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Home > Drama > HSC Course > Studies in Drama & Theatre > Site-specific, Street and Event Theatre > Site-specific, Street and Event Theatre

Site-specific, Street and Event Theatre

Unit prepared by Michael McCallum & Megan West
with practical notes by Peter Howes

Topic 6: Site-specific, Street and Event Theatre

This topic explores, theoretically and experientially, site-specific theatre including Site-specific, street and event theatre and significant community performance from the 1960s to the present. It investigates the chosen audience, techniques, artistic and social goals of the performance makers. Study must include examples of the work of Welfare State International in the UK from its beginnings to the present and, Australian works from Fire on the Water, and may include additional examples of contemporary companies and practitioners. Study must include the student’s participation in the process and performance of a substantial piece of site-specific theatre, drawing on processes of key practitioners.

Students must study BOTH texts:
Cameron, Neil, Fire on the Water, Currency Press, Sydney, 1994.
Fox, John, Eyes on Stalks, Welfare State International, Methuen, London, 2002

Site-specific, Street and Event Theatre - A definition

• Most street theatre exists as notes, rough scenarios and improvisations. This type of theatre performance, as the name suggests, is performed outdoors.
• Street theatre draws on a plethora of dramatic elements and techniques to communicate a particular message to the audience.
• Examples may include festivals, parades and processions, political demonstrations.
• Site-specific is just that, performance made specifically for a particular environment, performed on location. It utilises the surrounding landscape as a basis for the production and aims to draw our attention to the site.
• Examples include openings of specific sites, and centenary celebrations
• Event theatre is created for a particular occasion. It is usually strongly thematic in its creation.
• It often employs techniques associated with ceremony and ritual. Examples may include weddings, funerals, Olympic opening and closing ceremonies.

Text:  Fire on the Water, Neil Cameron

• This text is a collection of articles that will inform your making of Site-specific, Street and Event Theatre
• It is important that you familiarise yourself with the case studies in the text and use them to enhance your own work. Remember, street theatre events are not always successful!

Fox, John, Eyes on Stalks, Welfare State International
The work of Welfare State International

An Overview

• Welfare State International is a UK based company of artists who pioneer new approaches to the arts of celebration and ceremony internationally.
• Founded in 1968 Welfare State made their name with groundbreaking events such as 'The Raising of the Titanic' in a London dock (LIFT, 1983), and the biggest lantern festival in Europe (Glasgow City of Culture, 1990).
• A group of engineers, musicians, sculptors, performers, poets and pyrotechnicians.
• The company has invented many prototypes of celebratory art such as site-specific theatre in landscape, lantern processions, spectacular fireshows and community carnivals.

Introduction to Artistic and Social Goals

• John and Sue Fox’s first date was at Hull Fair.  Welfare State’s work has clearly been influenced by the idea of carnival and celebration.
• WS says people can find creativity and enjoyment in many parts of their lives, even the most simple and mundane aspects of life can and should be celebrated.
• Much of the work of WS is a response to the demands of modern life; everything runs at high speed:  work, families, even leisure and entertainment carries these fast paced expectations
• People have been stripped of their right to think for themselves as they are force fed a diet of consumerism. There is a growing void of community.
• John Fox advocates that art and creativity can also fill this void of lack of meaning in our postmodern life.  WS philosophy encourages art and creativity through a collaborative process of art and theatre that engages thought and action.
• One objective of community events is for participants to gain some control over their lives by accessing their creative potential and by taking to their streets together with professional artists

Techniques of the Welfare State International

• The WS events can have the appearance of a traditional fair. The WSI uses a number of low technology methods to create events.
• These events and techniques can be transposed to a school context by adapting the WS model.
• With this use of diversity the audience is introduced to a dramatic event, but with a feeling of comfort and joy.
• WS aim to involve the community through parades and processions. The ‘one foot on the ground, one foot moving’ theory.
• WSI constructs visual shows from a given site, literally building out from the found environment in a series of linked physical collages or assemblages
• Imagery is central to devised performance-, with expressionist costumes and lighting devised to allow the audience to be led on a psychological and sensory journey.
• Size and scale are important aspects as objects and images must be seen above heads from at least 200 metres away. Therefore, size and spectacle are important.
• Music and sound are vital- all events have an original score or live improvisation with lyrics, or pointed silence to counterpoint and give atmosphere to the imagery.
• Each event recounts a moral narrative that uses symbolism its constructed objects to tell a tale to the local community.
• The group goes to great pains to investigate local myths and legends to find the correct symbols and metaphors to create their theatrical narrative.
• Many people familiar with Fox’s work believed that all WSI ever did was build huge images, then set fire to them.  Indeed fire is their trademark and their techniques have been copied all around the world.

