Great Expectations Project DevelopmentWithin the industry there

Great Expectations Project Development

Within the industry there are many challenges that are to be overcome in forming a new company and putting out work, both original or otherwise, some of these being universal, whilst others are dependent upon the target audience the company seeks to engage with. In this instance the emphasis is placed upon a new company using the Charles Dicken’s story Great expectations as a first project. The company in question, Bright Spark would be a Theatre in Education based entity, focussing upon work that can delivered in an educational setting, seeking to further the learning of their target audience, in this instance GCSE and A level students studying English Literature and Drama or performing arts qualifications of a similar level using the medium of workshops to put across their content.

The company’s mission statement: ‘We aim to provide an inclusive and involved learning experience to all children, in a non-classroom based setting, whilst developing their potential as performers and critical thinkers’ draws inspiration from other such companies such as The Takeaway Theatre company and Big Wheel Theatre company in that both companies seek to bring theatre to children in an immersive manner, Takeaway using Pantomime, ‘We strive to offer the same theatrical experience that young people receive from visiting a local theatre, but instead we bring the pantomime to you.

‘ (The Takeaway Theatre Company, 2019) and Big Wheel use workshops ‘Our tried-and-tested show formats connect with the audience using contemporary pop-culture references and parody. Interaction is a key element in our workshops and students are always actively involved right from the moment they are greeted by the performers.

‘ (Big Wheel Theatre Company, 2017). Bright Spark’s approach would be adopt a style similar to that of Big Wheel Theatre’s in the class based setting, however there would be a reduced emphasis on pop culture, to keep in line with syllabus requirements.

In implementation, the company would seek to use a combination of scene studies, hot seating and improvisation techniques in order to allow the audience to gain the main benefits of the material set before them. Through the use of the scene studies the audience would be invited to view a scene and then explore what occurs within in said scene, referring to both the play text, and in the context of a literature based audience, the original text itself. As seen in various studies using such techniques with more informative productions regarding health based topics it was found that: ‘whilst knowledge levels were generally high and attitudes were overall positive at the start of the study, those students who participated in the theatre production and workshop showed greater improvement in knowledge and attitudes, compared to the control group’ (Waters, S. 2012). These findings reinforce the usage of such techniques as learning resource for such an audience as the one the company aim to engage with, further supporting this are the following figures gathered by Learning Performance, a company providing workshops similar to those which Bright Spark aims to produce for their audience: ‘94% of students rate our strategies as very good or excellent. 90% of students felt more confident in their studies. 100% of parents thought our workshops were worthwhile and wanted more! 80% of staff rated our strategies as very good or excellent.’ (Learning Performance. 2018)

As mentioned previously this undertaking will produce challenges to overcome, with a prime example being funding such a project. In order to overcome this the company aim to embody the technique developed by the practitioner Jerzy Grotowski known as poor theatre, putting on a performance with the bare minimum of props and relying on the acting technique of the actor as the core of a performance, with their portrayal being as authentic as possible within the realms of the performance ‘This act cannot exist if the actor is more concerned with charm, personal success, applause and salary, than with creation as understood in its highest form. It cannot exist if the actor conditions it according to the size of his part, his place in the performance, the day or kind of audience.’ (Grotowski, J. 1975).

This being said it is clearly noted that the company would be unable to provide such a service without funding. These funds would be required to put on the productions, to pay the actors for their work in the workshops, for transportation to various venues, to requisition required costumes and various other issues that require this to be resolved. In order to overcome this particular issue the company would seek out funding through the Arts council, as the production meets the first, second and fifth goals of the Arts council as laid out in their recent document: ‘Our approach to investment 2018 – 2022’ (Arts Council England. 2016) in which said goals are presented as such: ‘Goal 1: Excellence, Goal 2: Access, Goal 5: Children and Young People’. The company’s aims being in line with these as they aim to provide an excellent service, which is easily accessible, as will be further explored later in this document, and brings all this to children and young people, within a setting aimed to benefit them, in that the production is designed as an educational experience for them.

As previously mentioned, with regards to the second Arts council goal (Access) the venue used for the workshops would more commonly be situated within the school grounds, depending upon what facilities are available at the time the performance is required. This would further circumvent costs incurred from charges for venues where possible, as in the majority of cases school halls and such would be free of charge to use. In other cases where charges would be incurred the aforementioned funding from the Arts council would be used in order to secure the venue.

Moreover, in performing this production in a workshop format, thus limiting required materials to a minimum adhering to Grotowski’s system discussed earlier, this approach would make the issue of transportation between various venues far more manageable, allowing for less transport to be required, which if achieved would lend itself to the Arts council’s third goal (Sustainability and Resilience) in that the company would be actively taking steps to reduce their potential carbon footprint, through the lower amount of transport required and the Grotowski system’s minimalist approach to props, costumes and other materials required for such a production.

A prominent issue with regards to such productions into older theatre pieces such as Great Expectations, is that modern audiences may not feel as engaged with such subject matter. This can be due to various factors such as older language making it less accessible to younger audiences, or as observed by journalist Joanne Ostrow: ‘the lack of exposure to the arts for children and teens’ (Ostrow, J. 2015) in that due to barriers such as cost, even not being considered as a theatre’s target audience, ‘in the West End, it is hardly surprising that theatres have traditionally deliberately catered to them’ (Shenton, M. 2018). This is part of the reasoning behind the workshop format, as stated earlier it has support for the methodology and it’s use with younger audiences, breaking the material into smaller elements in addition to more interactive segments of the production, namely scene study exploration and the hot seating exercises which Bright Spark seek to use in said workshops, as these cater better to the reduced attention span of the younger generation, who are the targeted audience for this particular production.

In summary, Bright Spark productions would seek to produce a number of workshop based classroom based activities, with the intended audience being young people studying for their GCSEs or A levels with Great Expectations being the subject which they are being examined on. In terms of the challenges faced, Bright spark would seek out funding from the Arts council, as the production planned aims to meet three of the goals set out in their documents, possibly achieving a fourth if possible, reliant on funding provided. With respect to the target audience the workshop would be limited to short scene studies and hot seating exercises, in order to cater the audience’s needs keeping the subject matter light enough to not over tax their attention span, while remaining informative and fit for the educational purpose the workshops are required to provide as the service is intended.

Furthermore, in order to keep the productions cost to a minimum, Bright Spark would utilise the system proposed by Grotowski, using minimal amounts of props and set, relying mostly upon the actor’s ability to convey a character. This system feeds into the workshop and hot seating medium which Bright Spark aims to use in this production as both require minimal materials, aside from some costume elements, making the production easier to digest for the audience watching the piece. Moreover, there is much support for such workshops being highly beneficial to the participants and due to the interactive nature of the production, there is a strong possibility that given funding, from the Arts council or other sources of required, Bright Spark will provide a quality production which the audience will find enriching and engaging.