07 November 2020
Posted by Rebecca Tilley
Pantomime Time
This week we were confined to each other’s screens as we moved back to collaborative Zoom sessions for the first meeting after the half term break. We began with a special guest appearance from Susmita’s cat, an online meeting necessity!
In the build up to Christmas and pantomime season, we had a discussion led by myself about fairy tales and why we retell them so often. Fairy tales often speak to universal hopes or fears that can be translated across generations and cultures, in fact the same narratives often crop up in cultures across the world! We talked about our favourite retellings, such as the film Maleficent, and the book Step-sister by Jennifer Donnelly and discussed what was changed in these retellings to give a fresh perspective on a familiar story, after which I invited the group to rewrite their favourite fairy tale and change a single aspect of the story to see how that changed the narrative as a whole. When we shared our ideas afterwards, I was impressed with the variety and creativity expressed by the young writers. I especially enjoyed Katie’s retelling of Beauty and the Beast set in Waterstones!
We then moved on to working towards a group project of writing a pantomime, the perfect thing to keep our spirits up over this lockdown! Susmita shared the trailer for the Sleeping Beauty pantomime that we would be basing our creation on and we talked about the history of panto and the story of Sleeping Beauty itself. Viv gave us some interesting trivia about pantomime traditions, such as that good characters enter from stage right and evil characters enter from stage left, a tradition that harks back to medieval times!
After introducing us to the main characters, we split off into groups to work on developing them. My group had a lot of fun thinking about a Princess Rose that bucks stereotypes and a stuffy yet optimistic Fairy Lilac! Coming together to share our ideas, we found that the other group seemed to have had similar ideas for the prince and Fairy Lavender, which gave us some brilliant ideas for opening scenes! Together, we brainstormed several ways to open the show, each more over the top and hammy than the last.
I had a lot of fun as the guest in this session and was blown away by the creativity and passion of this group of young writers. I can’t wait to see the finished pantomime when it’s written!
Our last face-to-face session
Archive
Junior & Young Writers Week 3: Return From The Magical World
Junior & Young Writers Week 2: African Mythology
Problems, Problems, Problems...
Cautionary Tales & Christmassy Opening Lines
You've Gotta Have Pace, Pace, Pace
Junior & Young Writers Week 1: Alien Encounters
Junior & Young Writers: Week 5 - Play on Words Pt. 2
Junior & Young Writers: Week 11 - end of term showcase [build a bard workshop]
Junior & Young Writers: Week 10 - Greek Theatre - chorus stories
Junior & Young Writers: Week 9 - Greek Origin Stories - Spring
Rubber Ducks & Writing Festivals
Junior & Young Writers: Week 7 - Greek Hero Stories [the 12 labours of Hercules]
Junior & Young Writers: Week 12 [Wild Words] - Stuff & Things
Junior & Young Writers: Week 11 [Wild Words] - World Building 2
Junior & Young Writers: Week 10 [Wild Words] - World Building
Junior & Young Writers: Week 9 [Wild Words] - Mystery & Choose Your Own Adventure
Junior & Young Writers: Week 8 [Wild Words] - Spooky Sequels & Potion Poems
Junior & Young Writers – Week 10 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Final Showcase
Junior & Young Writers – Week 9 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Editing & Performance Tips
Junior & Young Writers – Week 8 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Cuteness
Time goes on by Tavinder Kaur New
Junior & Young Writers – Week 7 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Natural Solutions
Junior & Young Writers – Week 6 (Writers’ Inspiration) – The Language of Fruit and Veg
Junior & Young Writers – Week 5 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Adventures In Space
Tinklebobs and Bedraggled Angles
Junior & Young Writers – Week 4 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Our Environment
Fortune Tellers & Future Letters
Junior & Young Writers – Week 3 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Home
Young Writers - Week 10 (The Art of Writing) – Final Week Showcase
Junior Writers - Week 10 (The Art of Writing) – Final Week Showcase
Young Writers – Week 9 (The Art of Writing) – Choose Your Own Adventure
Junior Writers – Week 9 (The Art of Writing) – Choose Your Own Adventure
Young Writers – Week 8 (The Art of Writing) – Sequel Stories
Junior Writers – Week 8 (The Art of Writing) – Sequel Stories
Young Writers – Week 7 (The Art of Writing) – Picture Prompts
Junior Writers – Week 7 (The Art of Writing) – Picture Prompts
Young Writers - Week 6 (The Art of Writing) - Script-writing & Dialogue
Junior Writers - Week 6 (The Art of Writing) - Script-writing & Dialogue
Junior Writers – Week 5 (The Art of Writing) – Poetry
Young Writers - Week 5 (The Art of Writing) - Poetry Potions
Edward The Martyr - A Competition!
Mood Boards and Postcards from Space
Young Writers - Week 3 (The Art of Writing) - PLOT
Junior Writers - Week 3 (The Art of Writing) - PLOT
Moomin Stories and Hollywood Pitches
Young Writers - Week 2 (The Art of Writing) - Genre & Setting
Junior Writers - Week 2 (The Art of Writing) - Genre & Setting
Prompts, Dialogues, and Cliché
Story Structure Part One: Exposition and Beyond...
Young Writers - Week 1 (The Art of Writing) - Character
Young Writers - week 4 - Nature Writing [animals & wildlife]
Junior Writers - week 4 - Nature Writing [animals & wildlife]
Young Writers - week 3 - Nature Writing [trees/plants/flowers]
Junior Writers - week 3 - Nature Writing [trees/plants/flowers]
Young Writers - week 2 - 'fractured fairy tales'
Junior Writers - week 2 - 'fractured fairy tales'