 

Bibliography & References

Publications

• John Fox, (2002), Eyes on Stalks, Methuen, London.
• Megan West & Michael McCallum, “Visiting Welfare State” JEDA, Volume 9.
• Michael McCallum Dialectic in Trevor Griffiths Absolute Beginners, Honours Thesis, University of Wollongong 1991.
• Devising Celebration ED 501 Study Guide.
• Engineers of the Imagination. The Welfare State Handbook. Coult, T and Kershaw, B, 1990, Methuen, London.
• Cameron, N (1993) Fire on the Water, Currency: Sydney.
• Brokett, O (1986) The essential theatre, Holt Reinehart and Winston: New York.
• Boal, Augusto, (1979) Theatre of the Oppressed, Pluto Press, London.
• “Street Theatre based on a protest” in Advice on Programming and Assessment (2003) Board of Studies, Sydney.
• Board of Studies (2003) Drama Years 7 – 10 Syllabus.

 
References

• The Opening address of John Fox at Bathurst Showground 17 September 1999.
• Lecture John Fox Bathurst 1999.
• Megan West & Michael McCallum,Interview with John Fox & Sue Gill, Lanternhouse, Ulverston 2002

Websites

• http://www.welfare-state.org/index.htm
• http://www.csu.edu.au/faculty/arts/commun/cycle/manual/mumming.htm
• http://www.pbpub.com/bread&puppet/bread97.htm
• http://www.neilcameron.com/index.htm

Example Assessment Task
Site-specific, Street and Event Theatre

Outcomes:  1.2, 1.3, 1.9, 3.2, 3.3, 3.5
Weighting:

Task:

There are three parts to this task:

1. Part A – Performance - 40% of total mark
   Using your knowledge of Site-Specific, Street and Event Theatre, create a class ‘event’ to be staged in a designated break. Your ‘event’ must be based upon a celebration or an issue of political protest/awareness, it may also be site-specific. Maximum 10 minute performance.
   
   
2. Part B – Evaluation - 10% of total mark
   Write 300word (approx.) theatrical review of the other class Site-Specific, Street and Event Theatre performance.
   
   
3. Part C – In Class Essay - 50% of total mark
   You will be given 45 minutes to answer the following Essay question:
   
   ‘Site-Specific, Street and Event Theatre is effective because it uses bold techniques to shake up the mundane patterns of every day life and thought.’
   
   Discuss this statement, referring to the performance makers you have studied, and to your own experience.
   
   In your answer you MUST refer to both of the set texts and your own performance
   
   Cameron, Neil, Fire on the Water, Currency Press, Sydney, 1994.
   Fox, John, Eyes on Stalks, Welfare State International, Methuen, London, 2002

Interview with John Fox and Sue Gill, Lanternhouse, Ulverstone 2002
By Michael McCallum and Megan West

Visiting Welfare State International
On the 26-28 September 2002, we visited the Lanternhouse to see the home of the Welfare State International and interview Sue Gill & Fox.  Upon arrival in Ulverstone, a small town in Northern England, we were made to feel most welcome and invited to explore the building.
Inside we found a fantastically creative and practical building full of artistic treasures that are also functional.  The Lanternhouse is a 3-storey building with offices, recording studios, a library, study areas for post graduate students, full kitchen, accommodation and, most importantly, large spaces for making and creating events.  But it is not the facilities that make the building so special; it’s the grounded artistry and spirituality of the place which really humbles you.
John Fox has recently published his book, Eyes On Stalks , in which he details some of the history of the Welfare State, but, most importantly, points artists towards a future of creativity. They interviewed Sue and John with an eye to making their work relevant to high school students.

The Lantern Festival has just celebrated its 20th year. How has it developed and were there any new initiatives for this year?

John: When it was started there were only 300 people involved, what’s interesting is some of the people that were on that are now coming along with there own children. They are very skilled because they have learnt the skills of how to make the lanterns.  And now there are about 12 000 people coming to town and there are about 1000 lanterns.

Sue:  And there are only 11 000 people in town and we don’t advertise the event, it’s just by word of mouth

John: But the main thing is that more people around the town are taking ownership of it, whereas previously Welfare State would do a big spectacular turn on at the end, which was, kind of, our gift and surprise for the town. Now more and more townspeople, because they are becoming experienced at it are being involved in that finale, so this year they made four big big dragons.

