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The First World War Through The Arts
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"I just thought it was such a wonderful thing the children have done and so thought provoking that it brought tears to my eyes. The children were so professional and took it so seriously I know that they will never forget what they have learned and it had a real affect on me as I knew that my Grandfather and his brother would have known all the soldiers that they were portraying."
We work with schools and communities to illustrate the First World War through research, poetry, song, dance and drama. We often work with highly skilled professional playwrights and directors to produce a play to animate the stories of soldiers and the families they left behind. The children are mentored and write their own dramas which are "not your ordindary school productions".
They Died In Hell...
is a Heritage Lottery Funded Project with Ramsey Junior School to remember the men from the town who died in the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. War Through Our Windows was a 10 month Heritage Lottery funded project at Swaffham Prior Primary School. The children researched the names on the war memorials at Reach and Swaffham Prior and used the unique "War Windows" in St Mary's church as a stimulus to write and produce a drama about the First World War at home and abroad. Chatteris Remembers was a year long Heritage Lottery funded project at Kingsfield Primary School in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire. The children and their local community researched and digitised biographies for all 160 men who died in WW1 on their war memorial. The performed local dance and sang at Remembrance Events and the summer festival in the town. The project culminated in them writing and performing a play about the men from their local "pals" battalion who died on the Somme in 1916. They were mentored by a professional writer and director and performed to capactiy audiences from all sectors of the community during 3 emotionally charged shows. 100 Yrs Ago was a Heritage Lottery funded project at Wiggenhall St Germans, Magdalen and Wimbotsham & Stow Primary Schools. After investigating the stories behind the men on their war memorials they were brought together in Downham Market Town Hall to perform a magazine style show with music, song and dance alongside the Ouse Washes Molly Dancers. Trips To Flanders We have helped local primary schools obtain funding to visit the First World War Battlefields. Our projects have included performances of East Anglian folk traditions at The Dranouter Folk Centre and British and Flemish folk dance at several schools in Flanders. |
