Funded by YPCE Bursary Arts Council of Ireland…………….
In January 2024 Margaret emabrked on unique immersive multi-disciplined Theatre Arts Project with 1st class in St.Oliver Plunkett’s JNS Finglas in partnership with the class Teacher Eimear Martin and SET teacher Sarah Quigley. Following the model of Teachers Artists partnership (TAP) of which Margaret’s area of expertise,we have explored many creative strategies. Hyper focussed on the journey of exploration being meaningful without pre-determined outcomes, as valuable, as possible to every child while essentially remaining fun.
Daily reviews, and creative and practical flexability means we could shape the process on goingly taking into account,the childrens response to each aspect, catering for all of the children and accommadating meaningfully the individual’s complex needs.
St Oliver Plunketts prides itself on being a trauma informed school.
Margarets model of work uses the arts as a vehicle to take these children on a crucially important meaningful journey in self expression though creativity. Where each of them can feel achieved and fulfilled and therefore their self confidence thrives.
Our journey has been really rewarding, really insightful and really exciting. Here are some of our project highlights and the video of our Shadow Tale of the ‘Wizard of Oz’ in Ollies
Scroll down to hear all about our project!.
‘What the teachers said
Margaret had a lovely way with the children that put them at ease and enabled them to be themselves.
What the teachers said
a parent in the school spoke to Margaret about how her son has been talking about his drama experiences on the way home in the car on Fridays. Before he rarely spoke. He had found his voice.
What the Teachers said……
‘This was a very important, meaningful and inspiring collaboration. It brought so many opportunities to our children to learn about theatre production and self-expression. It gave all our children a voice. I am sure that this project will endure in the memories of our children well into their later lives when they look back on their fondest memories of school. It has enriched their experience of education and communication as growing people. We need more of these enriching experiences for our children, for them to learn how to communicate in safe and empowering ways. A collaboration like this has been such a positive experience for us as a school and the whole staff’ Sarah Quigley St.Oliver Plunketts National School.
We started by exploring drama roleplay and Fairytales as Freezeframes.
Next Margaret brought in her Shadow Screens and did some exciting Shadow Scenes from ‘The Wizard of Oz’. She also brought props, hats and costumes.
We tried out her big screens that she uses for her play ‘Wooden Heart’ and created some amazing life size shadow scenes. Next we decided to look at ways of creating our own scenes from ‘The Wizard of Oz’
Eimear showed the original movie of the story in class. Margaret showed the class a pop up book version of the story.
’Margaret wrote a script for the class to record their voices narrating the story .
We made our own Shadow scenes and made our own Shadow Puppets
Margaret brought in Garbo sound tech Lucy in to record and edit the children telling the story.
Next we would begin to create our Shadow Scenes to go with the voice recording
What the teachers said……
I’ve really enjoyed getting to observe Margaret each way and learning from her. She has shown me how such successful outcomes can come from such simple set-ups. As I noticed with shadow puppetry, the shadow silhouettes could be such a fun way of presenting learning from various topics for children.
What the teachers said…..
She was very compassionate towards understanding our children’s needs (in such a short time) and with the critical awareness that- the children finding their voice through drama is one of the best outcomes that this project could facilitate
We experimented by using our recordings and every child tried out creating different characters using hats props and shadow puppets too .Using Shadow Screens and the voice recordings. We also experimented by hanging a huge white sheet from the roof of the classroom and putting lights behind it to create large group shadows
What the teachers said…..
Margaret managed to get the children naming feelings and emotions which is something we are really trying to encourage in our school. A child mentioned that the lion wanted courage, to be brave. I was surprised by the child who said this as in their own life, this child is required daily to have courage and be brave and it was great to see the child use these words.
Teachers Eimear and Sarah were essential partners in all aspects both practical and creative they also contributed mentoring in the context of a ‘Trauma Informed’ school.
Some Reflections on my process
The Shadows and Screens that are part of my Theatre practice have become an invaluable tool in my Arts In Education work. They serve many purposes creatively supporting and helping with the complex challenges of the individual child and indeed adult. The performer is behind a screen: this gives , the shy, retiscent individual the safe feeling of cover, yet they are still visible as a very magical shadow,. This allows their desire to perform to be liberated from the chains of self conciousness, while they still feel safe. This brings a great confidence to these children in a way that is very unique.
The Shadows and their aesthetics never fail to draw all children in. They are calming and enchanting, when delivered through theatricality: they allow a type of self expression that is inclusive to almost every child. The Shadows hold the hand of many of the children suffering enivironmental sensory issues and help them navigate their way into performing, focusing joining in with their peers with equality . They help them have the joy of creativity within a group setting, which otherwise may not always be possible for them. The recorded narrative literally gives a performance voice to those who would find it too much to stand on front of people. Yet they are still listened to and heard. Margaret Callan Bergin May 24
What the Teachers said…….
‘ it was lovely to see how much it meant to them when they were encouraged, and I could see their confidence grow. Margaret spoke to the children about acting and how good actors control their emotions. By getting into character and pretending to be someone else. I thought this was an important part of the lesson as it touched upon self-regulation,
What the teachers said…….
Margaret put on a stellar performance and the theatre setting made the show come to life. All these things are things of wonder for the children to behold. The children were actively engaged during the performance demonstrated this – gasps, laughs and chanting the poem. I felt a little emotional watching certain parts because some of Margarets characters could be the children in our class. This connection is so meaningful. The characters in Wooden Heart reflected those in the Wizard of Oz – people searching for certain qualities they need to feel whole, a deeper story about healing. Children were delighted with the performance
Margaret also collaborated with the children on a window installation. The children drew the homes of the characters from Oz , in the art room in Rua Red. Margaret took their drawings and created the skyline of ‘Oz’ over a rainbow on the windows of their school hallway. When the sunlight shines through, it creates a rainbow on the floor! Have a look at the video here
Supported by YPCE fund Arts Council of Ireland
In all Garbo projects acess to the Arts is a crucial element. Margaret was supported in all aspects by the Arts Council of Ireland and for this visit in partnership with Rua Red supported by teachers and parents brought the children to her base in Rua Red Arts Centre, performed her play ‘‘Wooden Heart’ in the theatre space, facilitated an art workshop, and the children also visited the exhibition led by Rua Red Outreach officer Kimberly Griffth Walsh . The exhibition ‘A safe place to sleep’ by Morag Mysercough. It was focussed on what means ‘home’ to people. Our Wizard of Oz theme is all about a girl trying to get home. The children drew the homes of the characters in the story of Oz. Margaret took their work , cut it out and created a window installation in the school of the skyline of Oz. This was such an exciting experience for the children, most of whom had never been to a theatre to see a show or visited a gallery before.
What the teachers said….
‘These are so many key moments and experiences that speak to the importance of the arts in our schools as facilitated by Margaret through drama. It is an expressive outlet that they absolutely need to escape from difficulties in their lives and to flourish in the right conditions’.
For the last phase of our project we became filmakers and set out to make a movie of our shadowtale. Margaret filmed us performaning all the shadow Scenes, then came the big editing job, then Margaret put our voice recording with our fimed shadow scenes.
When it was finished we had a special screening for the whole school community. We darkened the classroom to give a real cinema feeling and we had 3 viewings for each of the other classes in the school. Everyone loved It,
At the end we came in took a bow and answered questions about how we did it. Afterwards Margaret a gave us all little Ozcar statues as a reward for all our hardwork
Supported by YPCE fund Arts Council of Ireland
What the teachers said
‘YPCE through Margaret, brings so much more expertise to our children than I have and allows us to make space for the arts in an overcrowded curriculum’