“GOODBYE, BABY, & AMEN…”
In two weeks I retire. On that final day I shall look around the arena in which I have spent almost all of my working life. On one side of it there will be stacked every inane, pedantic blue or green form I’ve ever had to fill in, every tedious, arid exam paper I’ve ever had to mark, every specious, clichéd, repetitive report I’ve ever had to write. And on the other side there will stand a bunch of kids – faces familiar even if the names have gone – each remembered not for their scholarly esteem but for some quirk of humour, creative force, personal warmth, wisdom beyond years. These are the ones who have survived the education system – whose way in the world has been of their own choosing, taken in spite of our attempts to impose uniformity, convention & respect for appointed authority.
There is no sensible argument against the acquisition of skills. We communicate through language; we calculate through number. But to my mind education is not a process of forcing in but of leading out & the social, emotional, spiritual, cultural, intellectual context within which it takes place is all-important. By my own definitions of what constitutes a healthy educational environment, I was, in the first instance as a learning child, lucky beyond measure. Subsequently, as a working (& still learning) adult, I actively sought out schools that were carrying forward the principles & practices from which I had derived such benefit. Whatever is to be the outcome of current changes within this, my last school, I am certain that it will continue to be the imperatives towards freedom & personal responsibility, creativity within work & community values within daily life, & self-determination & authentic choice in the world beyond that will determine the future for education.
#
Although there’s only that brief span of two weeks between being a working stiff & pipe & slippers by the fire, I have one last project to undertake. In the final week of the Summer Term at my school, all class work ceases & a range of widely varied activities fires up. This miscellany that absorbs the entire school is called the Late Summer Programme, or LSP. Groups are off on expeditions to Switzerland, Kosovo, our own South Coast & the Lake District. Many students are involved in work placements; others are taking part in a large-scale Art project.
I’m rehearsing intensively with a group of six 15 & 16-year-olds on a street theatre project. We start with a 5-hour orientation session tomorrow & some 2-hour sessions at the beginning of next week. And then, from the Thursday we begin a series of five 8-hour rehearsals for a piece called Violent Delights. It’s a 15 – 20 minute treatment of the first part of Act III of Romeo & Juliet – essentially the combat sequences involving Tybalt & Mercutio leading to the latter’s death, & the subsequent fight between Romeo & Tybalt in which Tybalt dies.
The immediate preamble to the encounter between Mercutio & Benvolio & Tybalt is uncut: the speeches & action run much as they would in a full production of the play. As soon as battle is joined we switch to a massively edited version of the script containing only key lines & words. The emphasis from that point switches over entirely to physical action – a melee involving combat with sticks. The sticks are 5’ long broomsticks, especially robust ones made for industrial brooms & the fighting with them has to be full-on – blows are real blows, dealt with real force, stick on stick. Obviously all of this is organised within structured techniques of stage combat & health & safety considerations are paramount. But, within the appropriate safety parameters, the conflict must be absolutely real & the punches can’t be pulled. Any kind of physical theatre carried an element of risk; that is a necessary part of its dynamic in respect of its impact upon an audience.
The piece was devised originally for, & performed by, an all-female cast. This time around, with the exception of the actor playing Tybalt, the other five performers are all girls. A significant component in the thematic character of Violent Delights is female commentary on the masculine drive towards violence – on the joy taken by men - or boys - in both the preparatory threat & actual implementation of physical conflict. Although the almost entirely female cast will physicalise & vocalise as men (& I shall direct them to do this as effectively as possible), the simple fact of the parts being played by females conscious of the thematic processes they are setting out to illustrate will inform the nature of their performances.
After the very intensive rehearsal period in the Theatre (conducted exactly as if we were a professional company, working as we will be without diversion or distraction), we shall load up our sticks, our rudimentary costumes – different coloured tops for Capulets & Montagues & black jeans/jogging pants - & our ghetto blaster (for the accompanying music) & head off to perform. On Monday we’ll go to Cambridge, which is only 24 mile north of Letchworth, where we’ll set up & perform around the marketplace. And on Tuesday & Wednesday the plan is to present Violent Delights on the walkway of the Thames Embankment just below the London Eye.
I’m pleased to be going out with a final performance project, even if the school will never get to see the fruits of the week’s work. I’m working with six excellent students & I can’t think of a more fitting or rewarding way to wind it all up. For me it’s always been about working with kids outside the standard structures & protocols that obtain within school. It’s worthless unless you stand to learn as much as the people with whom you’re working; & it’s a soulless & arid experience unless you have the sense that there’s an equality of endeavour & achievement. And with this small company – Poppy, Maudie, Isa, Aletia, Ania & Matt – I’m looking forward to that synthesis for one last time.
12:08:03 AM 
|
|
