Catherine Wheels Theatre Company presented its award-winning production of Martha at Forthview Primary School yesterday as part of the Theatre in Schools Scotland tour. Martha is a very mischievous goose puppet – and the Forthview children loved her!
Martha was joined by cast members Hannah Donaldson and Chris Alexander and some of her new Forthview friends for a curtain call at the end of the performance, which was made possible through the Theatre in Schools Scotland initiative.
The National Theatre of Scotland and Imaginate in partnership with Catherine Wheels Theatre Company, Starcatchers and Visible Fictions, launched the exciting new initiative for theatre in Scotland’s schools back in June. The project is supported by the Scottish Salmon Company and Arts and Business Scotland.
Theatre in Schools Scotland was established to support and develop the provision of theatre in Scotland’s schools, with the ultimate aim of ensuring that every child in Scotland receives – at their nursery or school – a minimum of one performing arts production, per year, as a core part of their education.
The initiative has been created initially as a pilot project, which will expand over the next three years, exploring different models for touring theatre into schools.
During this first year, Theatre in Schools Scotland will tour two award-winning, internationally recognised Scottish productions, Martha presented by Catherine Wheels Theatre Company and Shopping for Shoes by Visible Fictions. The tour will visit 25 local authorities, with still potential for more, from August to October 2016. The shows will play in over 30 primary schools across the tour delivering four performances per school. Around 15,000 children in Scotland will see Theatre in Schools Scotland performances this year.
Scottish performing arts for children and young people is a success story. Over the last twenty years, thanks to the influence of Imaginate and the creativity and success of companies like Visible Fictions, Starcatchers and Catherine Wheels; Scottish theatre for children and young people is generally accepted as some of the best in the world, with productions being celebrated both in Scotland and globally.
Theatre in Schools Scotland aims to ensure that all children in Scotland have the opportunity to access this world class children’s theatre in their own school.
In addition to the performances, the initiative will also develop and encourage teacher engagement through ongoing education events in the pilot years. Theatre in Schools Scotland will maximise current public investment in the arts through wider dissemination of existing high quality work, delivering creative and aesthetic education for teachers and providing new tools to deliver the Curriculum for Excellence. The benefit of young people’s engagement with the arts is well-documented. There is significant research to confirm that access to theatre and cultural experience enriches lives and impacts positively on health and well-being.
Theatre in Schools Scotland has developed an unique partnership model to bring these theatre productions into schools. The tour is cross funded by the Scottish Government funded National Theatre of Scotland, Creative Scotland funded theatre organisations, local authorities and individual schools.
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