Donmar Education Programme

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Case Study Details

• Client: Donmar Warehouse Theatre
• Contract Location: 41 Earlham Street, Seven Dials, London WC2H 9LX

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United House has sponsored the Donmar Warehouse Theatre for the past 15 years, from supporting its West End season to helping to develop talent among new directors. One of the most rewarding elements of the partnership has been working together on the Donmar’s Education Programme, providing enriching opportunities for school students to work with professional theatre makers.

The programme began with students from Lambeth College, Jo Richardson School in Dagenham, and the Beacon School in Banstead working with Donmar practitioners and Directors, including the writer and director of one of its latest productions, SALT, ROOT AND ROE. The students were introduced to the basic building blocks of playwriting, and took inspiration from TV, newspapers and their daily lives to begin constructing their own scripts. At the end of the day, they were sent away with a simple but challenging brief – to write an original play, to be performed by professional actors.

The project culminated at Trafalgar Studios on 29 November 2011. Throughout the day, a group of professional actors rehearsed the students’ scripts, before everyone who had taken part in the project, as well as an invited audience, including cast member Imogen Stubbs (above), arrived at Trafalgar Studio 1. Seven of the students’ plays were performed in front of the writers and their friends, as well as an audience of professional theatre makers and actors.

Following the success of the programme, which started in 2010, we are looking to build and expand our work with the Donmar Warehouse and to deliver an even more extensive series of events for 2012, alongside the third of the Donmar’s seasons at Trafalgar Studios.

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