Home…
What is home? How do you build a home? Where is home?
These are just a few examples of questions that initially come to mind when exploring this idea. ISTA’s digital theatre project ‘Home’ connected 10 students from 2 different schools (UNIS Manhattan, USA and International School of Panama) in 2 different countries to explore, create and collaborate on a digital performance piece.
The final piece incorporated techniques such as storytelling, verbatim, text-initiated movement, narration and original music.
Students were grouped into 3 different production focuses:
Performance students
Performance students shared their own reflections/stories/thoughts about home. These were shared amongst the participating students from each school who used a variety of techniques to create and construct a piece of theatre. These students also worked on theatre making using these reflections/stories/thoughts as well as additional creation of movement and directing work.
Music students
The music students worked with a professional composer to develop original music to be used for the final production.
Film students
The film students worked with a professional filmmaker to learn the techniques required to film their own school’s work and capture contextual shots. A few students then led on the editing of the final piece.
While students had the opportunity to work with professional artists, the project itself was structured to encourage student autonomy, responsibility and creative commitment to the project. The artists acted as guides offering workshops to give students the skills to create the project and truly make it their own.
Digital Theatre projects such as this explore:
– Work-related learning
– The opportunity for students to participate in real-life learning
– The role of the student as artist
– Small-scale digital productions
– The potential to engage students in cross-curricular explorations (theatre, music and digital arts)
View the project’s inspiration pack here:
Congratulations to all of the learners and educators at the International School of Panama and the United Nations International School (UNIS) Manhattan, USA on an amazingly creative and thoughtful exploration of what ‘home‘ means to them.
And a big shout out to our artist team who worked together with the students to create this piece.
- – Helen Abbott – Artistic Director
- – Richard Free – Musical Director
- – Mike Bindon – Film Production