My Father and Other Superheroes
Activity Pack
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All of the exercises are suitable for both KS2 and KS3 pupils.
My Father and Other Superheroes Activity Pack
CONTENTS
Classroom talking points – initial responses to the show page 3
Drama games and warm-up exercises pages 4-5
Superhero story creation exercises pages pages 6-10
Theme-based exercises pages 10 - 13
Working with the graphic novel pages 14 – 16
Exploring Language pages 16 – 17
Directing a section of text page 18
Interview with Nick Makoha page 20
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Classroom talking points – initial responses to the show
The visit to the show can be a springboard for discussion around many themes –
identity, fatherhood and parenting, landscapes, absence, heroes and superheroes –
to name but a few. Specific classroom discussion ideas will be highlighted
throughout this pack, but in the first instance you might want to start with responses
to the show itself.
Here’s what Justyna Kwaniewski from the British Council said after she saw My
Father and Other Superheroes for the first time – this might be a helpful way to open
a discussion:
“After leaving the theatre my first reaction was to phone my dad to see how he was, I
have a good relationship with my father but I hadn’t spoken to him for a while. I always
talk to my mum. The show provoked me to seek out my father for advice. As soon as I got
out of the theatre, before I got on the tube I called my dad, my mum answered, I said hey
Mum can I speak to Dad.”
Question bank
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How did the show make you feel?
Why is the show called My Father and Other Superheroes?
What was your favourite part of the show?
What bits didn’t you like?
Did you laugh? – what was it that made you laugh?
Did you feel other emotions during the performance – what were they and when
did you feel them?
Did you have any recurring emotions? What were they? When did they happen?
What do you think were the themes of the show?
What did you think of the way that the show was lit / the way sound was used?
Did it help to tell the story? If so, how?
Did you feel like Nick’s father was a hero?
Did the way you felt about Nick’s father change as the show went on?
Extension Writing Exercise: reviewing the show
You might want to give students a couple of sample theatre reviews before starting
this exercise. Here’s a short review of the show from Charles Beckett (Arts Council
England).
“My Father and other Superheroes is a moving and powerful story about the
journey from childhood to fatherhood. Set across continents and eras, it follows
one man's struggle to come to terms with the responsibilities of being a parent and
his confrontation with his own father's absence. I think it is a vivid, funny and
sometimes painfully honest feat of memory and autobiography.”
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Step 1
Write your own two-paragraph review of My Father and Other Superheroes. You
might want to think about structuring the review using these questions:
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What is the show about – what is the story?
What are the themes that were present in the performance for you?
What did the set look like? What was the effect of the lighting and music?
What impact did the writing have on you?
Was there anything that confused you / you didn’t like? Anything that could have
been made clearer?
What was your emotional response to the show – did you have more than one?
Step 2
Now try writing it in two sentences, and then two words. Does this help you to distil
your reaction to the show?
Drama games and warm-up exercises
If you’re to build into some ‘on your feet’ drama with students it’s a good idea to
begin with a warm-up game or two to help students to move into their bodies. Here
are some superhero-themed games to get you started.
Superhero’s footsteps
Step 1
Ask for a volunteer to be the superhero. Stand them at one end of a space with their
back to the rest of the class.
Step 2
Stand the rest of the class behind a line at the other end of the room – this is where
they have to come back to if they are caught moving.
Step 3
Explain the rules: the class are the villains / ‘baddies’ who want to take away the
superhero’s superpowers. They can do this by creeping very stealthily towards the
superhero while her back is turned and tapping her on the shoulder. But the
superhero can turn around at any point and if she catches anyone moving she sends
them back to the start line and have to begin again.
Step 4
If a villain manages to make it all the way to the superhero, tap her on the shoulder
and steal her powers, they become the superhero and the game begins again.
Transformation tag
Step 1
You’ll need two volunteers – one to be the villain; one to be the superhero. Both of
these people are able to move. Everyone else in the class is a ‘transformer.’ They
stand fixed in one place on the ground spaced out across the room.
Step 2
The superhero and the villain stand at opposite ends of the room to begin the game
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Step 3
Explain the rules. The villain chases the superhero. To avoid being caught, the
superhero can ‘transform’ by tapping the shoulder of one of the transformers and
shouting ‘transform!’ The transformer then becomes the ‘new version’ of the
superhero and the villain must now chase them instead. The person who was the
superhero takes the place of the transformer. If the superhero is caught, they
become the villain.
