio play, Tick by Kenny Emson, is designed to spark conversation and develop understanding around Financial Literacy; focusing specifically on debt, loans and money management. The protagonist, Ben, is 18 years old and finds himself in financial difficulty after trying to keep up with his friends.
This unit of work begins by listening to the radio play and the lessons that follow build an environment to discuss sensitive subjects in a safe way by unpacking and making sense of the world the characters live in. Lessons focus on the financial pressures facing Ben, how he could have considered better choices and how he might work to overcome his debt.
As a Theatre Company for young people, we specialise in using realistic third-person scenarios to open up safe discussions about difficult subjects.
Engaging PSHE lessons for KS3
Students will be learning:
Living in the wider world strand
To assess and manage risk in relation to financial decisions that young people make
To explore social and moral dilemmas about the use of money, (including how the choices young people make as consumers affect others’ economies and environments)
This unit of work is written to spark conversation and develop understanding around online safety; focusing specifically on how life offline can be comprised of wanting to gain popularity on social media. The protagonist, Ava, is 15 years old and notices a stain on her neck which won’t come off as she finds herself becoming more and more reliant on social media to feel good about herself. This unit of work introduces the audio play and focuses on why Ava uses social media to feel more popular and where this leads her.
The scheme begins by listening to the radio play and the lessons that follow build an environment to tackle issues around online safety in a safe way by unpacking and making sense of the world the characters live in. Student activity booklet also provided.
As a Theatre Company for young people, we specialise in using realistic third-person scenarios to open up safe discussions about difficult subjects. The radio play included is One Million Likes by Sarah Davies.
Engaging PSHE lessons for KS3
Students will be learning:
Online Safety - One Million Likes. Students will be learning:
Relationships strand
The safe and responsible use of information communication technology (including safe management of own and others’ personal data including images)
To understand the terms ‘habit’, ‘dependence’ and ‘addiction’ in a wide variety of contexts (including substance use and information technology) and where and how to access support if they have concerns
Living in the wider world strand
How social media can offer opportunities to engage with a wide variety of views on different issues
To recognise how social media can also distort situations or issues; can narrow understanding and appear to validate these narrow views
What are Switched On toolkits?
Teaching resources for engaging PSHE lessons at KS3 and KS4. This specific scheme of work is most suitable for Year 9. We have had feedback that it has also been used successfully with KS4.
In your Switched On Toolkit you will find:
Short professional radio play
4 hours of lesson plans
Student work booklet to help guide the learning
Powerpoint
Guidelines for creating a safe space for teaching consent
As a Theatre Company for young people, we specialise in using realistic third-person scenarios to open up safe discussions about difficult subjects. Each scheme of work is centered around a professional radio play. This toolkit contains teaching resources for RSE (Consent).
The unit of work begins by allowing the class to listen to a short radio play about consent. The play is a modern piece written by contemporary writer, Nessah Muthy. This play was specifically written for use in the PSHE classroom. The characters are fictional, and yet the situations explored are very realistic and relatable for a young audience.
Viral, by Nessah Muthy, sparks conversation and develops understanding around consent for Year 9+. In the audio play, the protagonist, Paige, is 15 years old and is experiencing conflicting feelings around intimacy within her new relationship. A preview of the play is available on Theatre Centre website on the listed product page.
This scheme of work covers the following aims:
• Relationships Strand
• To establish clear personal boundaries around those aspects of their lives they wish to be private, shared only with specific people, and made public. To understand their right to privacy
• Understand that consent is freely given and that being pressurised, manipulated or coerced to agree to something is not consent; that the seeker of consent is responsible for ensuring that consent has been given and if consent is not given or is withdrawn, that decision should always be respected
• Understand the law in relation to consent (including the legal age of consent for sexual activity, the legal definition of consent and the responsibility in law for the seeker of consent to ensure that consent has been given)
• Understand the importance of seeking the consent of another person and how to be sure that consent has been given; how to assertively withhold or withdraw consent
This resource is a script:
UP IN YOUR HEAD
BY JON BRITTAIN
All the things you have thought of while in lockdown and more.
Note from the author: This play can be performed by any number of actors (or indeed, just by one.) Distribute the lines however feels best. And feel free to cut lines or change references that don’t feel right for you. In fact to be honest, do what you like. Just keep it snappy.
*One thing to note is the line “What does 30,000 people even look like?” This was written when that was the overall covid death toll - so that can either be kept as was or updated to reflect the current death toll.
19 of the UK’s most exciting writers have written a collection of stories for the nation to perform and record. In August 2020, we ran a Festival to celebrate ImagiNation and screened 19 films made up of submissions from people all over the UK. You can see the films on our YouTube channel.
The Imagination plays are the perfect provision to use in your school with a Drama or English class, or as something for your Drama Club to do at home via zoom while you can’t meet in person as a great way to feel connected. Get your students to record whole stories or just a line or paragraph from one of the plays. It’s up to you. You don’t need any acting experience at all. We just want you to enjoy telling a story. ImagiNation is supported by a series of ‘How to…’ videos to give you some tips from top professionals on directing, acting, voice and filming.
