Creative Schools - Blog five

A Script???

As the deadline of the end of January for the submission of script for the Scoil Dramaíocht competition approached the need for an actual script and not pages and pages of scribbled ideas became apparent.

What was the solution?
Method: Divide and conquer and apply a bit of pressure.


Ingredients:
Two teachers, a rough storyboard, some blank paper, some children and an hour.

The challenge: To write one scene each

Showcasing recently written material

We did it. And surprisingly it wasn't all that difficult. When you are under time pressure it is amazing what can be achieved. After that hour, the first scene when the characters swap programmes from the I'm a Celebrity Jungle to 1916 and vice versa was finally on paper after a series of improvising, recording and reviewing. The draft was certainly untidy but at least it was written and that constituted success. As the facilitators, the teachers was happy to write so that the student's creativity would not be hampered or slowed through having to write it down. 

We already had an opening scene with the children arguing over their TV programme. We had an initial jungle scene where the Ant and Dec as presenters introduced us to the celebrities and we saw Beckham and Ronaldo discuss their fame and fortunes.

The issue was the ending. How to tie it all together?
I decided to employ a creative process (that I have only since learned the name of) known as Synectics.
The children were asked to create an ending in their own time (a Springboard).

Each springboard was discussed and a list of the positive aspects of each were recorded.
A collaborative shared writing of an ending began with a clear focus on the theme that had organically emerged as the writing process progressed - one that revenge really achieves very little.

An integral part of our school drama has always been music. It's where we tried, in the past, to put our own modern twist on other people's dramas. We had an open brainstorming session for suitable music to include as a finale and also throughout the play.

A list of music was made and suggestions were taken as to where they could fit in. Once it was decided that a version of FIGHT SONG should be included for the character of Seán Healy, the children composed a the dialogue around it. It became the stimulus.

Further in the process the music choice evolved from the dialogue and the scene created. When the child is killed by the British soldier, an Irish lullaby was chosen from a list as the most suitable song to create the chilling atmosphere that the writers' wanted to create.