Gardens add to drama for students

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Big Little Theatre Company (BLTC) summer school students in playful mood at Trotts Garden on...
Big Little Theatre Company (BLTC) summer school students in playful mood at Trotts Garden on Tuesday.
Imaginations have been given full rein and Trotts Garden is being used as the impressive backdrop and playground for drama students to "explore" at this year’s Big Little Theatre Company (BLTC) summer school.

The ninth theatre summer school started on Monday and runs through to the end of the week.

A picnic and drama performance, using techniques and material developed over the week, will be presented to parents on Saturday.

BLTC director Jackie Heffernan said drama students were using the book The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane to help inspire them to create a map of their own enchanted gardens in which to perform their own written scripts.

The large-format spellbook celebrated the magic and wonder of the natural world, she said.

Students had looked at words from nature that featured in the book and in other fictional drama that were used infrequently these days, or not all.

Those words included "lark", "conker", "bramble" and "kingfisher".

Students used a ‘wonder word hoard’ to help generate ideas for the scripts.

The aim of the Garden Drama themed summer school was to bring the enchanted gardens to life, said Mrs Heffernan.

The chapel at Trotts was used for some voice work and spells from Robert Macfarlane’s book were practised and performed.

Some 15 youngsters aged between eight and 14 are at the summer school and Mrs Heffernan is being assisted by four of her senior drama students.

 

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