‘I don't think a child would read Shakespeare and think, I could be a playwright’ says Laura Horton, the latest Laureate of Words for Plymouth; the first female, and first playwright to hold the title.
She is telling me about a new project, the second of her two-year tenure, which will give local primary school students a chance to pen their very own original plays.
I agree with her. In my experience in primary and secondary schools over the last decade or so, I have encountered very little opportunity for playwriting in the curriculum, or indeed extra curriculum. We study plays in English, and perform them in Drama; but where do we give students a chance to write them?
Encouraging voices
Given the remit as Laureate of Words (the only post of its kind in the country) to ‘share the city's stories’, was this idea of promoting playwriting the motivation behind the project, I ask?
‘I wanted to give each child the chance to have their own words heard, which I think is very powerful, rather than creating something as a class. Largely because I know as a child, I was so quiet and anxious, my voice would have been lost.’
Overcoming barriers
Sharon Rooke-Higginson, a teacher at St George's Church of England Primary Academy in Plymouth, one of the partner schools, said ‘Too often the expectation and objective we put on the students can put them off writing.’ So, Horton explained the approach was to not dwell on the activity as a literacy session, the familiar format for writing in primary school, but to make it more of a creative session. ‘I wanted to get them straight into writing, as that is often a barrier – just believing you can get words down. I asked them to close their eyes, engage their senses, and then free-write. It wasn't about spelling, or grammar, or being marked, it was just about them writing whatever came in their heads.’
Not only are the Year 5 playwrights creating these imaginative individual scripts, each 1–2-minute monologue will also be produced into a short film by local actors and directors which will be then premiered online for the public.
The drama medium
Why playwriting then? Why not poems or narrative writing which are more commonplace in schools? ‘It's such a collaborative medium’ says Horton; ‘there's something about hearing your words interpreted by someone else that inspires confidence and new ways of thinking.’
Throughout April, Horton is linking with Millfields Inspired – a local social enterprise – to run the playwriting sessions for schools, with the performances due up online by May. The first sessions went well, with the young people producing imaginative and authentic scripts, and ‘they are excited about actors performing the pieces!’ says Horton. Sharon Rooke-Higginson added: ‘Every child focussed on the writing activity; they are excited that their writing may be brought to life. This encourages them to express themselves in the way they wanted to.’
So they should be; to me, this is significant to the project. Firstly: exposing young people to professionals in the creative arts models it as viable career. If we want our young people to think they can grow up to be playwrights and performers then working with people like Horton, and the actors and directors, is key.
And secondly: showcasing the work is important too. Scripts don't live on a page. As Drama teachers we sometimes bemoan the literary approach to plays like Shakespeare's in schools, little emphasis given to the theatrical performative nature of the work, so the publication of these films makes it real. The young people really are playwrights.
Building confidence
I ask Horton if she thought she could be a playwright when she was in school. ‘I certainly didn't. I was a very shy and it took me years to gain the confidence to write. If I can help inject some playwriting into the classroom, I'd love to do that.’
Wouldn't it be great to have a Laureate of Words for every city, and for all young people to see themselves as playwrights in every school?
As the great man himself wrote ‘To be well-favoured is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature’. These young people in Plymouth are fortunate to take part in this project, but let's hope it's only the first of many playwriting projects in schools.
For more information on Plymouth's Laureate of Words visit literatureworks.org.uk/features/introducing-plymouths-laureate-of-words-laura-horton