Step 4
On your signal, the villain chases the superhero.
Superhero Musical Sticks
This is a great warm up – particularly if you’re planning on getting people to move
about during the lesson or to work together / respond to external stimuli.
You’ll need some classical / wordless music (ideally something that has changes in
rhythm and melody); and a set of green garden canes – enough for one between two
(the ones that are a couple of feet long that you can find in garden centres or
hardware stores are ideal, just make sure they’re smooth at the ends – consider
using tape to cover the ends. You can also use straight drinking straws if the canes
are too long or you don’t have much space)
Step 1
Pair the class off and give them one stick between two
Step 2
Ask them to stand facing each other and to hold the stick between them at shoulder
height – each of them just using one index finger. The students are all superheroes.
The sticks are all people that they have rescued. The superheroes are working in
twos to bring the sticks to safety. The sticks must never be dropped on the ground.
Tell the students that you will play them some music and that the music represents
the journey that they will go on getting the person that they have rescued to safety.
They should respond to the music by moving the stick together.
Step 3
Play the music and start with some restrictions in terms of movement – i.e.
 Standing opposite one another with their eyes shut – so they can go as far up
and down and left and right as they can without moving their feet.
You can vary this as you go – one instruction at a time – i.e.
 now you can open your eyes
 now you can move slowly around the room.
3-5 minutes is usually a good amount of time for this exercise so try to find music
that lasts for long enough.
You can either let people pick up their stick if they drop it on the floor or you can
play with elimination and the last people standing
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Story Creation Exercises
1. Superhero Saga
The purpose of this exercise is to build – as a class – a superhero story from scratch.
Class discussion – story structures you could begin this exercise with a discussion of
the different ‘ingredients’ that might go into a superhero story – i.e. the ability to
transform, a secret power, a deadly opponent, a mission…
Word soup For superhero-name creating, you could also add a vocab-building
session to the exercise: Write the names of all the different superheroes the class
can think of on the board. Now add any other words that spring to mind when they
think of the word “superhero”.
Step 1
Give everyone 60 seconds to make up the name of superhero (you might want to
model this – a few ideas: starwoman; rainbowboy; tigergirl) and then ask write it on
a bit of paper and fold it up tight. Then ask them to close their eyes and stand in a
circle and throw their bit of paper it into the centre / put it in the superhero hat.
Step 2
Now let everyone pick a bit of paper from the floor / hat.
Step 3
Give everyone a minute – on their own – to come up with a pose that they think is
suitable for their superhero based on the name they have received (e.g. Starwoman
might be standing with her arms outstretched like a star).
Students could also keep the name that they have made up – sometimes it helps to
be given a starting point that they have no particular connection to– it’s up to you
Step 4
Ask / pick a volunteer to come up to the front of the class and show their pose. You
can then read out their name, introducing the portrait to the rest of the class – i.e.
this is Raingirl. Now, you can ask the class some questions about the superhero they
see in front of them:
Where are they right now: e.g. in the supermarket
What is their secret power: e.g. they can control the weather
What is their current mission: e.g. they have to save the city from a volcano
Who is their nemesis: e.g. Fireboy
Why are Thundergirl and Fireboy sworn enemies: because Fireboy wants to make
the world into one big volcano
Either go with the first example (make a note of what the students say) or try it with
a few students and then pick / vote on one of the scenarios to work on.
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Step 5
Brainstorm different moments from the story and write these up on the board.
Include background details e.g.
 where is the superhero from
 who are their friends / family
 do people know that they are a superhero
 when did they first met their nemesis
 when they discovered their powers and their mission
Include emotions and action points e.g.
 how do they feel about their powers
 what happened – step-by-step on the day they faced their nemesis
 how did they save the world and how did they feel about it
 how did it all end?
Now you can take the exercise into one of the extension below.
Creative Writing Extension
 Write an eyewitness newspaper report about a moment of high drama in the
story
 Write a diary entry from the superhero’s point of view about the day they
discovered their powers
 Write a dialogue between the superhero and their nemesis
Drawing Extension
 Produce a ‘Wanted’ poster of the superhero or their nemesis or a poster
advertising a film about the superhero or their nemesis
 Produce a scene from a graphic novel / comic strip based on a moment from the
scenario (you could look at the graphic novel you were given at the show as an
example). If you wanted to take this into a longer project you could source a
different moment for each student and produce a whole-class graphic novel for
display
Drama Extension
 Divide the class into groups. Pick one of the moments within the story and give
them 1 minute in their groups to come up with a silent tableau of that moment.