This resource contains access to the digital play and the first two PSHE lessons that explore the play Birds & Bees by Charlie Josphine.
Slide 2 of the ppt has more information on how to access the digital recording of the play, along with the rest of the resources. Free to all state schools in the UK until July 2021.
Birds and Bees is a brand-new show by award-winning writer Charlie Josephine, tailor-made and filmed for secondary school students. Developed with, and for, Year 10 and Year 11 students, it will help teachers address complex topics such as consent, sex positivity, online safety and intersectionality.
What teachers are saying:
*“Invaluable resource with great planning for lessons pre and post. Effective resource for GCSE play review question because we can access the performance all year to review in class. The play itself is great to raise important discussions around SRE in schools. I think it was really effective for my pupils to understand / see a non-binary character who they could relate to or be educated on. I use Theatre Centre every year and they do not disappoint!”
"I thought that it was very accessible, relatable to our young people and addressed topics that are both current and prevalent. "
“The kids will love it! So current and with such an important message.” *
This resource contains access to the digital play and the first two drama lessons that explore the play Birds & Bees by Charlie Josphine.
Slide 2 of the ppt has more information on how to access the digital recording of the play, along with the rest of the resources. Free to all state schools in the UK until July 2021.
Birds and Bees is a brand-new show by award-winning writer Charlie Josephine, tailor-made and filmed for secondary school students. Developed with, and for, Year 10 and Year 11 students, it will help teachers address complex topics such as consent, sex positivity, online safety and intersectionality.
What teachers are saying:
*“Invaluable resource with great planning for lessons pre and post. Effective resource for GCSE play review question because we can access the performance all year to review in class. The play itself is great to raise important discussions around SRE in schools. I think it was really effective for my pupils to understand / see a non-binary character who they could relate to or be educated on. I use Theatre Centre every year and they do not disappoint!”
"I thought that it was very accessible, relatable to our young people and addressed topics that are both current and prevalent. "
“The kids will love it! So current and with such an important message.” *
This resource is a script:
SKY
BY ALEX CRITOPH.
Mother Nature is holed up in a cottage listening to Lizzo; and she needs to get something off her chest.
19 of the UK’s most exciting writers have written a collection of stories for the nation to perform and record. In August 2020, we ran a Festival to celebrate ImagiNation and screened 19 films made up of submissions from people all over the UK. You can see the films on our YouTube channel.
The Imagination plays are the perfect provision to use in your school with a Drama or English class, or as something for your Drama Club to do at home via zoom while you can’t meet in person as a great way to feel connected. Get your students to record whole stories or just a line or paragraph from one of the plays. It’s up to you. You don’t need any acting experience at all. We just want you to enjoy telling a story. ImagiNation is supported by a series of ‘How to…’ videos to give you some tips from top professionals on directing, acting, voice and filming.
Learning outcomes
These resources are designed to continue to embed ideas and dramatic techniques explored in Rise Up into the student’s learning and assist them in applying these ideas to their own work.
Summary
Students will have the opportunity to develop their skills in numerous areas within the Drama curriculum. The plans aim to enable students to create monologues, build character backstories and imagined future life, explore ideas around segregation and the marking of territory, investigate the role of performance poetry within plays and narratives, draw upon the example of the Freedom Riders to recognise and fight oppression in their own lives and
on gain more information on writing reviews. These session plans may be adapted or combined to suit the needs of your pupils. We’d be very pleased to hear your feedback, or any suggestions you have for developing these resources further.
The Play
Rise Up by Lisa Evans. Age advice 13+
The tide was turning – though local governments disagreed, it would soon be illegal to segregate black Americans from white Americans on public buses, in waiting rooms or in restaurants.
And yet – in the early 1960s, many states across the south of America kept discriminating against African-Americans…
In modern day Britain, four actor-storytellers tell the stories of the Freedom Riders – principled citizens riding buses across Alabama and Mississippi, drawing attention to this illegal discrimination, and facing up to terrifying violence with peaceful resistance.
The story of the Freedom Riders is one of ordinary people becoming a civil rights movement, taking on the establishment and changing the world. In a time of Michael Brown, and Trayvon Martin, and Mark Duggan, what does it mean for people to come together and rise up?
**The lesson plans contain extracts of the script and a full copy of the text can be purchased directly from the Theatre Centre website.
Learning outcomes
These resources are designed to continue to embed ideas and dramatic techniques explored in Twist into students’ learning and assist them in applying these ideas to their own work. The play text can be used as a starting point to build into their own devised work.
Summary
Students will have the opportunity to develop their skills in numerous areas within the Drama curriculum. The session plans have been designed to provide ideas for drama lessons and include work on: approaches to characterisation, units and objectives, exploring Abo’s journey, cross-cutting, constructing dramatic contrasts and writing a review. These session plans may be adapted or combined to suit the needs of your pupils.
The Play
Twist by Chinonyerem Odimba
Synopsis:
In a radical reimagining of Charles Dickens’ classic novel, we follow one refugee’s journey, buffeted between borders and bad company.
Twist transforms Oliver’s struggle for sanctuary into a modern tale framed by the global crisis fast defining the 21st century.
