Confidence grows during Bamboozle residency. 26 November 2007

This is an article that appeared in “Disabled & Supportive Carer” and gives an account of a week-long Bamboozle residency.

It is Monday morning in the school hall of Fairfields Special School in Northampton.  But this is no ordinary Monday morning.  And the hall is no longer an ordinary school hall.  Bamboozle Theatre Company has transformed the space into a theatre, with black-out, lighting rig and a setting that resembles a desert island.

In a nearby classroom students and staff from Fairfields and local mainstream schools: Earl Spencer Primary and Unity College are meeting together for the first time.  Some of the students, aged between 5 and 14, have met before but there is a nervous and tentative atmosphere as names are exchanged and Steno, Bamboozle’s musician for this week-long residency, teaches everyone a song.  Then it is time to go along the corridor to the hall. The lighting is warm and low, and a guitar plays quietly as the students enter and sit on the floor.  In front of them in the gloom is a ramshackle shelter made of driftwood and boxes.  It has a net hanging at the entrance.  Lobster pots, oars, baskets and other bits of flotsam are scattered on the sand around the shelter and beneath a near-by palm tree.  Eventually the guitar music fades and is replaced by the sound of waves on the shore.  Back projected onto a gauze the height and width of the hall is a film of the rolling ocean.  The lights change gradually until the island is bathed in an intense tropical brightness.  A window in the shelter suddenly opens and a woman’s head appears – she looks round before scrambling out through the entrance.  She is barefoot and wears a threadbare jacket.  We find out later that her name is Jingwei and she is a survivor from a shipwreck.  Jingwei hangs up some washing, pulls a simple flag up a makeshift flagpole and then begins searching the shoreline which is marked by pebbles, sand and sea-worn driftwood, before moving out of sight.   The action then stops and Rachael Jeffery, Bamboozle’s facilitator/actor, gathers the students together and wonders with them about what they have just seen.   The group speculate about the woman’s circumstances and decide they need more information.  They plan questions that they will ask the woman when she returns. *           *           * The questions that the students decide to ask become instrumental in shaping the narrative that is developed during the week.  This is designed to empower the students by enabling them to decide how it was that Jingwei came to be on the island and what happened to her subsequently.  This process takes the whole week and is done using a variety of art forms.  During the 5 days they make shadow puppets to enact the scene of the shipwreck, write a song about pirates, draw a large scale map, build a tunnel through which they go to find the treasure, question the pirate character about his intentions to their friend Jingwei and write, enact and film parts of the story they have made up.  The students and staff of the three schools have been brought together to launch the partnership of the Northamptonshire Extended Schools’ Service Cluster with the express intention of gaining more understanding of each other.  It is a steep learning curve for all of them.  Most of those from the mainstream schools have not worked with students who have learning disabilities before.  Lisa Purcell from Unity College said:  “… because Fairfield is a school for disabled children … it was a bit hard for me at first and made me think how much I take my life for granted…” Shannon Braybrook from Earl Spencer Primary School described it as an experience she will not forget.    Corallie Murray, headteacher of Fairfields, says: “The effect on the students of a residency with Bamboozle is lasting and the confidence they develop during the week transfers to other areas of their life.  For example Oliver, aged 5 and the youngest of the Fairfields students on the week, used to be very shy and in need of support everywhere he went.  Now he confidently makes his way round the school.  It has been a magical experience for our students; the enthusiasm, excitement, laughter and friendship will last for a long, long time.” Bamboozle can be contacted by phoning: 0116 283 9697, emailing: info@bamboozletheatre.co.uk or by writing to: The Managing Producer, 62 Sanvey Lane, Leicester, LE2 8NF.

Posted Nov 26, 03:38 PM in category Past-Residencies

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