 Then 50 seconds to create a new tableau – choosing another moment from the
board (either before or after – a “flash forward” or “flash back”)
 Then 40 seconds
 Then 30 seconds
 Show the tableaux each time
Multimedia extension
 Either split students into groups or ask them to work individually to produce a
series of news reports / interviews (on Iphones / dictaphones) of different
perspectives on the unfolding drama (you could use hotseating to prepare this –
see page 13 for the technique).
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2. Body of a superhero, voice of a superhero
The last exercise modelled a single story built in collaboration. You might want
students to work individually instead and build a whole class full of different
superheroes.
You could begin with the name sourcing from the last exercise. Or you could ask
students to go through a newspaper or magazine and use interesting words as a
stimulus. But before students begin, they each need to have three names: their
name, their superhero name, and the name of their nemesis / or a force that they
are in conflict with.
Step1
Ask the students to stand in their own space and say the name that they have picked
out loud. Then ask them to play with it – try saying it very quickly, very slowly,
elongating the different letters, saying it in different voices, at different volumes,
singing it – anything else you like. They can also bring in movement – how big is this
name? Is it a high name, a wide name, a sinuous name…? The point of this is to get
them acquainted with the sound and feeling of their superhero name. They can close
their eyes to do this part if this is helpful.
Step 2
Repeat step one – this time using their own name. Next, encourage them to move
back and forth between the two names and feel – what are the differences, what are
the similarities.
Step 3
Ask them to lie down on the floor with their eyes closed. When they are lying down
ask them to whisper their own name quietly once. They are themselves at this point,
lying in their bed at home. Ask them to feel how their body feels– is it heavy,
comfortable? Ask them to focus on isolated parts of their body – hands, shins, knees,
toes – all the way to the head. Encourage them to relax and find a comfortable
position. Take time over this – a couple of minutes at least.
Step 4
Now ask them to keep their eyes closed but to imagine they are waking up – what do
they do? Turn over, stretch, yawn?
Step 5
Now ask them – with their eyes still closed – to stand up and imagine they are in
their bedroom. Ask them to turn around slowly and visualise their bedroom as it
really is in real life – what is in there? Does it look tidy / messy? Now ask them to
imagine that their bedroom door has become a full-length mirror. Ask them to look
at themselves. What do they look like on this perfectly ordinary day in their perfectly
ordinary bedroom? What are they wearing? How do they stand? If they look at
themselves from different angles, what do they see? How do they feel? What is their
biggest fear, best friend, greatest triumph?
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Step 6
Now, with their eyes still closed, ask them to look at the floor and whisper the name
of their superhero. And then to look up. the mirror has vanished. They are in a
completely white, bare room with. Ask them to turn slowly around and see the
second white wall and the third. The fourth wall is all made of mirror. And they see
that they have transformed into their superhero. What is the superhero wearing on
their feet, legs, body, head? Have they a mask? Are they huge or tiny or normal
sized? Ask them to strike different poses? How do they feel? What is their greatest
fear, proudest triumph? Who is their greatest ally, sworn enemy?
Step 7
Ask them to walk towards the mirror. As they do, it turns to air and they are outside.
Where are they? Is it a city, the countryside…are they inside somewhere or outside–
is it far away from here or is it their own street at home. Is it a place that they have
been before or is it new? What can they hear? What can they smell? What can they
see?
Step 8
Ask them to slowly open their eyes and begin to walk around the room. How are
they feeling on this day? Ask them to walk around the room and notice their feet on
the ground – how does their superhero walk slowly, quickly. How do they run? Is
there one part of their body that leads – their nose, say, or their chest or their
elbow? And back to walking again – what is the environment around them like as
they walk – it it sunny / windy / an air-conditioned room / a busy street? How does
this affect their movement?
Step 9
Ask them to start whispering their superhero name to themselves as they walk –
gradually playing with it again to find – what is the voice that goes with this name?
