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Theatre & Performance: Top 5 Recommends (round 2)

1. For the little ones: Pyjama Drama!

Know a child who just can’t help being centre stage? Struggling to find fun ways to keep your little ones learning & being imaginative at home? Pyjama Drama have your back! Known for providing drama & imaginative play resources for parents and teachers alike, Pyjama Drama have kindly released multiple tools for free that can be used to engage kids within their homes.

Pyjama Drama are offering a range of resources with various time commitments – short game suggestions, one-off lesson plans, and activity packs for longer-term engagement – so it’s easy to find activities that work for your family at a time where normal routines have flown out of the window!

We particularly love their ‘The Way I Feel’ six week activity pack, aimed at helping preschoolers learn recognise & handle their emotions – complete with printable worksheets, original music, and teacher demonstration videos.

2. One for the history books: HighTide’s Coronavirus Time Capsule

East Anglian theatre company HighTide’s Digital Youth Theatre, in collaboration with local charity 4YP and Company Three, are collating young people’s digital response to Lockdown in their Coronavirus Time Capsule.

Each week, young people respond to a topic (education, home life, boredom…) within a 15 second video, which will be collated with other responses and posted on their social media every Friday – #CoronavirusTimeCapsule.

Youth theatres and groups of young people from all over are collating their own videos and posting them via this hashtag too, so even if you don’t want to contribute, it’s a great resource for young people to feel connected to other young people across the country…and for those 25+ to hear what the country’s youth really have to say about the ‘new normal’!

If you are aged 12-25 and would like to contribute to High Tide’s Coronavirus Time Capsule, contact hello@hightide.org.uk!

3. The best of Fringe Theatre: Scenesaver

For anyone missing seeing the world’s brightest emerging theatre talents, or those of us who never knew where to find them… Scenesaver is an online hub of ‘offwestend’ and Fringe theatre performances from all over the world.

Originally conceptualised to provide a platform for high quality Fringe theatre for people who struggle to access it, Scenesaver has thrived throughout lockdown and boasts a diverse collection of shows for a variety of ages. From popular plays adapted & performed on Zoom, to some of the best children’s shows around, Scenesaver is a lifesaver for anyone who wants to engage with Fringe theatre from their home.

If you don’t know where to start, my personal recommendation is ‘Need A Little Help’, a Tangled Feet and Half Moon co-production based on the experiences of young carers. A fantastic example of physical theatre and how to present difficult issues that face young people in a joyful and uplifting way, aimed at ages 2-7.

4. Tales from the Bard: Shakespeare’s Globe online

What better way to understand Shakespeare than by watching his plays performed by the pros? We’re in luck! World renowned theatre & educational centre Shakespeare’s Globe have released some of their best performances, free of charge, on Youtube, Globe Player, and BBC iPlayer, including critically-acclaimed classics The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

As well as many innovative performances, on the Globe’s website you can find a complete virtual tour of the theatre, interviews and podcasts with actors and creatives, and a variety of teaching resources for all ages and levels. Perfect for students, teachers, and aspiring creatives alike.

5. Become a master: QLive Workshops on Instagram Live.

From Ealing’s Questors Theatre; the QLive masterclass series are blessing our Instagram feeds every Wednesday at 5:30pm, where we are joined by some of the UK’s best theatre creatives to give us the low-down on theatre skills, from set design to puppetry.

At 30 minutes each, these classes are a fantastic opportunity to try out a new skill, led by industry professionals with heaps of valuable experience on a platform that young people are familiar with. The workshops are running until the 29th July, so they’re perfect to get stuck in to until the end of term to get a well-rounded theatre experience from your sofa.

We can’t wait for the next episode: a Puppetry masterclass with Shaan Latif-Shaikh, who trained as a puppeteer with Little Angel Theatre and now works as a costume designer, puppeteer and puppet maker. Catch him live on Instagram at 5:30pm on Wednesday 24th June!

By Abbie Reeves