Dragon Breath theatre, placement

November came quickly. I began my placement with Dragon Breath Theatre ( http://www.dragonbreaththeatre.com/ ) working as an Assistant to their site-specific performance in the 1620's House and Gardens in Leicestershire. We worked with two local schools to produce a piece based on fact mixed with fiction provided by the children to give them ownership of the play.

Weekly we would visit both schools to teach the children more about the play and to learn from their perspectives of the characters and story of the house. Slowly over time their understanding of the subject of the house deepened as did their enthusiasm and excitement to be part of this. Dragon Breath Theatre always ensured to accommodate their wishes even to the day of the performance as long as it was reasonable and period accurate.

My role was to assist where needed. At rehearsals I acted as stage manager, other times I was the costumer maker. I learned more about the behind the scenes of pulling together a performance and how to work collaboratively with different typed of people, all vital to the production. By observing the children, I provided the writer/director with quotes and actions of the children during their exploration of the individual characters. These were all used to influence the script to enforce the ownership of the play to the children.

The children were vital to the performance as they acted as Storytellers. By giving them all different roles based on the family of the house, their staff, new scientific discoveries (planets revolving around the sun), and pirates. Through these they learned about the political, historical, scientific, economic facts that were believed at the time. Not only did this expose them to the past, but through the play and approach of Dragon Breath, the children were taught about the present and how things had or had not changed over the past 400 years. It was fascinating to see them picking up on it and connecting it to current topics such as climate change.

The aims of the production were to connect the schools and the 1620's House to grow the community within the area. Dragon Breath worked an entire term with the schools, and I was fortunate enough to be part of it for six weeks. Learning about children's theatre and applied theatre in lectures and projects previously, it provided me with base knowledge on the different requirements. I was able to implement this knowledge during my placement and acquire and develop my skills.

This placement came during the right time as it helped me understand myself as a person and my aims for the future. I am ever so grateful for this opportunity, and hope to find more similar to it.