Pupils - Drama
Drama at Goldsmiths
Delena Davison, Director of the Sage Educational Trust was delighted to be invited to a performance of 'Our Asylum Town' at Goldsmiths' Community Centre in April 2004.
This was the culmination of months of hard work by some talented young people from various schools in Downham & Bellingham. Greenwich & Lewisham Young People's Theatre had toured secondary schools in the area with a play called "Inside Out", which looked at the issues concerning new arrivals to this country and the way the media has reported them. Following on from this a group of interested young people were recruited to create their own piece of theatre, based on ideas provoked by the play.
The young people worked on these ideas, adding their own memories, stories or newspaper items, to devise a play on the theme of asylum seekers. After all the discussion the rehearsals began and the Goldsmiths' performance was their opening night. They then spent the rest of the week touring the play in other schools and to their peers throughout the area.
Delena said she had greatly enjoyed the performance and that it was very encouraging to see these young people using drama to address such important and difficult issues as the treatment of asylum seekers. She felt that the touring of the play amongst the drama group's peers would have been a thought-provoking exercise for all concerned, challenging some of the attitudes seen in the media's coverage of this issue.
"Please pass on my congratulations to all of those involved, I hope they will continue in their good work and their obvious enjoyment of drama."