I have over twenty years of experience of facilitating arts-based programmes and specifically drama sessions and, during that period, I have been fortunate enough to combine hands-on delivery with strategic planning and day to day administration.
I currently work part-time for the National Theatre. Initially I managed the Learning Programmes for the UK, Dublin and South Africa Tour of War Horse, I am particularly pleased with the development of the online resources that support this production from a large pack to individually signposted educational resources.
Here’s an interview I did with Ink Pellet Magazine about the aspirations for the tour. Plus an interview with Michael Morpurgo about the impact that the production has had on young people “Michael Morpurgo: Schools and War Horse”.
I now look after the Learning Programme for the UK & Ireland tour of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. We have developed a great model of work for schools and families with young people who are on the Autistic Spectrum and also launched an exciting Design Challenge in collaboration with Creative & Cultural Skills.
I am an Arts Award Adviser at Discover, Explore, Bronze and Silver levels and am keen to see how these additional certification processes can be woven through project structures.
I offer educational consultancy for Touring Consortium Theatre Company who have an excellent website resource TheatreCloud aimed at helping audiences to develop a deeper relationship to theatre productions touring to regional venues. I created the learning resources for their productions of A View From The Bridge and Brave New World.
I genuinely the enjoy the process of collaboration; here’s a mini side-project that came out of a conversation over coffee and which I’m really pleased the very talented Annette Bowery has found the time to make work: The Thought Frog Animation
With Aishley Docherty, in summer 2014, we created a young people’s theatre bootcamp experience called PromenArt here’s a rough film to give you a flavour of the project that we ran.
As part of a Stand-up-for-Shakespeare week, I worked with Y6 students from Alveston Primary school to create a short silent film that communicated to other students the things to expect from a visit to the theatre
I worked as project manager and practitioner for some schools on a project for the RSC with CLC, Lambeth and BFI to explore the difference between filmed and live productions of Shakespeare plays – one of the films is available to view here. External evaluation was conducted by NFER.
For Little Dragons I have created a practical workshop to help younger children to engage with Chinese language learning.
Talk to me if you are looking for a reliable pair of hands to take a project from planning to conclusion including budget management, delivery and evaluation, examples of the type of work I can lead on:
o large and small scale projects with or without performance outcomes
o in partnership with film-makers to explore how digital media can
support learning outcomes
o training and group facilitation utilising theatre-based team-building methods
o using Shakespeare as a leadership model for corporate executives
o with individuals or groups for whom English is an additional language
o expert facilitation of inter-generational and family groups
Melanie Whitehead 