Sue:  But before we go into that, those people who are now experienced makers are leading other satellite workshops in different community centres. So people can access a lantern workshop in their neighbourhood, and Welfare State artists aren’t running those, its people who have come through the process, {people] who are taking the responsibility for running those workshops. You asked John about an new initiative this year, and we managed to raise some extra funding, so now for a week in August, we offered family workshops for people who wanted to work on bigger structures and work in a team way with, and alongside artists, to make the major images that were going to front up the four processions- from the north, south, east and the west, to come into the town.  And those major images would have a role in the arena, the finale, because the making process was going to take far longer, than the compressed high-energy short burst of time we have for the workshops that led up to the event. So, as John was saying, four fantastic dragons were made.

John:  They were punt dragons actually, frisky young dragons. The story goes that there is an old dragon that lives under the hill here and when things are not right, he gets upset.  He’s got pretty fed up with what is going on in Britain at the moment with the whole, sought of, leading to an Iraq war and with excessive consumerism, and a big division of society and lots of propaganda from politicians.  And so this dragon is getting disturbed and the young frisky dragons had the job of waking it up. And when people arrived at the field, 12000 people around this enormous area, about the size of a couple of a football fields, there was a big pile in middle of detritus from the consumer society, all the discarded surplus that nobody wants, that they have been persuaded to spend too much on. So the Dragon was sleeping under this, it had got suffocated by it, the young frisky Dragons woke it up, and it erupted and rose up into the air, said that things could be better in the future. So you’ve got this 100 foot tall big, blazing dragon that was kind of firing underneath the hill, so it was a kind of celebratory warning, but also a symbolic connection between the very old and the very young.

How long was the process from the beginning of the lantern festival to the end?

Sue:  Normally it’s only eight or nine days of actual visible stuff here, when we are up to speed, ready, for the doors to be opened for the family workshops to happen. The weekend preceding the finale is the key time, then afternoons and evenings during the week running up to it. So we work with a huge speed, which is simply budget-led, we would love it to be for a fortnight.  Because we don’t have much choice about the date, the town has something called the Charter Festival, which is a couple of particular weeks in September, and the schools have only just gone back. So, people only have a few weeks and suddenly the Lantern Festival is upon you, and people go “oh ah, I better get my lantern made”, because it’s coming up fast.  So it has to happen with a great urgency, so you never know what you’ll see. You see the most extraordinary things that people have made on the kitchen table and in the garage.

So you see their vision as well.

John:  It reflects what is going on in the town as well.  So yesterday, in the town Glaxo announce they’ve laid off 400 people, which is a big factory that employs a lot of people making antibiotics, so who knows, by next September there maybe a lot of people out of work and it may be appropriate for the Lantern Festival to reflect that in some of the images that are used, so it’s always alive, it’s always connected, it’s not just a formula.

Part of our students’ study is to look at social and artistic goals of Welfare State as a group. Is their an overall artistic goal which you transfer from project to project?

John: Yes, there is goal and there always has been, in our earliest manifestos we talked about an entertainment, an alternative and a way of life and that was in 1968.  And I think it’s still something similar to that, but I think that it is becoming something more urgent, because people are increasingly suffocated by a society that they don’t have much control over.  I’m interested in getting rid of economic conscription, I’m interested in a creative society, following all those things that William Morris, John Ruskin or Gandhi said where people have access to there own potential. I think that a lot of people’s talents are completely wasted, and they work in jobs which they don’t particularly enjoy and we all have very short lives. I’m interested in a society where people have more access to their own potential and that it is a creative society and art is a way of thinking about things and looking at life. It’s a mode of knowledge; it’s a whole different way of being from that which is led by the market economy and by a kind of ‘top-down’ consumerism.  And I’d also like to think on a world scale, because I’d also like to think on a world scale, because we are a very small number of people who live incredibly well and a large number of people live in economically very poor conditions, (often spiritually in a much better way) and I think we need to think much more about equality, and about sharing, and about making the whole wonderful creative world culture. 

Sue:  And we see a role for art, whatever the definition of Art is, that weaves itself in to everyday life, so whether it is the meals people cook at home, the way that they garden, their imagination, their creativity, as well as engaging in different art forms- music, visual art, poetry, creative writing or performance, making things. So that belief that there is a role for art in everyday life spills over as well into those things like the way that we mark the arrival of a newborn child, or a partnership ceremony, or even a funeral or a memorial, so we don’t have to hand over passively to professionals, to go ‘oh well, its somebody else’s job to arrange this on our behalf’ we can have an input and make these this distinctive and make them have a meaning for us. There’s no right or wrong, whatever that meaning is, and whatever your own values are, we can support people in finding an expression of that.

