Encouragement to prosper

COVID-19 has challenged all our lives in so many ways, with those who are part of the education and theatre communities facing some of the biggest challenges. Both sectors depend on human interaction, questions, answers and dialogue – made all the more difficult under social distancing and lockdown. For those at the intersection of these two disciplines – drama education – the challenges have perhaps been the most acute.

Against this background, our theatre company, C&T, in partnership with the United Kingdom's innovation agency, Innovate UK, are working to develop new tools and resources to help drama teachers face the challenges of the ‘new normal’ and the forthcoming school year.

Global reach

In truth, long before COVID-19, C&T was already practising its own form of socially distanced theatre. For over thirty years we have been using digital technology in the field of drama education and applied theatre, researching the relationship between performance, technology and pedagogy. We create not only live theatre experiences – for example TIE programmes – but also websites, video games and countless forms of interactive digital media. This has enabled us to develop what we call a ‘Networked Theatre’ practice, enabling us to shape participatory theatre projects linking young people across the world. It's a way of working that uses technology to eradicate social distance and create a shared virtual theatre space. We talk about being ‘glocal’: exploring global issues from multiple local perspectives. This includes schools in the UK, New York City, Kenya, Shanghai, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Vienna.

Now, thanks to the support and investment of Innovate UK we are working to build on the technologies and expertise at our disposal to find new ways of supporting the return of drama in schools and theatres. We have set ourselves four challenges: firstly, to find ways of enabling distance learning in Drama lessons, both in classrooms and home learning. Secondly, the creation of digital tools to enable students to create their own ‘digital drama portfolios,’ so they can make theatre digitally, collaborate with others and enable the assessment of this work. Thirdly, to make all of this accessible to specialist and non-specialist drama teachers, so that those required to teach drama in ‘bubbles’, ‘pods’ or as part of cross-curricular learning, can. Finally, to open up Prospero to the wider theatre sector to enable all artists to connect their practice to classrooms digitally.

To do all this we are working to expand the technology at the centre of our practice, Prospero.

The platform

Prospero enables the creation of online interactive drama lessons – what we call Smartscripts – curating the contents of the web into practical workshops and Process Dramas. These Smartscripts are populated with activities, practical tasks, characters, dilemmas, conflicts and challenges. Students are not only actors in these workshops, they become ‘players’ in Prospero's immersive dramas, much like a role play or a Process Drama. Anyone can make these interactive lessons, publish them to Prospero and share them with anyone. Theatre companies such as China Plate and Theatre Company Blah Blah Blah already use Prospero to support their work, alongside partners including New York City Department of Education. These and many other partners create their own interactive workshops in Prospero and then share them with schools via our Prospero Library. From actor skills training workshops led by professional performers straight from top drama schools to playwrighting workshops tutored by RSC and West End playwrights, Prospero tries to make online learning practical, kinaesthetic and creative.

Now we are rapidly working to create the next version of Prospero for the new school term. From September teachers will be able to build their own interactive drama lessons to distribute digitally to students and to non-specialist teachers who might be being asked to teach the subject. New tools will transform Prospero into a collaborative space for students, where they can easily author, direct and compose their own ‘Dramatic Portfolios.’ This will allow them to devise their own theatre pieces digitally, mixing their own User Generated Content (we know how much young people love to do that already) videos, audio, sound, images and text into what will feel like a digital play text – a smartscript. Teachers will be able to monitor and assess these portfolios remotely. There will be new discursive tools, so students will be able to learn synchronously or asynchronously.

We have also partnered with National Drama and the Council for Subject Support Associations, so we can use their expertise to ensure we are addressing the classroom needs of frontline teachers. Together, we will be able to create some high-quality resources to help teachers get started with Prospero when schools return in the autumn.

If you would like to be kept informed about the future of Prospero and further opportunities, register on the Prospero website: https://prospero.digital