What Peter Will Do

This is a rough idea of the kind of ‘drama’ or story-making session Peter is likely to do, if you involve him in your course. 

Peter will usually work with parents and children together, and will do a session of anything between 45 minutes and 90 minutes.  The structure of the session will be fairly free-form, with the emphasis on the active involvement of the children.  It is not a performance, but a creative ‘workshop’ with the young children.

Peter will bring his ‘story-box’ which will have random objects inside it.  As he produces objects from inside, he will encourage the children to use them as starting-points for imaginative and creative activities.  All the time he is trying to be led by the children, and responding positively to anything suggested by them.  Together they will be making up a ‘story’ based on the ideas suggested by children.  This is not dependent on talking – sometimes the response of an individual child does not involve talking.

In this kind of session, there are no ‘right’ answers.  Whatever is the response of an individual child is valid.  Peter will be trying not to prompt the children, or ask leading questions, but to open up possibilities and see what happens.  He  is not expecting all children to sit in silence and watch, and if an individual child loses interest and wants to move away, that is fine.  Often the sessions can seem quite unfocused at times, but the ‘success’ is measured in individual moments of creativity just as much as when a group is involved together.

Parents and carers are encouraged to play along, without leading the children, or intervening too much.  The session should provide an opportunity to watch and listen to children closely, and look at the particular things to which they respond most strongly. 

The idea of this work is to explore a practical approach to encouraging children’s own creativity, and through the drama and story activities involved contributions can be made to language development, motor skills, confidence and self-esteem.

The specific activities and themes of a session will vary, and can be planned to fit in with other work.  It is always possible to discuss particular needs of a group, and to feed particular content into a session as appropriate, or to use Peter’s skills in an entirely different way.  Please feel free to discuss any issues particular to your setting.  It is hoped that sessions like this will be just the beginning of a working relationship between the Rep and early years settings.  As this develops it will involve a range of activities, both within your setting and at the theatre.

Peter Wynne-Willson is the Early Years Drama Worker for Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Birmingham Family Learning Base.  You can contact him on 0121 523 6157, or at pwynne@blueyonder.co.uk.