And gradually as they pass other superheroes in the space they can stop and
introduce themselves in their superhero voice – good morning, my name is…
Step 10
Let them do this for a little while and tell them that on your signal – a drum beat or a
hand clap, they should slowly freeze into a pose that is the best expression of their
superhero.
Step 11
Now that they are frozen, ask them to close their eyes and listen. And somewhere,
out there, in the world, they can hear a name – the name of their sworn enemy. Ask
them to start to hear parts of that name – start to form it with their mouths and
gradually to whisper and finally to say it out loud. And to repeat it slowly until – on
your signal – silence. They can open their eyes again.
Step 12
Ask them, without talking, to take a notebook and write down everything they can
remember from what happened to them – where they were, what they looked like
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etc. – anything, it doesn’t have to be any particular order – any words that come to
them, they can make little doodles / sketches if they like…
Now everyone has a starting point for a superhero character. Here are some ideas
for extensions:
Extensions
Diary entry directly describing what happened to you the exercise – how you went
to bed as yourself and woke up and looked around your bedroom and then bang!
You were in a strange white room, transforming, walking through the mirror etc. You
could also write this as a 3rd person narrative.
Script a phone conversation with a good friend – you’re aware that you’re not meant
to tell anyone about your secret but you’re dying to spill the beans about the fact
that today you discovered you were a superhero.
Letter to school Imagine you are now the parent / carer of your superhero. You
don’t know anything about your child’s powers but you are aware that they have
been acting differently recently. Write a letter to your child’s school expressing
concerns about their altered behaviour and asking for help.
You might want to work up to mini-performances of all of the above.
Body of a Superhero, Voice of a Superhero - alternative ways in
Class discussion - what’s in a name?
What is the power / significance of a character’s name? Think about known heroes –
comic book superheroes, mythical heroes – are they just ‘ordinary’ names,
accidentally chosen, or is there a purpose in the choice, an extra layer of meaning?
Many superheroes have names like Batman and Superman (when they are in
superhero mode) – why is this? Can they think of superheroes whose names are
more ambiguous? What do students’ own names mean? If they had to have another
name, what would it be and why?
Collage – you could begin by create the face of your superhero from magazine and
newspaper cuttings, giving a name to the face and using the portrait as a start point
for the exercise.
Theme-based exercises
1. Class discussion: Heroes and Superheroes and making myths
A discussion unpicking the notion of heroism and what makes a hero. Who are the
heroes and superheroes who we look up to in our own lives – think about fictional
characters, real historical figures or people alive today, people in your family or
friends or people you know – people who inspire you. Why do they inspire you?
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Do heroes and superheroes only do good things?
Is loneliness a necessary condition for a superhero or a hero? Secrecy? What are the
darker sides of being a superhero? Anonymity? Can a superhero have friends? Love?
Can a superhero be a parent? Can a parent be a superhero?
Extension – letters to heroes
MFAOS is structured around letters to different superheroes – Luke Skywalker,
Superman etc. Write a letter to a superhero or hero asking for help or a solution to a
particular problem.
2. Father or hero ?
This is an exercise to focus in more detail on why the show is called My Father and
Other Superheroes.
Here is a section of text from right at the start of the show:
As far back as I can remember dad has never shown up. For my fourth, fifth, sixth and
seventh birthday no birthday card, no presents, no cake, no candles, no calls and no
appearance, no nothing, nada zero zilch. It’s my eighth birthday…
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What impression do you have of Nick’s father at the start of the show?
From what you can remember, what other impressions did you form during
the show? You might want to use some of the following lines:
Dear Saint Superman, it is me Nick or should I call you Kal-el? I was wondering if you
could adopt me and call me Nick-el. Then my friends wouldn’t say Where is your dad?
Dad you made it! He is wearing pastel colours. An open top shirt reveals a chain with
a pendant. I always wanted one of those. He takes his shades off real slow as he
leans against his car. He smells like sandalwood. I want to take my dad here and
everywhere at the same time.
My dad is a superhero. But if my dad is a superhero why does he never turn up to the
scene of the crime? If he is a superhero why does he pack his boy away in a box, folds
his life away in a suitcase, take the boy the box and the suitcase and deliver him by
plane millions of miles away, away from friends and family and loved ones? To a
Kenyan boarding School?
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Do you think Nick’s father was acting in his best interests by sending him
away to school?
How do you think Nick’s mother felt about Nick’s father?
