Students from the youth theatre at The Culture Challenge provider, Dunstable’s Grove Theatre, have successfully graduated with Bronze Arts Award: Level 1 Award in the Arts. A total of 14 young people in two groups (one group aged 9 – 13, the other aged 14 – 19), took part in a range of exciting drama-related activities as part of the course, and will receive their certificates shortly.
To successfully pass, the young people needed to actively participate in different dramatic forms, write about a performance they’d been to, and pass on an arts skill. They all spend a lot of time trying out different activities such as mask-making, monologues, puppetry, and directing, and then they chose the specific skill that they wanted to learn more about.
As well as this, each of the students needed to attend a performance, write about their experience, and present it in their portfolio. The young people attended a wide range of different shows including a theatre festival, Shakespeare play, local pantomime, and a West End play.
Lastly, they each ran their own skillshare session during their youth theatre meeting. This meant, that each of the Arts Award participants ran a 10 – 15 minute slot on their chosen dramatic skill and presented it to the rest of their youth theatre group. The skillshare sessions held included a workshop on improvisation, a drama game that had been created from scratch, and a puppet workshop. Anna Elmore, the Education Manager at The Grove Theatre said that she felt this was their strongest part of the qualification.
Anna went on to talk about how running the Bronze Arts Award had been beneficial for both her and the young people taking part. She said,
“It was a lot of extra work, a learning curve, and I had to mark portfolios at home but I didn’t mind – because I enjoyed it… and now that we’ve run it once, things should be much smoother next time, and be done quicker – over one term instead of two.”
There were positive comments from the moderator of the portfolios too, who said:
“They have clearly enjoyed what they have done and their portfolios are well organised.”
Anna hopes to get the next Arts Award programme up and running after Easter – with two groups running alongside each other. She hopes to have the students who have just completed their Bronze Level 1 move up to study for their Silver Level 2, and have a new group of students start working towards their Bronze Level 1.
If you’d like to learn more about The Grove Theatre, or want to join their youth theatre, click here for more information. Or perhaps you’re interested in running Arts Award at your school or youth club – if so, we can help you get started with our free to use Discover portfolio.
