Directors' Charitable Foundation Workshops in Schools

A few months ago, my school was offered a free workshop with a specialist director on a topic of my choice by the Directors' Charitable Foundation. We were preparing our GCSE students to perform a devised piece for component one of the Edexcel GCSE so we asked for a devising workshop. The Directors in Schools scheme suggested a young director called Abbey Wright and we set a date.

We were working with two historical stories, one being the establishment of the first women's football league in the late 19th century and the other the story of Anne Bonny and Mary Reid – female pirates who disguised themselves as men in the 18th century. Students from this age bracket often get sucked into ‘worthy’ sentimental themes in devised work and we had wanted to stimulate them into a fun, storytelling piece, full of theatricality.

Abbey ran a fantastic workshop, giving the students some brilliant rehearsal tools. She introduced the idea of diary writing and back stories, which provided lots of material for monologues and flashbacks, but most importantly created more rounded characters for the students. Through the workshop, the boy playing Captain Calico Jack (Bonny and Reid's lover) explored the idea that he was never good enough for his father as he was not ‘manly’ but flamboyant and expressive, which allowed the students to examine ideas of gender.

There were lots of games and laughter, with Abbey letting the ideas flow without judgement. It was great to get her eyes on a few key scenes; she had such a positive and encouraging attitude which allowed my students to transform themselves from school children to theatre-makers. It was great for them to meet a practitioner from the business, and, especially as they are predominantly girls, to have a female role model who is out there, making theatre.

I would recommend anyone to get in touch with the Director's Charitable Foundation. The workshop was completely free and tailored for us, and I'm so glad that I found it in my inbox!

The Directors' Charitable Foundation offers free stage and screen workshops to schools and colleges with a high proportion of deprived students. For more information, please visit directorscf.org or contact admin@directorscf.org

After a career in acting, Claire Brooksbank moved on to becoming a drama teacher and has taught at The University Academy of Engineering, Southbank and her current school where she is Head of Drama: Graveney, in Tooting.