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This is a section from the last part of the show when Nick becomes a dad himself:
21 minutes after midnight and Olivia has just been born. It’s been ten minutes since
the nurse put her in my arms and I haven’t moved from this spot. I’m scared she’ll
break. I can see the door. It would be easier to walk away….I’ve got the surgical
gown on backwards. I’m 30 – the same age Jesus would have been when he started
performing miracles. What do I know about fathers? My father still turns my blood
red.
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How do you think Nick is feeling about being a father – how can you tell?
What can you learn from this section about how it feels to become a parent?
Here are the very last lines of the show:
Mum says I was eight hours old when he [my father] held me in his arms caressing
my hair watching my intakes of breath. Her marble eyes look at me without blinking.
Mine say I’m I want to live forever just so I can be there for you. We Mtoto
wangu. wa kwanza wangu. NakKupenda sanna. Najua. [My firstborn, daughter I
love you always. Do you understand?] I’m thinking for the first time: this is why I was
made – to be your father and I want to be your hero…….
The fate of all fathers is to become heroes. As a child you can only see the hero but as
adult you must learn to love the man. We Mtoto wangu. wa kwanza wangu.
NakKupenda sanna. Naju.
Discuss the meaning of the last line – how does this make you reflect on the show as
a whole?
Extension – writing a poem about becoming a parent
Step 1
Ask students to interview someone who has children – it could be their own parents
/ someone else they know. Find out what was it like the first time they saw their
child / held them? What did they feel? If they have more than one child, was there a
different feeling each time? What changed? What was the scariest part of being a
first time parent? What was a moment of pure joy?
Step 2
Use the interview as a basis for students to write a poem about becoming a parent
for the first time.
3. Landscapes, language and Identity
Nick lives in Kenya, Saudi Arabia and Peckham during the course of the play. Look
them up on a map. Look up how many miles it is from place to place? Put a pin in the
map for each place Nick has lived.
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Step 1
Ask the class – where have they lived (including their current home) where have they
visited? Where do they have family? Friends? Put pins in the map for all of them
(later you could add postcard-sized pictures around the sides of the map as a
display). Go to the different pins. Ask students to describe their experiences of these
places – either from first hand or anecdotally from friends or family members.
Discussion; what does it mean to leave a place – a house, a country, a school….
What is feeling ‘at home?’ How much a part of your identity is the place where you
are from?
Extension – hot seating
Step 1
Ask the students to close their eyes. Read them the following line from the show:
King Abdulaziz International Airport Saudi Arabia Jeddah. 11-year-old me in a new
set of clothes waits for dad. It’s as if someone had taken a carbon copy of America
and thrown it in the sand.
Step 2
Unpick the line – what does it mean? What can you see? What is the power of this as
an image? Discuss America – perhaps source some images of America (click here)
and Saudi Arabia (click here) How much more is contained in this image than the
number of words it takes to say.
Step 3
After you’ve spent some time discussing the line, ask the students to imagine they
are Nick and to think about what they can see outside the airport as a result of
discussing the image.
Step 4
Ask for a volunteer to sit at the front of the class – in the ‘hot seat’ (or in this case in
Jeddah international airport) and imagine they are Nick. Ask them questions – e.g.
What are your new clothes like?
What can you see immediately around you?
How are the other people dressed?
Extension – Creative Writing - Monologue
Ask the students to imagine they have just stepped off a plane in a place they have
never been to before / recall a time when they did this for real. Ask them to write a
short monologue for the rest of the class to tell them about the experience. Choose
some to perform to the rest of the class.
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Working with the Graphic Novel – thinking about form
Class discussion / individual exercise – what is a graphic novel? How is it different
from a novel with pictures? Look at the graphic novel you were given as part of the
show. Compare it to the show. How is it similar, different?
Extension
Compare the text and image below – both depict the scene in the laundry on the
Pelican estate where Nick goes to live when he has come back from boarding school
in Kenya
Because I’m back in Peckham, Pelican estate doing Saturday evening laundry
with mum. Golden! Music leaks in from the flats above as mum and I dance
barefoot on the machines. We’re lucky, someone has left a half-used box of
soap powder. The machines hum through a cycle like a choir of angels. No
more choir practice. Mum’s a good dancer but she is a better talker than
dancer. Catching her breath is an excuse to launch headlong into a story. No
way mum, a Ugandan was not the first to climb Mount Everest… WOW and
cross the Arctic too.
