2009
28 Year 9 students from Stoke Dameral Community College (SDCC) have participated in an exciting new creative project from which they’ve gained a sense of achievement. They have developed new skills and a greater understanding of the Playback Theatre form. They consolidated as a group socially and creatively – through sharing their life experiences and working together. They expanded this new form by applying it within the college context therefore the Play and Replay project had a further impact on a group of Year 7 students, by giving value to their experiences of making a transition into secondary education, and furthered the Playback Theatre skills of the students involved.
Asylum seeker and refugee service users of START charity (Students and Refugees Together) have been expressing their life experiences through workshops and performances at The Cultural Kitchen. The impact of the project where asylum seekers and refugees were telling their life experiences across cultures, using the Playback Theatre form, has opened up diverse experiences and helped people to understand each other, resulting in less isolation. The impact of the Play and Replay project where Mirror Mirror Playback Theatre group has regularly performed at Cultural Kitchen has allowed audience members opportunities to participate repeatedly. The success of the project is seen by increased audience numbers and repeated attendance.
Under-graduate students on placement at START have gained insight into service users real life issues and are able to appropriately respond in their roles with more understanding and empathy.
The Play and Replay Project has established a new way of looking at the issues and events that affect peoples lives, using the Playback Theatre form with a range of community groups in Plymouth. The individuals and organisations we have worked with have seen the benefits of this new way of working and want it to continue. Both organisations requested more workshops to keep a continuity of the impact the Playback Theatre form was having on building social cohesion in these community groups, and at SDCC to give opportunities to students to apply their learning further and develop their skills.
The Play and Replay Project has been successfully embedded in the community as phase 2 has been awarded funding by Plymouth City Council, linking the project to diversity and young people’s participation.