When I first heard of the workshop, Dream: The Joy of Creating with Oily Cart, it was just that, a dream. However, that dream became a reality when I received an email telling me that I had been selected to participate in the highly selective workshop. A flight across the Atlantic, two trains, and a taxi ride later I was in Ashford, a town in the county of Kent, England for a weeklong workshop organized by Jeremy Harrison of Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance. The pinnacle of this workshop was working with the creative team of Oily Cart. Oily Cart is a theatre company in London that has been creating innovative interactive multi-sensory theatre for youth with complex disabilities (Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities [PMLD] or an Autism Spectrum Disorder [ASD]). Lead by Artistic Director Tim Web, Head of Design, Claire de Loon, and Musical Director Max Reinhardt, the Oily Cart team has been creating theatre for young people since 1981. In total, there were 16 individuals selected to participate in the workshop. We were theatre artists, special educators, drama therapists, and teaching artists from the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium, and the United States. We were given a task that seemed too big for a one-week workshop, to devise a 15-20 minute interactive multi-sensory performance for youth with complex disabilities. To accomplish our task we took residency at the Wyvern Special School in Ashford, Kent. After a day of getting to know each other through theatre games we were randomly placed into groups of four. Each group had an educator, director, performer, and musician. My group members were Abi, a performing artist, Laura, a teaching artist, and Susan, a special educator and musician. It was then revealed that we would use the theme of luggage to create our piece. Once we arrived at the school we were assigned to the classes that we would be working with and creating for at the Wyvern Special School. Two of the classes were PMLD and 2 were predominantly ASD. My group, Team Trunk, was assigned to the Keystage 2 J4 Class (ages 8-9). There were 9 students in our class, eight male and one female. Eight of our students had a primary diagnosis of ASD with one having a primary diagnosis of Down syndrome. Our classroom teacher, Peter, was very excited to be part of the process and was extremely helpful. He was able to provide great insight and advised us of triggers for specific students. Our first official task was to observe our class during instruction. We were given just 20 minutes to observe them and learn as much as we could about our audience as possible. After our observation we began to discuss what we wanted to explore with these young people. Susan said that she had a trunk that we could use and we began to think of all the ways we could use a trunk to interact with our audience. At the end of our first devising session we were full of ideas and left the first day with lots of ideas but no plan of action. For me I kept thinking of the sage advice that was given to us by the Oily team, “keep it simple”. It was what I think we lacked, the permission to keep things simple. All of this changed as soon as we saw the trunk that Susan brought for us to use. Team TrunkMy group consisted of (From Left to Right): Abi Horn: Performing Artist, Susan Farrington: Special Educator, Laura Griffiths: Teaching Artist Key Things to Remember
Devising ProcessDay 1: Who is in the Trunk?Advised by Artistic Director: Tim Webb, MBE - From Left to Right, W. Riley Braem, Abi Horn, Tim Webb, and Laura Griffiiths. Once the trunk came into the picture everything changed. We were working with Tim and he asked, “Can someone fit in the trunk?” Laura climbed into the trunk and our piece was born! Everything else seemed to go out the window and we got on our feet and began to create. We wanted to start with a very simple question, who is in the trunk? We initiated the action with a knock that came from within the trunk. From there, we elected to have sensory items emerge from the trunk. We used bubbles and laser lights. Laura would remain hidden inside the trunk and deliver the sensory stimuli. We started with bubbles that were then fanned by Abi and I. We then invited the students to help us fan the bubbles. After the bubbles a laser light emerged from the trunk. We used a blue laser light that was highlighted by misting lavender scented water. Finally, the moment had come for Laura, who would later become the character Who, emerged from the trunk. She would then interact with the students as Who. All the while Susan underscored the entire interaction. Our first interaction with the students was underway and we had some lovely moments. There was one student who was so excited to see someone in the trunk that he raced to her. Laura shied away and at that moment something magical happened. He was able to understand that she was scared and he held out his hand to help her. The fact that this young man, who has ASD, was able to interpret the body language of this person who emerged from a trunk was fantastic! He helped her out of the trunk and then led her around the class, almost as to show her that there was nothing to be afraid of. Peter, the classroom teacher, was thrilled with what he had seen but wondered if there was a way that we could do more to engage students in their own space within the classroom. We took this, and other feedback that we received from the Oily team and other groups and used this information to make choices about our next facilitation with the students. Day 2: What is in the Trunk?Advised by Head of Design: Claire de Loon - From Left to Right, Abi Horn, Laura Griffiths, Claire de Loon, and W. Riley Braem. On the second day of our residency we worked with Claire. We wanted to continue to keep things simple. We decided to keep the design element of our piece neutral by using only white materials. The only thing that wasn’t white was our trunk. This time, instead of having Who in the trunk we wanted to use the students excitement as a way to propel the drama forward. Once again, we initiated the action by a knock from within the trunk. We invited the children to knock on the trunk and then, just when they couldn’t stand it any longer, we opened the trunk to find that Who was not in the trunk. The children were curious and wanted to know where Who was. They helped us look for Who in the classroom. We eventually found Who taking a nap under a table and the students woke her up so they could play with Who. Again, we interacted with the students and introduced different sensory stimuli. We used bubbles, fans, and music. The students were CRAZY curious when they realized Who wasn’t in the trunk! (Score!) In addition, we had some really nice moments with students in their own space within the classroom. We were really excited because the shape of our piece really seemed to be translating to the students and spectators. Day 3: Where is Who?Advised by Musical Director: Max Reinhardt - From Left to Right, Abi Horn, Laura Griffiths, Max Reinhardt, and W. Riley Braem. Now it was time dive into another devising session. Once again, we wanted to go with Who not being in the trunk. Instead of Who the students would find Helium Balloons that had a ticket attached with each of their names on it. In a sea of blue balloons the students found one white balloon with the name Who on it. This would serve as the motivation to transition to the world of Who. We asked the students to help us find Who and took them to the Physiotherapy, affectionately called the Fizzy Room. While the students were in the fizzy room looking for Who led by Susan, Abi and I got the trunk and secretly loaded Lauren into the trunk. Once we were back in the room and placed the trunk in the center of the playing area we heard a knock. It was Who! We had some last minute interactions with Who and then began our transition back to the student’s classroom. On day five of our residency, and last day at Wyvern, we worked with Max. The goal of today was to incorporate music into our piece. This was especially difficult for me because there seemed to be so much to add in our last 1-hour rehearsal session. One of the biggest hurdles was comfort. It was difficult for us to deal with so much new material in such a short time. Max, however, pushed us to incorporate a number of songs into our piece that made it so much better. We incorporated: Where is Who, Wake up Who, Let’s Dance, and then finally, a hallmark Oily Cart Goodbye Song. Scratch PerformanceUltimately, the students loved the helium balloons. Not only were they excited about the balloons having their names on them; they were super excited that they got to keep the balloon. The transition was from the classroom to the fizzy room was rough. We hadn’t attempted a room transition before but luckily we had a sensory box that the student and a Teaching Assistant were able to use while the rest of the class was away. In the moment it appeared like organized chaos. To be honest, it was really exciting but tremendously scary. As a group we felt that the scratch performance went HORRIBLY wrong. The video told such a different story. The performance was so different and things were nowhere near as chaotic as we thought they were. The reactions that the student’s had were priceless. There were some genuine moments of discovery and excitement from the students. The transition to the World of Who went great and we received positive feedback from everyone. The World of WhoDress Rehearsal for Public Sharing
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Dream: The Joy of Creating with Oily Cart Workshop Participants
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May 2015
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