Hull Truck Theatre will help to keep students engaged next month with a new city-wide, month-long learning programme for schools and educators to use as part of their lesson planning.
Running throughout February, Hull Truck @ Home School will introduce young audiences to drama and theatre making with a glimpse ‘behind the scenes’ of the creative industry.
The specialist programmes of work will engage both primary and secondary school learners, helping to harness both literacy and drama skills.
Janthi Mills-Ward, Hull Truck Theatre executive director, said: “We understand and empathise with the challenges facing teachers, parents and the city’s young people, which is why as a key cultural contributor within the local community we felt passionate about stepping up to offer our support, creating something relevant, creative and engaging. The grant we received from ACE as part of the Cultural Recovery Fund in October 2020 has been instrumental in ensuring we can deliver a project of this nature – vitally keeping our local communities connected.
“Although we’re currently unable to reopen our doors to welcome audiences back to see work on-stage, we have been able to repurpose our creativity through designing a city-wide learning programme which will benefit Hull’s young people and teachers. The content builds on key skills such as literacy, with an injection of theatre and drama. We’re also proud that this project has enabled us to support the creative industry, as we’ve employed 20 freelancers to support the delivery of the project, including writers, composers and actors.”
Key Stage 1 and 2 students (5 – 11 year olds) will have access to a twice weekly drop of video and downloadable printable learning resources, every Tuesday and Thursday, which will be accessed via a dedicated area on the Hull Truck website.
Working with Hull-based secondary school pupils and their teachers, Hull Truck Theatre is also producing an original soap opera called Consequences. Set in Hull during lockdown, writers, actors and a Hull Truck Theatre director will work with students to generate ideas, write scripts and guide direction, culminating in the production of a 25-minute weekly episode which will air on Hull Truck Theatre’s YouTube channel every Friday at 5pm.
Hull secondary schools that have already signed up to take part in the soap opera project include, Boulevard Academy, Sirius North Academy, Ron Dearing UTC and Archbishop Sentamu Academy.
Annie Cooper, head of English at The Boulevard Academy, said: “As a school we are always looking for amazing opportunities for our students and so we jumped at the chance to be involved. Such an exciting project would always be a welcome addition to our English and creative arts curriculum but it is especially important at the moment when there are so few opportunities for students to be involved in creative activities in the wider world. This is a great chance for our students to experience the wonderful world of theatre and develop their writing and creative talents alongside professionals; I know they are going to find it immensely rewarding.”
Find out more information here.