John:  It’s about people making there own art, not just making there own houses, ceremonies, and making sure people have control over them rather than handing them over to experts.  It’s about making their own entertainment. Nowadays most people will play an incredible amount of music, but most of it’s done through CDs and people make an incredible amount of money out of all that. Whereas it’s possible for people to make more of there own music, get more pleasure out of playing musical instruments and working with their own community and audience. I’m not talking about going back to some sought of yucky nostalgic folk art, I am talking about people getting a great deal of pleasure about doing things together, and believing they can do it.
I think that there is a danger, in that we all go and watch the most incredible movies that have cost millions of pounds that are often full of Hollywood propaganda.  People take away our dreams and sell them back to us at enormous profit to them.  And whether it's about making our own clothes, houses, music or ceremonies, what I’m looking for is a type of ‘contemporary vernacular art’.  And again I think that so much art has become part of the consumer boutique, that it is put out by specialists, and you pay a lot of money for it and it’s in ghettos called theatres or art galleries and so on. 
Certainly in Australia you have amazing landscapes, fantastic climate and you’ve got a wonderful aboriginal culture where people did work outside, work in the landscape, that’s a great place to begin, to make a complete new art form.

Sue: It’s yours!

John.  [….]  You know the great Australian art form is the BBQ, that’s wonderful. People know that but people don’t think of that of being potentially an art form, and what we’re saying is, let’s make those things more common, lets celebrate them more and stop letting the experts from persuading us in what our lifestyle ought to be, because it’s just about making money out of us.

So is part of Welfare State’s philosophy about people simplifying and owning their lives and not being dictated to?

John: There are sophisticated things like information technology which is brilliant because you can communicate with people within seconds […] but the simplicity question is a complex one because those I.T. devices are probably made in sweatshops in Taiwan. We’re all interconnected and so the world is extremely complex. What I’m talking about is the nature of values that could be shared around the world, quite simple values- good food, shelter, no violence or to not be manipulated by politicians or religion. To achieve that you have to use quite complex methods like international communications. You can’t separate what’s happening in a small town from what’s happening in Israel. The truth is simple, it’s very clear but the solutions are complex. The question of whether art is useful in changing any of this is that it is, because it’s about creativity, your own power and decision making.
But the danger is that art is seductive and people can make money out of it. It can be a decorative distraction and it doesn’t connect people with any real issues or themselves at all. So I’m very wary about art. Peter Schumann of ‘Bread & Puppet Theatre’ said in 1965, “If art is just a luxurious surplus, then why bother?” It’s just part of the same commodity, consumer, world-capitalist structure. So it’s important that people know their values and develop their own creativity. So a creative society is not about making art but the nature of being and the nature of celebrating people together and telling the truth.

Megan and Michael travelled to the UK on the Premier’s English Literature and Drama Scholarship.

Additional examples of contemporary companies and practitioners

Case Study 1: Devising Celebration
Bathurst 1999

Underlying Ideas & Practicality of the Bathurs Event.
What is involved in Devising Celebration?  The course offered through the CSU & the NSW Dept of Education it aided participants to understand the nature of celebration and how to develop an occasion into a WSI event.  One of the key ideas that is immersed in this study is John Fox’s method of “looking for the poetry under your feet”.  This idea is that theatrical artistic expression is most empowering when it belongs to, rather than imposed on, the grassroots community.  Further to this community goal, “poetry under your feet” can be interpreted as looking into yourself and within your community for meaning and content in artistic expression. 

A key question in the process of creating a carnivalesque event is to evaluate the site and to plan the content of show. 

The size of the show is of major consideration.  The methods of project development outlined in The Welfare State Handbook allow for many people to be involved at all levels.  When organising such a large-scale event (i.e. over 200 people directly involved) it might be best to get a core group to set up the basic framework of the event (e.g. Drama Classes).  The WSI in Cumbria involves a core group of trained professional to work with hundreds of local people and visitors to create the lantern festival parade.

The second and most ‘poetic’ consideration is the content of the performances. What are the issues that are important for the community and how can these issues/ideas somehow be incorporated / subverted in your production?  When doing this they use opposites to create, through a dialectical process, real meaning.  For example for an Olympic event trim sport figures could be contrasted to the fat cats of the IOC in images for a parade and people are invited to make own decisions about the true nature of these games. All this can be done in fun manner that producers a message without being too didactic.

