Evaluation Sheet

What are the positive changes you have seen in the people you have worked with? Perhaps there is one example you can give?

As I worked in Ashcroft, I experienced a lot of people becoming more confident in the area’s which they shied away from to start off with. Including me, my friend Lucy wasn’t a confident singer at the start and often mimed for the first few rehearsals. However throughout the weeks I could see her self-confidence growing and by the end she was singing proudly and helping out with vocal warm ups. I have noticed how well everyone worked together and we all helped each other out when one person was unsure of what to do. Near the end we all felt like one big strand who could all sing, dance and act which was always our main aim.

I’ve also seen people in TTA grow more confident with their new jobs, for example Lauren the mic technician really grew into her job and was fantastic throughout all the runs. We all seemed to pull together and put on a fantastic shoe for young children, as we only had a few weeks to put on the show it required group effort which we all had. There was always a positive vibe in the rehearsal room which made the process a whole lot easier. I could also see the children having the time of their lives and reacting to our performance when we were on stage. They got really excited and nervous during the pirate number and afterwards claimed that they would read more books, which was the whole moral of our piece. Hopefully our performance changed the way they view books from now on for the better, which is what our ultimate goal for this project was.

How do you think this project affected the participants you worked with?

For many of our young audience members, it was their first time at the theatre and therefore it would have affected them deeply. I think it was a lovely break from their school routine to come to a proper theatre and see original work written for them by young performers. Many of the children mentioned how they wanted to come to The BRIT School when they were older, so seeing a show by some of their students must have been a great and exciting experience.

The message of our piece was to spend less time with technology and more time reading and using your imagination and I think this got through to the children and affected their view on reading. I would like to think that they would’ve gone home and picked up a book or thought about Peter Pan and gone off on an adventure with him. I think it made them more aware of how technology based their lives possibly are and hopefully they will enjoy books more. The show, I hope and imagine, would’ve affected them in the sense that they won’t forget their first piece of theatre and hopefully they would feel special because it was written for them. I feel like every child should have theatre experience so I’m proud to be part of this project promoting books and imaginations.

How would you rate this experience on your learning, confidence and understanding of community arts? Rate 10 for brilliant experience and fully understand- 1 is lowest for no impact at all.

9

Please explain your answer:

In terms of my confidence and learning, I have gained so many new skills and self-belief over these past few weeks. I have been pushed comfortable outside my comfort zones but always for the better. My fellow students have supported me in my singing which has improved immensely and I now feel ready to write my own piece for children. I’ve learned how professional rehearsals and runs go and had my first experience performing with a microphone and at an outside venue to the paying public.

In terms of understanding the community arts, I feel as if I haven’t had necessarily the best experience, not because the show was bad but because we had to spend all our time rehearsing and preparing for the next performance that we never got a chance to talk or engage with our community which was our audience of young school children. Although we needed all the rehearsal time to make the show as good so the children would have a blast, I didn’t always feel connected to our audience until their reactions when we performed. I think it is just the nature of this kind of community project, we had to work so hard to get the piece up to scratch that we just didn’t have time to engage in our audience unfortunately.

Why is there a good fit between the partner and The BRIT School?

The BRIT School has always been connected with the primary schools around us, often doing workshops and creating shows specifically for them. I think a performing arts school is a great partnership to have for a primary school because young children love exciting, visual and impressive things and we have the resources and opportunities to be able to provide them with. Doing shows like Ashcroft, which involve big costumes and impressive tricks, is great to connect with the children, especially when they have heard so much about our school and often dream of coming here when they are older. It works because our school is so accepting and welcoming, that we can adapt to any group that we work with.

Young people learn a lot from watching shows, as do older people learn a lot form performing and changing their performance skills so the two fit nicely together and in the end both sides learn and gain skills. Often a lot of young people aren’t exposed to the theatre so having a secondary performing arts school work closely with them opens up their opportunities which is a lovely idea to think about and be part of.