The Executive gave a Sustainable Action Grant of £6726 to the Enviromental Arts Theatre Company for two innovative theatre shows explaining resource use issues to children across Scotland. Established in 1991,the company educates young people, particularly children, about environmental issues by using the performing and visual arts. Their remit is to engage people in the issues of the environment through information and original entertainment. They have worked with and performed to more than 50,000 young people.
The company has been involved in the creation of over thirty original projects. These have ranged from full-scale professional productions and large-scale community projects to short performance series and one-day workshops in schools. They are based in Edinburgh and West Lothian and travel throughout Scotland and beyond to put on shows and workshops. Only experienced professional actors and musicians, who have a personal commitment to issues surrounding the environment, work on their productions and workshops.
The Sustainable Action Grant funded an education project for primary aged schoolchildren (5-12 years old) and teachers. The company performed two original pieces of work: "The Diary of a Crisp Packet" and "A Lost Whale". Both productions dealt with waste, its effects and waste management. These were followed by workshops with schoolchildren to explore waste issues raised during the performances.
The Diary of a Crisp Packet
From the oil fields of the North Sea to lying discarded in a drain, the crisp packet tells its own story. The crisp packet "culture" or adventure has danger, excitement, joy and tragedy while it meets friends and sings songs. Children learn where crisp packets come from but also about issues of waste, litter recycling, energy, and their effects on the environment and better waste management.
A Lost Whale
Sitting on the ocean floor the audience follows the adventures of a lost whale. As he tries to find his way through grey Scottish waters he makes new friends and meets all manner of wonders. He also encounters the problems brought about by the dumping of waste into the waters. This show highlighted the beauty, richness and importance of the sea whilst introducing some of its colourful inhabitants. More importantly it dealt with pollution, waste and its effects on the sea whilst considering what can be done about this.
Both productions were original and explored exciting new ways to reach children's imaginations. They were successfully piloted in East Lothian schools, and were a new initiative in exploring the issues of waste management and sustainability in the lives of children.
The purpose was to fire children's imaginations at a critical age of impact in order to increase both the individual and community sense of responsibility towards litter and other waste issues. An additional benefit of this work was to extend the waste topics covered by EATC's performing and workshop repertoire and continue to do so (i.e. sewage issues, composting, and other issues with regard to energy, its production and sustainability).
Rehearsal
There was one week of rehearsals in the village hall in Breich in West Lothian. After that there was a performance of each show to the local community.
The Tour
The tour began on 7 May 2002. Over the following eight weeks there was work in 35 schools, giving 76 performances and 26 workshops. Apart from holidays (the Jubilee) and the odd staff training day it was possible to visit schools every day. On non performance days there was a review the work and preparatory visits to schools.
Each school was given a choice of performances and/or workshops. Every school chose at least one performance of Diary of a Crisp Packet with a combination of the other available work.
- Diary of a Crisp Packet 100%
- A Lost Whale 75%
- Workshops 60%
- Schools visited 35
- Children accessed aprox 8,000
Report Forms
Between 80% and 90% of report forms were returned. They proved very useful as a guide to improving and developing the company's work. All of the responses were positive and any criticism constructive.
There was general enthusiasm for the work with many schools indicating that they would use the work as a springboard to explore the subject of waste in greater depth. Many schools also stressed that work of this kind plays a major part in engaging pupils in essentially dry subjects and helping bring them to life. More work of this kind, it seems, would be well received.
Summary
As the tour progressed the company learned a great deal about the awareness of waste and associated issues amongst primary-aged young people. Essentially not enough. Because of this they intended expanding and developing the scope and range of work about waste. They completed the project with a final week of workshops and performances in Edinburgh. They are grateful to those who gave the opportunity to undertake this work.
Contact
Cath O'Shea
Project Co-ordinator
Environmental Arts Theatre Company
25/1 Scotland Street
Edinburgh
EH3 6PY
Telephone: 07789 346 505
E-mail: cathosheacath@hotmail.com