?Rampage? is an eclectic mix of new writing by and for young people, exploring the question ?What makes you angry?? explains James Dove. Drawing together three separate events ? Rampage Plays, Playwriting in Schools and Seize the Space ? it reflects the wide scope of work undertaken by the Royal Court?s Young Writers Programme.
Rampage Plays is itself divided into three parts, the culmination of three different projects. I was involved earlier this year in directing a new play by Chloe Moss called ?X-tra?, performed by students from Hurlingham and Chelsea School where I teach. I felt so passionate about the effect the project had on the students that I wrote my feelings down. The following is an extract taken from that writing.
?The project gave me a chance to explore areas with students that are impossible to explore in the classroom. More importantly, the real difference is that their efforts are immediately recognised by their peers. There is a sense of self-development involved and desired in the process of creating a real piece of theatre. The actors realise that their decisions on character, objective and setting are open to the scrutiny of a living audience, outside of their institution. They are accountable to their own efforts, so the more they put in the more they will achieve. The focus of the project has given students a voice, a way of expressing their understanding of the world they live in. Our starting point in the devising of the script was ?What makes me angry?. From this, the students have developed their own characters under an urban landscape. Chloe Moss is now in the process of writing the play from the devising phase. We will then revisit the characters again on the first reading and further develop them in rehearsals. My hope is that students will be immediately able to access the text given to them and develop the piece, as they further understand what actions the characters need to inhabit. Hopefully, this should then be a new experience for the audience. They will be given the opportunity to really understand what makes young people angry as they will be watching and listening to actors who are as young as their characters, who live similar lives to those characters and who have been pivotal in the process of the development of the play.
So maybe the state education system is not as bad as the public is made to believe. As long as schools like mine and theatres like the Royal Court continue to use the arts as a vehicle towards learning, projects like this can change and develop young minds in ways never before plausible. Since Rampage began I have seen a change in the way that students approach their work in other subjects. A lot of them find learning very difficult or have barriers to learning, as they see the education system as less important to their future than it is, and they fail to see the benefits of school until they are much older. I would like to think that this project has changed this. Students are more able to see that with hard work they can achieve something of real worth for our community and therefore can learn to take advantage of the education that is offered to them for their future benefit.?
James Dove is Head of Drama at Hurlingham and Chelsea School.
e: jamesdove53@hotmail.com