The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh presents Project Wonderland
Edinburgh’s august theatrical institutions further nail their creative colours to the mast and signal their singular commitment to the ‘young at art’ with this recent announcement from The Lyceum. It follows hot on the tail of The King’s/Festival Theatres’ Attic Collective.
The Lyceum’s Creative Pathway Programme, an annual interdisciplinary student-led arts project, has expanded to reach a record-breaking number of students aged from 8 to 18, including eighteen classes in nine primary schools across six weeks, twelve weeks of artist-in-residency in two Special Educational Needs schools, and a three-day takeover of an entire secondary school, in addition to multiple community projects.
Primary school students across eighteen classes in nine schools will spend six weeks with a drama artist from The Lyceum, creating a response to the themes in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The work is pupil-led, and the children choose themes which mean something to them personally, that will filter across all curriculum subjects. In addition to this, a new pilot programme will run sessions with multiple theatre-makers and artists (from actors and stage managers, to administrators and technicians), resulting in an original performance for family and friends at the school created, promoted and presented entirely by the children involved.
For the first time, all the classes in a secondary school, approximately 400 pupils and teachers, will come off timetable for three days of intensive pupil-led development, beginning with their watching Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and ending with an original, interactive performance of their own, that will incorporate multiple art forms across all subjects.
Seven Lyceum artists will be with the school during this time, and will empower the students in their transforming the school into an interactive Wonderland, where visitors can explore the student’s interpretation of the story. Despite not doing their normal lessons during this time, students will tackle multiple art forms and multiple school subjects, from creative writing in English Literature and cryptic caterpillar puzzles in maths, to potion making in science, and movement in P.E.
In addition to primary and secondary school engagement, two Special Educational Needs (SEN) schools are engaging in twelve weeks of an artist-in-residency school project, which in previous years has been limited to six weeks. During this time, approximately four artists each week work with groups, leading a wide range of multi art form workshops, focusing on the creative process and accessibility, with the residency ending in an open exhibition, during which visitors are taken on a sensory journey through the students’ creation of Wonderland.
One teacher said about last year’s Project Narnia: “Pupils produced some amazing work in the classroom and the performance itself was fabulous! The increased confidence levels were obvious by the end of this project.”
Another stated: “The children got a huge amount more from the experience than I could have predicted – also an opportunity for personal achievement that some kids do not often get.”
