Outreach News – May & June 2012

10 May 2012

Every year, in the three years I have been at The Watermill, I have had the same conversations about our work with schools at this point in the year. It goes like this: 

Me:                               [to everyone in The Watermill office] We haven’t worked with enough schools this year.

Everyone else:              [Sounds of sympathy / support / encouragement]

Me:                               It’s a disaster. Last summer we had squillions of workshops.

Everyone else:              You always say that.

Me:                               This time it’s true. I blame the government.

[Phone rings.]

                                      Hello, Beth speaking? Oh hello! Yes, we’d love to come and do a workshop. On space travel? How marvellous!

[Put phone down]

                                     OK everyone, don’t panic.

And it’s true that we have suddenly had an upsurge of workshops, despite my gloomy predictions. We are working with primary children on Olympic themed days, a technology event in Basingstoke, running communication skills workshops, presenting the Entreprise Skills Day at the Racecourse (with 150 local students), running a Jacobean workshop, judging a poetry competition in Kintbury, and running a series of workshops with an amateur dramatics group in Oxfordshire. We love it all – so if you have any ideas you want to talk through, please get in touch.

I have also been busy talking to schools about our production of Othello, which will be touring schools in the autumn. Some of my favourite conversations at the moment are with teachers  keen to discuss their take on this amazing play, how they’d like us to approach it, what gets their students excited. If your school is interested in hosting a performance, please call me on 01635 570927, even if it’s just for one of those conversations. Othello is also performing at The Watermill as part of our Shake Up Shakespeare Festival in November – a week of community Shakespeare activities, workshops, and performances. We’ve not done anything quite like this before so we’re really looking forward to getting started. The final night of the Shake Up Shakespeare Festival will be The Bard Unbound – an evening of Shakespeare highlights and excerpts, performed by local people. If you fancy performing on The Watermill stage, please do get in touch – we want this to be as open as we possibly can.

Meanwhile, every Thursday morning our regular facilitator, Sarah, has been working one on one with jobseekers to hone their communication and presentation skills. In a project funded by West Berkshire council, and working with Careers Springboard West Berkshire, we are running these free weekly sessions until July. The performance skills that an actor like Sarah has learnt can be easily transferred into the interview room, and we’re thrilled that the project is working so well. Fingers crossed that those jobs keep coming – it’s not an easy time to be out of work, from my former life as an actor I know how crushing unemployment can be.

And finally, in a new project to celebrate the Olympics, and funded by West Berkshire Council, we are creating a giant community poem involving ten local groups. My marvellous colleague Heidi has been putting it all together. Each group has a workshop with our writer, Ade Morris, during which they write the next section of the poem. This week we have visited the Kingfisher Unit, elderly residents at Nevil Court, the Phoenix Centre, the Oasis Club, Newbury Building Society, and the Alzheimer’s Society, and the things these groups have to say are truly beautiful. If you would like to see the final result, it will be on display in The Watermill’s glorious grounds from 18^th June to 7^th September.