The actor-audience relationship is also something that needs to be considered in your production.  Fox emphasises the importance of drawing from the local community’s mythology and reality.  The use of construction materials from the local community may add to this feeling of inclusiveness and makes the community a real part of the means of production of the event.  

Another important factor in producing an event is the style of the presentation.  Mumming shows , where the actors go into the audience, are excellent for a priming device and way of involving the ‘punters’. 

Fox explained that anything can be transformed into poetry; you just have to read the mythology and see it clearly.  Devisors should try to make ordinary people proud of what they see around them everyday.  But, when you do create, you have to realise what the fantasy images are manipulating.  What end does it serve?  In other words when you are making figures don’t just uncritically exploit your community, make a valuable contribution.   For example, it  may be sponsored by McDonald’s and decide to use the skills to create a giant Ronald McDonald for a parade, but the question the maker needs to ask is “is my fantasy figure helping my community or is it just making money for an exploitative multinational?”

The Masque Ball Preparation & Production
One alternative for a type of event that the course dealt with was that of the Masque Ball.  The masque ball can be dated back, in part, to Elizabethan England with a ball planed to celebrate events such as a birth or marriage.   An interesting example can be found in the Luhrmann's Romeo & Juliet, this video could be viewed with a class to generate ideas.  The masked ball means that people can become part of the show that they present, so when they dance they are actor / spectator and are automatically, in some sense, creating part of the total meaning of the event.  The Masque Ball also gives ample opportunity for dancing, visual art and song, which is part of the enriching power of the carnivalesque.

The Bathurst event held a large masked ball at the Bathurst showground.  The Masqued Ball represented culmination of the images and ideas of the creative and practical learning over the week.  The key images involved the placing of bi-polar opposites so that the humorous car built during the construction phase was contrasted to the Frilled Neck Lizard.  The Ball allow for the participates to have an emotional release as the work final came into reality with ceremonial food, performance art, Suitcases of Dreams, wild free dance, amongst the event.  It was a case of total theatre with participates moving in and out of character creating and personal and collective meanings.  The night climaxed with a massive shadow puppet & invasion of the Big Bug as the narrative told of nature usurping its control over The Mountain.   Fireworks built to a stunning climax that topped off the night.

Case Study 2:  “Out with a Bang!”
Eden Marine Technology High School

The event theatre production of “Out with a Bang!” was performed in Eden in December 1999.  The event is an evening of performance that celebrated the end of the millennium whilst looking at the possible impact of the future.  It explored and discovered the ‘prehistoric roots’ of performance by encompassing the natural elements of fire, earth, air and water.

The show explored the natural beauty (climate of wild seas, clear air and water) of the town and juxtaposing the urban environment with a post industrial situation of the recently closed cannery.

The aims of this project include exploring the idea of collaboration and collectivity using different dramatic styles and techniques such as naturalism, circus, street theatre, sound scapes. Within this process the students increased self awareness, self esteem and expression. 

The Event.
Most Drama education professionals have an awareness of the school MADD (Music, Art, Dance, Drama) Night or Drama Showcase.  “Out with a Bang!” develops from that format into show that is more of a total theatre.  In this event the theatre is happening from first entry of the audience into the school (not just the Hall).   The event starts as they enter the school gates, the audience sees seven windsocks, each over 2 metres long, tied on 4 metre cane to the school fence.  The element of wind is celebrated.  On approaching the entrance, they were greeted by the ‘gate keeper’ and her ‘pets’ (chanting, grotesque-like creatures).  This is the beginning of the performance that explores the ancient roots of Drama.  The gatekeeper will then only allow the audience members to enter through the ‘curtain of life’ (see picture) by way of making some kind of promise (e.g. kiss your love one, enjoy the evening etc.).  Once they have gone through the curtain they are led by freakish odd characters down the ‘path of fantasy’ (see figure 3).  This is a transformation of the outside of the alley with hanging lanterns, paper banners,  spirits and poles wrapped in space foam.  As they walk odd characters engage them in conversation as they continue to the school hall. 

They are then directed to a large open playground to marvel at the fire spectacular, 4 people performing fire twirling and breathing. This is in a large open area, free of trees with boundaries set by ropes and with appropriate fire marshals set.  They are then directed to the Hall entrance and with their tickets they are given party masks.

