I’m so excited! No it’s not just the elections. Speaking of which, did you cast your vote yet?
Alice Fernbank and I have been working on a new drama project based on A Dollop of Ghee and a Pot of Wisdom ever since I visited Cranford Park Academy where the kids were keen to dramatize it.
I met Alice in a masterclass with storyteller extraordinaire Jan Blake. Alice and I hit it off rightaway and though we told markedly different stories, we liked each others style. Our easy collaboration came to life when we had to mimic a scene without talking and we had a hilarious time doing it. And Jan called me Born to be a Clown! Really? Me?
One thing led to another, we talked, we discussed, we dreamt and then we got another one of our masterclass friends Greg McCormick involved too.
A Dollop of Drama was born for real – A workshop to bring to life the characters and stories in the book A Dollop of Ghee and a Pot of Wisdom (Walker Books, UK). The story makes speaking, reading, talking and of course interpreting of written language so much fun. I love Veera and Suku and their irreverent sense of humour and my readers always have told me they want to have similar adventures.
There you go – now you can. We planned the workshop for KS2 where we could bring the book into the schools, teach children how to create and bring a character to life, read and speak dialogue and match it with their body language too.
Greg then kindly offered to take pictures of us playing the part. We dressed up as Veera and Suku and the people of Himtuk, we made costumes, we made paper swords, we enacted scenes, we fell on the floor in a heap laughing at our own antics – while Greg was patiently setting up the lighting and camera angles.
On this 7th day of May in the year 2015, we launched the workshops.
You can now bring us into your schools to work with your KS2 children. Imagine children getting fired up to read a book so they could play a part in the drama workshop, imagine them reading and talking dialogue and interpreting the words into action and body language. Every English and Drama teacher’s dream come true. But then literacy is always more than just English, isn’t it? Reading prescription to election manifestos, literacy in primary schools is literacy for life.
Interested? Want to know more? Check out the details here and get in touch.
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