She says this while drinking tea from a flask with bread and sugar sandwich
wrapped in a napkin That’s what she lives on so I can have three solid meals a
day and these new pair of Nikes for Christmas. Don’t tell her I told you, it
would hurt her pride. Mum we need change. As I step outside I see this man,
with a jet black afro & shoes to match. I can see my face in his shoes. Kiwi
polish hits the back of my nostrils. Grey trousers with perfectly pressed pleats
rest on his brogues. Where the sun hits his body he cast a Darth Vader Shadow
that moves and almost touches the Laundromat door. Mum sees me frozen in
the doorway, leans over with an I-can’t-believe-this smile.
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Questions to consider
 What are the differences? What is similar? Which parts of the text has the artist
used for inspiration? What have they left out? Why have they made these
choices?
 How does a graphic novel ‘work’ that is different to the way a written story
works? You read from left to right in English. Is this how you read the panels –
what about understanding the individual pictures? How does the artist draw
your eye? Which bit did you look at first?
 Do you get the same emotional response from the two treatments of the scene?
 A painter can use colour to form an image. How do words also act like colour?
 How is a graphic novel panel different from other illustrations you might find in
books?
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Extension 2
Step 1
Take a scene from a fable / myth / story (e.g. the scene where Cinderella meets her
fairy godmother / the scene where Theseus fights the Minatour) – it doesn’t need to
be too long. The important thing is that something needs to happen in it and it needs
to contain some emotional response / content.
Step 2
Ask students to respond to this scene by producing one or several panels from the
graphic novel of the same story. Use the graphic novel from the show as a template.
Step 3
Reflection – ask the students to look at what they have produced and think about
why they chosen to present the story in this way
Step 4
Class discussion of the process – what were the challenges? Did it make you read the
text in a different way?
You could choose scenes from different stories with similar plot points (e.g. when
Theseus fights the Minotaur / when Harry Potter fights Voldemort) and split the
class into groups so that each group is tackling a different story. Reflection:
individual interpretation working first in your groups, discuss the similarities and
differences between the images you have created. Why have you chosen to
foreground different things? Which words have you chosen to include? Have you
used colour and scale to communicate?
You could also do this the other way around – give students panels from graphic
novels and ask them to write the prose version of events.
Exploring Language
Nick is a poet and the show is full of figurative language. Exploring this in a physical
way can be an interesting alternative to simply reading the words and trying to
understand them ‘on the page.’ For all of the following exercises – make sure the
students are on their feet immediately – ‘doing’ rather than discussing!
Exercise 1
Step 1
Ask the class to stand up and move into their own space in the room and close their
eyes. Read them this line:
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I hate him…but there is a part of my heart that is always outstretched like palms
hoping for water
Step 2
Now ask the class to find a single gesture or movement for the first part of the line
after you have read it again I hate him. Repeat this a couple of times until everyone
has a gesture that they are happy with and can remember. Stop and revisit some of
the gestures and movements that the class have come up with.
Step 3
And now ask them to do the same for the second part – listen to the words and then
respond with a gesture but there is a part of my heart that is always outstretched
like palms hoping for water. Repeat as per step 2.
Step 4
Ask the class to move between the two gestures they have come up with. Explore –
in discussion – the differences between these two gestures / movements. What
were the emotions provoked by the two sentences?
Now you can unpick the metaphor on a deeper level. Take the image first –
outstretched palms hoping for water. What is the water the line refers to? Is it rain?
It always rains in England – why would you hope for rain? Where might you hope for
rain? Outstretched palms – what do you see? What are the different ways we stretch
out our hands. What is the significance of the word hope? Finally, why is this the
image he chooses to describe as being like part of my heart?
Exercise 2
At the beginning of the show, Nick says – of his father:
He is as familiar as stardust floating across the galaxy at the speed of light.
Step 1
Discuss the word ‘familiar’ – try to pick up the links to the word ‘family’
Step 2
Repeat steps 1 – 4 from exercise 1
In unpacking the image: a discussion might include: What is the speed of light? What
does the word float make you think? Is this a suitable word to use when describing
the speed of light? How does Nick use this contradiction to make his point? What is
his point?
