Glasshouse devises radical theatre in schools

Last week, Glasshouse delivered a day of workshops in a school in Lewisham centred around raising awareness of the UK prison system and devising theatre for social justice.

Glasshouse facilitated an assembly followed by two workshops with Year 9 and Year 10 students; discussing the UK prison system and our personal experience of it serves as a conduit for dialogue on systemic injustices, which often affect these students directly.

This discourse offers them a framework to comprehend societal structures, and how we can use theatre for social justice. It allows them a lens through which to view our society and the challenging topics within it.

As Nelson Mandela said, "No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones."

The schooling system in the UK, due to underfunding, can be a microcosm of injustices that we then witness on a larger, more violent scale in the prison system. Misogyny, racism, and homophobia are rife in the UK school system and online. These kids are no strangers to the effects of these. Our workshops aim to encourage participants to use their own stories and experiences to create theatre that questions the systems working against them. 

Creating safe spaces

We start all our workshops with a group contract, asking the participants to create a set of guidelines for what they expect in the space. The children are very vocal about creating a safe space, where the judgement of the playground is 'left at the door'. The guidelines they came up with include 'supporting and encouraging others' and 'not judging other people's ideas'. Removing the classroom dynamics and setting up the space was important for the participants, especially as they knew they would be exploring sensitive topics and stories close to their hearts. They showed high levels of emotional maturity. As a company, we believe this is nurtured when you give the participants the power to decide how the workshop runs and agency over the environment they want to create.

Working together

After using improvisation and devising games to bond the group and encourage them to work with others, not in their friendship 'cliques', we began by asking them to think of the topic they would like to devise and share with the world, the stories that are affecting them right now.

Comedy, song and more

We use "Cell Outs", our own autobiographical show about the prison system, as our example of how to create devised theatre. We show scenes and ask the students to act as characters within them. We use "Cell Outs'' as an interactive way of thinking about drama techniques; they can see the tools they are studying on the curriculum being used live. We ask students to interrogate why and how we utilise different tools, including comedy, split stage, song, breaking the fourth wall, and multirolling. We weave in lessons on the practitioners they are currently studying, allowing them to see these styles in action, and their theory lessons in action.

"The facilitators were professional and dynamic. They worked flexibly and delivered an exciting, relevant project"

- Head of Year 10

Toxic masculinity, gendered violence, gentrification and racism

With both the Year 9 and Year 10 students, when asked to share the topics that they wanted to devise around, topics that have affected them personally, they were very vocal and showed a huge amount of insight into the injustices happening in their society and globally.

Topics that were very present were toxic masculinity, gendered violence, gentrification, and racism. For the Year 9s, we encouraged them to create a simple three-scene devised piece demonstrating one of these injustices at play - following the cause, injustice, and effect.

Many of the pieces that came out were centered around the patriarchy and social media. The pieces they shared back with the group demonstrated the pressures young boys face to perform masculinity and the violent effect this has on those around them, including the misogyny, homophobia, and racism they perpetrate as a result.

The discussions and insightful pieces that came from their devising showed how much knowledge these students already have on these systems and how willing they are, out of a classroom or playground setting, to unpick and unlearn what society has told them.

Encouraging vulnerability

As a company, we believe that allowing young people a chance to talk about their narratives and their identities in a nonjudgmental space with no pressure to achieve is a vital part of encouraging healthy communication and sharing. The students acknowledged that there is a lot happening in all their personal lives and often at school, there is an element of masking and performing. Allowing spaces within the school environment where their masks can drop and they can be vulnerable in front of others is vital for their development. We find as a company that these workshops almost always come back to focus on the pressures of gendered roles and how these bleed out into perpetrating other injustices.

GCSE Drama

With the Year 10 students, those who have selected GCSE drama, we took them one step further to engage academically and intellectually with the theatre they were devising. Their curriculum focused on creating devised theatre around the topic of 'dystopia'. Therefore, we asked them to place these personal injustices they’ve all witnessed within dystopian worlds and asked them to explore what happens when these injustices are taken to an extreme.

We were incredibly impressed with the content and creation of their pieces. We find that when devising with young people, starting from a place of autobiography and truth and then transposing this into a different environment or within a certain style means the work they produce is more effective both for them and for an audience.

For example, one group began by focusing on a participant's experience of the police profiling young Black men, and the piece they came out with demonstrated the corruption of police brutality within a totalitarian state. Another group began focusing on the gentrification they are seeing within their community, and the piece they ended with was a Brechtian and grotesque analysis of a society that lacks sufficient social housing. The year 10s acknowledged that they often thought of dystopian environments as fictional worlds, but starting with their own experiences allowed them to see that, in fact, there are many elements in our society that resonate with a dystopian society. Rooting their pieces in reality allowed them to share narratives that mean something to them while also furthering their academic learning and curricular development.

"The session was engaging and I enjoyed trying something new, I feel more confident now!"

- Year 9 student

The workshops we deliver provide a platform for students to articulate their identities and confront societal injustices in a supportive environment. By bridging personal narratives with academic inquiry, the workshops facilitated holistic learning experiences that empowered students to navigate complex social realities.

If you are interested in booking Glasshouse for a tailor-made school workshop, please get in touch.