Creating Theatre

A recent query on LinkedIn by Jen Sumner asked for examples of hard evidence of  the impact of drama programmes.  In the light of current campaigns around the EBacc and the national curriculum, this material is important. The responses were encouraging; I include a precis here as a summary resource.

DICE (“Drama Improves Lisbon Key Competences in Education”) was an international EU-supported project. In addition to other educational aims, this two-year project was a cross-cultural research study investigating the effects of educational theatre and drama on five of the eight Lisbon Key Competences.  The research was conducted by twelve … Continue reading →

The Centre for Economics and Business Research has just published research into the economic value of arts activity, entitled
Arts & culture’s economic contribution – An analysis of the macroeconomic contribution of the arts and culture and of their contribution through spillover effects (May 7, 2013).. The report was commissioned in November by Arts Council England, and the National Museum Directors’ Council.

According to The Guardian:

“The report calculates that:

• The turnover of businesses in the arts and culture industry was £12.4bn in 2011. This in turn led to an estimated £5.9bn … Continue reading →

Following the post about BSL, I’ve been alerted to a site dedicated to advice on theatre access:
The See a Voice project was set up by the charities STAGETEXT and VocalEyes, who provide captioning and audio description respectively.

So, what are captioned, audio described and BSL interpreted performances?

Captions are a bit like subtitles on television, allowing deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people to read every word the actors say or sing.

Audio described shows are for blind and visually impaired people, enabling them to hear live description of … Continue reading →

Just came across this performance, Imogen Heap using sensing gloves; close mics; a Kinect to control Ableton. Very impressive – two years of mapping to create a ‘human instrument’

A great project has just been published online, which is to translate some of the most important terms from technical theatre into British Sign Language (BSL). Lead by Ali Pottinger and funded by Arts Council England, the glossary comes as a series of short videos, each on subject area; each term is translated along with a short explanation of what the term means. Eg: “Gels come in many colours and they’re used in general lighting. A gel is inserted into a frame, which is put into a lantern.”

The link is at … Continue reading →