Teeming with Dickens’ audacious characters, this production marks a bold collaboration for Theatre Centre, pioneers of new writing for young audiences.
Rising-star Chino Odimba has written for National Theatre and was shortlisted for the Bruntwood Prize.
Theatre Centre’s first adaptation in over a decade, this retelling of a Victorian masterpiece will challenge intolerance with urgency and compassion.
Extracts of the script are included and the full text can be purchased directly from the Theatre Centre website.
Learning Outcomes
These resources are designed to continue to embed ideas and dramatic techniques explored in Layla’s Room by Sabrina Mahfouz and assist them in applying these ideas to their own work.
Summary
Students will have the opportunity to develop their skills in numerous areas within the Drama curriculum. The plans aim to enable students to explore the representation of women in the media, devise scenes based on stimuli, work with an extract of text and to write a review. These session plans may be adapted or combined to suit the needs of your pupils. Extracts of the script are included and the full play text is available direct from the Theatre Centre website.
Layla’s Room by Sabrina Mahfouz
Respect women, respect girls. Respect yourselves. Remember you are everyone who’s gone before you and you are nobody that has ever been, so make it count, make it special, make a difference, make people listen, love the women who have loved you and watch us make the world move to a better place.
For Layla, every day is a battleground.
The pay gap, the thigh gap, over-sexed pop and selfies that are photoshopped – they’re just part of the world she lives in.
But that world is about to change.
While breaking out of her bedroom – and with drama, comedy, poetry and music as her weapons – Layla breaks down and makes sense of the realities, difficulties and absurdities of teenage life in the UK today.
Collected from a bespoke national survey, the voices of a thousand UK teens are brought to life in Layla. Their ambitions, concerns, role-models and regrets are woven together by award-winning Sabrina Mahfouz and theatre company Theatre Centre, offering a hard-hitting, yet hopeful, story.
Layla’s Room received its world premiere at Redbridge Drama Centre on 15 September 2016 in a production by Theatre Centre. It is ideal for students and young performers between 16 and 18 years old.
Learning Outcomes
Students will explore Characters, Themes, Brecht and Epic Theatre Devices and Devising techniques.
The Border by Afsanah Gray
The Border is a high energy, outrageous Brechtian parable that explores the lines we draw between ourselves and other people, and the absurdities of borders.
Life is turned upside down in one small town as East Oolia shuts the border with West Oolia, dividing here from there, us from them, this from that despite all the fruit tasting the same. In the midst of it all, Stranger, a young girl’s beloved dog, has gone missing. Will Stranger be found before the border closes, or will she be trapped forever on the “wrong” side? With rumours of dog theft and whispers of runaway immigration, how far will the mayor dare to go in her fight for re-election? Does the refugee boy hold the clue to Stranger’s disappearance?
These lessons contain extracts and the entire play can be purchased online directly from Theatre Centre.
Learning outcomes
These resources are designed to continue to embed ideas and dramatic techniques explored in The Muddy Choir into the student‟s learning and assist them in applying these ideas to their own
work. Extracts of the play included with the lesson plans and individual or class sets of the full text can be purchased directly from the Theatre Centre website.
The Play
Nominated for Best New Play for Young Audiences, Muddy Choir (Age 13+) by Jesse Britton, tells the story of three soldiers serving with the Durham Light Infantry. Including traditional wartime songs, the play is about childhood friends growing up in unbearable circumstances and the humanising power of music.
Summary of Lessons
Students will have the opportunity to develop their skills in numerous areas within the Drama curriculum. The plans focus on developing skills in improvisation, character development, the
use of song within narrative development, strategies for devising, character status and children’s learning across a variety of areas including literacy. These session plans may be adapted or
combined to suit the needs of your pupils.
Guided online sessions and writing exercises that explore the fundamentals of developing characters; finding a voice and turning ideas into stories; and the power of metaphor. Suitable for Drama and English lessons.
This is a pre-recorded video lesson and contains some student responses. Simply press play on the video to be guided through the tasks.
This course is intended for young people aged between 11 – 16 years old. All sessions contain a 40 minute guided video lesson, supporting activity sheets and are led by professional writers.
Suitable for Open, Closed or Partially Closed Schools. These resources were created as a response to the challenges schools are facing during the Covid 19 outbreak. They were filmed during the first lockdown in 2020. They are fully subsidised by Theatre Centre who are a registered non profit charity.
Lesson 7 - Leo Skilbeck. Devising On The Page.
Guided online sessions and writing exercises that explore the fundamentals of developing characters; finding a voice and turning ideas into stories; and the power of metaphor. Suitable for Drama and English lessons.
This is a pre-recorded video lesson and contains some student responses. Simply press play on the video to be guided through the tasks.
This course is intended for young people aged between 11 – 16 years old. All sessions contain a 40 minute guided video lesson, supporting activity sheets and are led by professional writers.
Suitable for Open, Closed or Partially Closed Schools. These resources were created as a response to the challenges schools are facing during the Covid 19 outbreak. They were filmed during the first lockdown in 2020. They are fully subsidised by Theatre Centre who are a registered non profit charity.
Lesson 6 - Chinonyerem Odimba, How To Write a Great Opening Scene.