Once inside, ‘usher’ characters will take them to their seats.  This gives them a chance to look around and see how the hall has been transformed – banners, flags, giant sea gull and an assortment of Reverse Garbage decorations that are hung from the walls and ceiling.  Food venders also wandered around offering ‘themed food’ to the audience.

The show was led by two characters, Carol and Darryl, timeless archetypes who could exist in both urban and rural areas.  These characters have their own narrative which is developed through the evening as they appear between every three or four scenes.
The characters of Daryl and Carol, the cleaners, intermingled with the audience, establishing themselves so as to be easily identified within the main performance (inspiration for this idea came through Cirque de Soleil & Slava Snowshow use of clowns to prime the audience and involve them in the action).

After this introductory interaction of around 40 minutes the lights in the hall dim and the curtains open to reveal a large backdrop painted like an explosion saying “BANG!”.  The banner was produced by the students in the creation process.  The first scene links the introduction by exploring the idea of where the cities came from with a transition from old to new.  The production uses scenes devised in various drama classes where different ideas are explored.  Darryl and Carol act as host with mimed interactions between playlets.

Nearing the end of a short interval, where the odd characters interacted with the audience, a circus troupe, know as the Fire Fliers, encourages the audience to quickly take their seats for the second act of the show by performing a loud and vocal percussive procession that takes them from the stage left door, weaving their way through the audience and back up on stage through the audience and back up on to the stage through the stage right door.  The music begins as the follow spot races around the auditorium to build anticipation for the high energy circus act that begins act two. 

Again student class devised playlets are performed, then to conclude the evening, a millennium bug charter distributes party poppers throughout the audience and a voiceover is heard that thanks the audience and prepares them for the millennium countdown.  10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 BANG!!!  The audience cheers.

This performance works around the ideas of a show Drama showcase, but differs in that it links the theme of performances in an eclectic manner, and invites the audience at myriad stages to be part of the show. It is a show that celebrates it local community by involving them in the show.

Creators (Performers & Makers)
The process of developing this performance works as an excellent basis for producing the “making” and “performing” outcomes of the new Drama 7-10 Syllabus (BOS 2003).  The performers were primarily made up of drama students studying drama as an elective subject in years 9 and 10.  During this time there is a focus on ‘skills-building’.  The performances should timed to be used a major part of assessment of students.  Year 11 students are also invited to perform preliminary group projects allowing them to hone their performance skills. 

The two year nine classes involved use the project as an opportunity to perform for a public audience as many of these students have never been “on stage” before.  In terms of their performance, one class focused on short student scripted pieces (devised specially for this purpose) around a country theme and worked in groups of between two and seven.  This also encouraged them to explore and analyse text, adopting a certain approach to performance.

The second group, providing the performers for the preshow event, focused more on improvisation and playbuilding by attempting to devise their own textless, character & movement-based work that uses music as accompaniment.  The group also worked on circus skills.  The year 10 class used published scripts and the theme of the city life to provide a contrast to the year nine scripted group.

Finally, as there is the element of fire being used, it was decided that the performance was to be by a teacher and community member.  Performers took all possible precautions for use of fire and teachers are invited to check all appropriate protocols.

The Production Team
The team for the production is only small.  It is essentially produced by two teachers coordinating a production team of students and help form community members.   These teachers collaboratively organise the administration, budget, publicity, venue negotiations, lighting and sound hire.  Students from the 3 junior classes make up the rest of the roles.  Parents were invited to help with costumes and make up etc, year nine students paint the banners and backdrops and aid in transforming the exterior of the hall.  The technical crew is made up by year 10 students.  The production was a financial success with a paying audience of over 300 people.

ADDITIONAL WORKSHEET (a further example)

Bread and Puppet Theatre website
http://www.pbpub.com/bread&puppet/bread97.htm

1. What is the event?
2. Who attends the event?
3. What is the cause of the trouble between the organisers and the locals? What are the key issues and solutions?
4. When was Bread & Puppet founded and what issues did it address?
5. What is brief history?

The Pageant 97

6. How did it contrast with the afternoon performance?
7. What was the theme of the show AND, most importantly, how was it shown?
8. What is the “system”?  How is it shown dramatically?
9. How is the “system” destroyed?

Review 97

10. Describe the NASA skit?  What point was it making?
11. What was the McGoliath?  Describe what the puppet looks like.
12. What was the “underlying theme”? What do you think of this?

People and Things

13. Who goes there and why are some people concerned?
    http://www.pbpub.com/bread&puppet/bread.htm

Bread and puppet 98
What was the decision that Peter Schumann came to?  Why?