Attending and reviewing an arts event is a vital part of our Arts Award course. This would normally mean going to an art gallery or a theatre show but as you can imagine, we have had to unfortunately postpone any trips until later on this year or possibly even next year.
This has been somewhat disappointing for our Arts Award students as our trip to the Tate Modern in 2019 was a huge success and we were planning a trip to the theatre just before everything closed for the first lockdown.

It has been amazing to see the Arts Award students stay fully engaged and work really hard over the past few months during our live lessons. However a couple of the students were coming into school, such as George Clarke in Year 11A. A few weeks ago, George chose to watch a Peter Pan performance on Youtube by a theatre company called Chickenshed. George has written a review to sum up his experience as an audience member and wanted to share it in the newsletter for people to read:

On the 23rd of February I watched a play called Peter Pan by a theatre company called Chickenshed. Chickenshed is based in North London and is a local theatre which shows lots of drama performances and is also a place that offers some qualifications in performing arts. To me Chickenshed is unlike any other theatre company because it is very inclusive. This means that everyone is welcome to perform in their shows and everyone is welcome to watch them.
I thought the show was very touching and I thought the story was explained really well in terms of expression. There was lots of singing. All the songs included dancing with all different types of levels and lots of different types of movements from the actors. The songs are very catchy and you are able to notice that some of the actors are signing as well as singing. I like this because it means that if anyone in the audience is deaf or hard of hearing, they could still enjoy the show just as much as anyone else.

My favourite part was when Peter managed to revive Wendy when he saved her with ‘a kiss’ or an acorn necklace. In certain scenes, I felt quite moved by some of what was going on in the scene and how things were being said. This has actually made me really think about definitely wanting to still do acting in the future. I also really liked the parts with Tinkerbell instead of speaking, light and twinkly sounds were played instead and I think was a really cool idea. Lastly I enjoyed the scenes where there was a large group of people such as the Lost Boys or the Pirates. I like when they are all dancing together in unison. In these scenes you can also see actors who are in wheelchairs. This is not something you see in other theatres very often and I think that it should happen in every show.

I didn’t have a least favourite scene, however I would have liked to actually have seen the play at the theatre because it would have been a very different atmosphere. It would have been a fun experience to see something in person with my classmates and teachers but I still enjoyed the show. I would recommend this show because it is very moving and made me think properly. If anyone misses going to the theatre I would definitely recommend watching shows on the Chickenshed youtube channel. They have recently uploaded some older shows on their youtube because they are not able to do any new shows because of Coronavirus.

I have learned that Chickenshed is an all inclusive theatre company which means that anyone can go there to work or to enjoy theatre. They also have courses in performing arts from A Level to university degree which is interesting. I didn’t know that they had courses that some people from this school now go to. It is nice that there is a place where everyone can work together or everyone can watch theatre and be able to enjoy it.

It is very important for the Arts Award students to share their reviews as part of the course, so we hope you have enjoyed this one! A big well done to George on his brilliant review!