Education

Do you want to find out more about the production you are coming to see? Do you need ideas to follow up the theatre experience in the classroom?

Then REP Insights are for you. They are available to download from this website and contain ideas for classroom activities to complement your visit to The REP along with background information on the plays, performers and creative team.

The REP works with schools to help students learn about theatre and through theatre.

We can:

• Get students straight into the action with a one-off workshop
• Lead a number of workshops that develop a deeper understanding of a theatre technique, play or issue

To find out more please call 0121 245 2092 or email learning@birmingham-rep.co.uk.

Key Stage 1 & 2

The REP offers a variety of opportunities  to bring theatre to life in primary schools.

Drama Workshops
We can deliver workshops on any of the following subjects:

• Physical theatre
  Have you always depended on using spoken words to convey meaning? Help your students explore new ways of communicating and enable them to discover a physical approach to storytelling. Students will participate in movement based activities and explore ways of using their bodies to create and perform a story.
• Exploring the Worlds of Roald Dahl
  Using drama, creative writing and visual arts to explore the weird and wonderful worlds of Roald Dahl, this workshop will develop children's literacy skills and encourage the group to create their own worlds and stories. The workshop can focus on a Roald Dahl story of your choice, or extracts from a variety of Roald Dahl books.
• Acting
  Using fun drama games, we can introduce your pupils to some of the skills which will allow them to begin to learn about acting. Workshops can help to increase confidence and enable your pupils to work together to create performances.
• Story Making
  This workshop is a fun and engaging way to enhance pupils' vocabulary and develop self confidence. The session will guide the group through a collaborative process of building a story, developing the characters and culminate in a performance that can then lead onto literacy based activities within the classroom.

This list is just a taster of what we can offer – if you have something specific in mind or would just like to discuss further options, please call 0121 245 2092 or email learning@birmingham-rep.co.uk.

REP Show Workshops
If you are planning to bring a school party to a REP production or would like to follow up your students' theatre visit, why not book a workshop? Workshops use games, role-play and devising techniques to explore text, characters and theatre genres. They are intended to strengthen students' understanding and appreciation of the production that they have seen or are about to see  Workshops are designed to take place in your school hall or drama studio.

Playwriting workshops
The REP has long been established as a 'new writing' theatre, bringing the very best new plays to Birmingham and beyond.  We can help to introduce playwriting into your classroom in a number of imaginative ways, all designed to link to the National Curriculum.

• Our Toy Theatre Project involves students creating their own plays, toy theatres, and puppets with a  playwright and a visual artist over the course of seven half-day sessions. The project culminates in a Toy Theatre Festival, in which pupils will get the chance to perform their own plays using their toy theatres. Some pupils will see their plays performed by professional actors in a life sized toy theatre!
• Playwriting Taster Sessions take students through the fundamentals of dramatic writing by having them create a piece of writing over the course of a half-day session.
• Page To Stage aims to have students create a piece of dramatic writing over six half day sessions. This project aims to strengthen students' literacy skills and inspire them in their creative writing.

Contact learning@birmingham-rep.co.uk to discuss fees and book.

Key Stage 3 & 4

In addition to Theatre Days, After Darks and our other opportunities for schools and colleges at the theatre, The REP offers a variety of opportunities within your school,

Drama Workshops
We can deliver workshops on any of the following subjects:

• Brecht
  Using a Brecht play of your choice, this practical day long introductory workshop will look at the political, historical and cultural context in which Brecht was writing and explore the basic features of Brechtian drama such as Epic Theatre, gesture and the alienation effect.
• Stylised Theatre
  Looking at practitioners such as John Godber, Steven Berkoff and Bertolt Brecht your students will look at key techniques such as mime, direct address, multi-role playing, stereotypical characters and ensemble. This workshop can be focussed on a particular practitioner or play depending on your requirements.
• Devising Techniques
  How do you create something from nothing? This workshop focuses on exploring the making of theatre through the sharing of ideas and improvisation skills.
• Improvisation
  The workshop looks at developing techniques for more effective improvisation, breaking down barriers and freeing the performance instinct in your students.
• Physical theatre
  Movement based activities that focus on ensemble work and visual storytelling. Students will respond physically to a range of stimuli and begin to explore new approaches to performing.
• Performing Shakespeare
  Break down the barriers that many young people have towards Shakespeare and use performance skills to enhance their understanding of his plays. This workshop can be tailored to suit a particular group, and can focus on any Shakespeare play that your group is studying.
• Playwriting
  Enable your students to enhance their speaking, listening and literacy skills by learning about playwriting. Your students will dive straight in to creating dialogue, characters and stories to produce their own plays.
• Boal – Theatre of the Oppressed and Forum Theatre
  The Theatre of the Oppressed is a participatory form of theatre that fosters democratic and cooperative forms of interaction. It is practiced by “spect-actors” who have the opportunity to act, observe, and engage in self-empowering processes such as Image Theatre and Forum Theatre that help foster critical thinking.
• Artaud
  Working practically, students will explore Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty and gain an understanding of the legacy of his vision in contemporary theatre.
• Site Specific performances
  This workshop will explore a specific environment or space of the school's choosing (for example, there may be a wooded area within the school grounds) and use this as inspiration to create stories and characters for performance. The workshop will involve creative writing, drama and craft.
• Set-texts
  Whatever the play you are studying at GCSE or A level we can design a practical workshop using drama and theatre to bring the text to life.

This list is just a taster of what we can offer – if you have something specific in mind or would just like to discuss further options, please call 0121 245 2092 or email learning@birmingham-rep.co.uk.

REP Show Workshops
If you are planning to bring a school party to a REP production or would like to follow up your students' theatre visit, why not book a workshop? Workshops use games, role-play and devising techniques to explore text, characters and theatre genres. Workshops strengthen students' understanding and appreciation of the production that they have seen or are about to see. Alternatively if there is a particular text or theatre technique that your students are studying, we can tailor workshops to suit your needs. Workshops are designed to take place in your school hall or drama studio and can accommodate up to thirty pupils.

Schools Drama Festivals
The REP hosts drama festivals for school and college groups linked to many of our shows. As part of the festival, students receive a two hour workshop in school to introduce them to the themes and issues of the play, and they are then left to devise their own short piece of drama as a response to the workshop. At the festival, students are given the opportunity to perform their piece on The REP stage, receive feedback from REP staff and then watch a matinee performance of the play they have been studying. 

For more information on our next schools drama festival, please call 0121 245 2092 or email learning@birmingham-rep.co.uk.

HIGHER EDUCATION

The REP works in close partnership with universities locally, nationally and internationally. These partnerships involve career events and industry days, performance opportunities including an annual student drama showcase, co-teaching and training. We also create bespoke one-off workshops and events for HE institutions.

For more information please email replearning@birmingham-rep.co.uk

Summer Term 2017 Year 10 & Year 11 work experience recruitment has now closed. If you try and apply now you will not be considered for a placement.

Recruitment for Summer Term 2018 will open in the New Year.

We are unable to offer any Further Education/Higher Education placements at this time.