By Mrs Horton (Drama Teacher)
This year’s Year 6 production was unlike any other. Rather than working from a script, our students began with a series of creative stimuli - costume, set and props items from a wide range of different styles, cultures and purposes, designed to spark their imaginations. From there, they worked in small groups to explore and develop their own original ideas, characters, and moments of drama.
Over the course of several months, the students refined their scenes with the support of our drama department and, importantly, with the help of a brilliant team of Year 8 and 9 Drama students. These older students acted as mentors, collaborators, and sometimes even co-directors, offering guidance while always keeping the younger students’ ideas at the heart of the process.
Once each group had developed their scenes, we came together to find the narrative thread that would weave them into a single performance. The final story was a patchwork of the students’ voices, every scene, every character, every twist and turn comes from their own imaginations.
The cast have decided to call their play Mr Merlin’s Magical Antique Shop. The plot follows the ill-fated journeys of unsuspecting customers entering Mr Merlin’s Antique Shop. As each customer meets the mysterious and slightly creepy antique shop proprietors they are compelled to touch an object, which transports them into the world of that object’s origins. Once in that world, if they touch the object again, they are transported back to Mr Merlin’s Magical Antique Shop where they discover they are trapped and unable to escape! Once all the characters are trapped in the antique shop, they eventually discover the magical sand timer which unlocks the curse, releasing them from the antique shop where they can be free to celebrate in the outside world!
As director-facilitator, my role has been to guide, shape, and support – not to impose. What we have created is not a traditional school play. It’s a devised piece, born entirely out of the creativity, energy, and collaboration of our students. Even our props and set pieces have been painted by our students, some even provided their own!
I am incredibly proud of what they have achieved, and I know the audience enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed making it.
View photos from the dress rehearsal here.
