During my Children and Young People module in second year. I had the opportunity to take on the role as a facilitator in a real-life setting in a primary school in Hull. We did weekly workshops with the students surrounding the play ‘It’s not Ok’, which is a Theatre in Education (TIE) piece surrounding child sexual exploitation, bullying and being safe online. It takes you through a journey of 4 characters, each with their own storyline, and shows you what’s wrong in the situations they are faced with. For example, one character was talking to a boy who was a lot older than her and he was controlling her and buying her things to bribe her, this is what you call Grooming, and is an important issue that needs to be spoken about with children and young people, because they are at that age where they may get their first mobile, or their first time speaking to a boy/girl, so it needs to be clear what is right and wrong. This piece is in partnership with the NSPCC, which is a children’s charity helping children and families with child neglect, child abuse and how to keep children safe online. This was something I was worried about, due to not having any previous experience.
This experience built my confidence, and it was a very rewarding experience because it was nice to watch the students learn and guide them through tasks. As facilitators, it was our job to create tasks for the students in order for them to learn more about the topics raised in this play and get their initial opinions about it and whether they thought something was wrong. Then, at the end of the time at the school, you could see their understanding of the issues raised had boosted, and they had clearly shown they were aware of what was wrong and confident that they could identify this situation in the real-world, and most importantly know what to do and where to get help if them or somebody they know was at risk or in danger.
Rhubarb Theatre company was set up in 2000 and they inspired me to follow my love for facilitation and passion to potentially set up my own theatre company one day and create theatre and projects for schools of within the community through issue-based theatre. Issue-based theatre is a very powerful technique and needs to be approached appropriately and sensitively. Rhubarb theatre create workshops to be taken into schools and surrounding communities and have a long list of issues they talk about and try help to tackle. This is a fun way for children and young people, or any individual to learn about important issues that they may encounter in their life. Something an individual could have taken from one of these workshops or plays such as to know how to ring ’999’, and this could at some point in their life save them or someone else from being in danger.
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/ [Accessed 2 April 2020].
Yor-ok.org.uk. (2020). It’S Not Ok Play And Workshop. [online] Available at: https://www.yor-ok.org.uk/young-people/Its%20not%20okay/its-not-ok-play-and-workshop.htm [Accessed 2 April 2020].
Rhubarbtheatre.co.uk. (2020). Issue And Topic Based – Rhubarb Theatre. [online] Available at: https://www.rhubarbtheatre.co.uk/issue-based/ [Accessed 27 April 2020].