Inspiration continued further......

I recently went to a conference surrounding my inquiry subject.  This is something I had never done before and was quite nervous about to be honest.  I am fine doing things on my own when in my comfort zone with an idea of what to expect but outside of that as with anything new it is quite daunting.  But this scary new experience was more than worth it I gained soooooo much from a very inspiring day! I found out about it through twitter as I follow all the companies that I am interested in.  The conference was run by STEP - Southwark Theatre's Education Partnership and was entitled Who Needs Drama and Theatre? What does drama do for children and young people, and what do children and young people do for drama?

This video gives you a taster of what the day was all about - you can see me at one point making notes I have an orange bag try and spot me!

Referring back to a previous blog of mine:

Back to reader

I went back to the reader to find clarity in the subject matter of my inquiry. I addressed my key problems in this blog and they were yet to be answered until I went to the STEP conference 2013!

Problem: In my inquiry I need to engage with relevant problems and scenarios in my practice.  In analysing my problems the main factor was a lack of knowledge as I am looking to move into a slightly different field.
Answer: With so many different guest speakers at the conference I learnt so much about existing companies and their work.  It opened my eyes to things I didn't even know were going on and I found comfort in the fact that there was a community of people who shared the same feelings as me.  I gained access to knowledge and scope for how to tackle further research.

Problem: Needing to work in a transdisciplinary manner and drawing on my work and previous experiences not just looking at what I don't know.
Answer: At the end of the day there was a question and answer section where attendees were given the chance to debate.  To be honest I was nervous about staying thinking I may get picked on to speak or comment on others thoughts.  I am glad I did though - although I did not get involved it made me realise that I do have something to offer.  My knowledge of working in the private and public sector of the arts, my background in performance and young outlook and passion meant I had things to say, I had an opinion that had I been brave enough to share would have counted.  The point is it gave me the confidence to draw on what I know not just look outside the box as what I have to offer is valuable!

Problem:  In the blog I looked at Penelope Hanstien's diagram about inquiry and my lack of literature was where I was getting stumped!
Answer: I now have endless amounts of literature I picked up from the conference and names of writers to look into.

I walked away from the day truly inspired and proud that I had put myself out there to get involved.  In terms of career development this was a big step for me and I intend to go to more events like this. I learnt so much about what is going on in this field and it was great to soak up the knowledge from the professionals.  The Unicorn Theatre's Interact Programme stood out to me as of great personal interest.  This aims to develop young audiences capacity to engage with the performance in an active, self-reflective and empowered way.  They do this by creating a link with teachers and investing in workshops with them that they can take back to their pupils in the classroom.  This led me to realise that there is great scope to exploring their work further and seeing what other companies are doing in this field.  I plucked up the courage to network in a coffee break and I hope to have gained a valuable contact for my inquiry and some documents that will be a great research tool.  A quote they highlighted in their presentation stood out to me:

' If we conceptualise the relationship between young audiences and theatre as one of access only then we limit the view of the audience to one of passive consumer'

Matthew Reason (2010)

I plan to look into Reason's writing further.  I also noticed the job title of the speaker Catherine Greenwood - Learning Associate.  I found myself thinking I want a job like yours, as far as I understood her job was to administer the Interact Programme holding workshops linking schools to theatres, enhancing a child's experience of theatre and promoting it at the same time, in my eyes really making a difference.  I started searching jobs like this obviously at an assistant level as I am new to the field and have started to apply so wish me luck! Without BAPP and without going to this conference I would not have known those jobs were out there.

At the conference I also did an interactive workshop with London Bubble which demonstrated their work on the project Speech Bubbles in which they help children with communication and confidence problems through the medium of drama.  Their work was really interesting and highlighted the scope of work that is going on out there.

I saw the work of Now Press Play in action which was a really great tool I had never seen before.  Take a look at the website I have linked to it is great.  The participants all wear headphones it is a bit like a silent disco but they are spoken through a story that they act out - it was brilliant!

There was so much great work going on I gained invaluable information and sources.  Take a look at the companies I have listed if you are interested in this field!

Hollie xxx