Step 5
Ask the students to work in pairs to create a spatial representation of Nick’s
relationship with his father based on what they’ve learnt from these two images
Step 6
Go around the class and look at some of them – how do they differ from one
another? Why have students made these choices?
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Directing a section of text
Although MFAOS is a one-man show, he speaks to and is spoken to by other
characters. Work in small groups to direct and perform the section of text below.
You might want to have different groups – some with one person playing Nick and
Mr Deakin; some with one person playing Nick and another playing Mr Deakin and
some with two people playing Nick (one ‘in’ the scene and one taking the ‘to
audience’ lines). Other students can take the role of directing, creating sound effects
etc.
Think about when Nick is speaking to Mr Deakin and when Nick is speaking to the
audience.
Think about staging. How might sound effects / light be used to create an
atmosphere (i.e. gameshow music before the ‘quiz’ / sounds of frying pancakes).
How do we make those – with our voices, with objects?
I’m gone to my mates house. His dad is making pancakes. Hello Mr Dekins
Hello son. Happy birthday Nick…
Thank you Mr Dekins. Even Mr Dekins knows it my birthday.
And Mr Dekins asks “How is your dad?" M in : C.L.U Tron Daft Punk And I think to myself, Mr Dekins, you shouldn’t have asked me that Mr Dekins. You
will not like me when I’m angry Mr Dekins.
Your specialist subject? Superheroes!
Where is Superman from? Kyrpton.
What is Superman’s real name? Kal-El
What superhero was bitten by a radioactive spider? The Amazing Spiderman.
Which superhero changes colour? The Incredible Hulk.
Your father’s birthday? Pass!
His favourite colour? Pass!
Where does he live? Pass!
The last time he told you he loved you? Pass!
Was your father at your birth? Pass!
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Interview with Nick Makoha
A published poet and a performer, Nick has presented his work throughout the UK
and Europe and for the British Council in Finland, Czech Republic the US and the
Netherlands. But he wasn’t always a poet…
When and why did you decide become a writer?
I was working as a cashier at a bank in Victoria. My girlfriend had bought me a copy
of Deepak Chopra’s The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success and I was reading it on my
lunch breaks. There was a chapter that started with a quote from The Prophet by the
Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran.
When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours
turns to music…. And what is it to work with love....It is to weave the cloth with
threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth
The chapter goes on to describe how success in life is the continued expansion of
happiness and the progressive realisation of worthy goals. And that the ultimate way
to achieve success in all its forms (be it wealth, spiritual, emotional, health) one must
do what one loves. Because when you do what you love, even during monotony or
hardship you will wake up each day with the burning desire to make a difference.
Suffice to say that was the last day working at the bank. In fact I remember marking
the occasion by burning my bank uniforms to cinders!
It can’t have been easy to become a poet – how did you do it?
I had an ability to mould interesting images that I cloaked in unnecessary rhyme. But
as the poet Kwame Dawes would say that was my “trick” – the thing I do best in
front of a crowd. My “trick” helped me to start to create a name for myself, but I
found it hard to explore and develop my creativity any further. I learned that
although I had the passion and the purpose, I had no process! That was when I
began to question whether I had made the right decision. I came pretty close to
chucking it all in.
What changed your mind?
Three things happened. The first was the birth of my daughter. Her introduction into
my life opened up to love in a way I had not fully experienced as a child. Then I was
accepted on to a 2 year course called Complete Works – a national development
programme for advanced Black and Asian poets. Finally I was invited to be a member
of SpokeLab at Stratford Royal Theatre East – a creative experiment with myself and
four other poets to see how you could fuse theatre and poetry together. We met
every 2 weeks for 2-4 hours for a whole year. That was when My Father and Other
Superheroes began to take shape.
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What were the themes or things on your mind when you started to write the show?
Well, Up until that point I had not given myself permission to be Ugandan, to be a
dad or writer. I needed to come to terms with the loneliness that prevails from being
far from my country and having a father who was absent. Absence does not
discriminate by race, age, social standing or geography. At the birth of my child I had
to deal with the anger and disappointment that sat inside me.
Where did the title come from?
I was in a workshop with Staci Makishi. We had been doing various improvisation
exercises when she said “now – write down what your life will be about for the next
few years.” I turned to the back of my Muji notebook, drew a Superman S and wrote
the tittle.
What was writing the show like – what did you use for inspiration?
I struggled a lot! When I was a growing up, as an only child, I read comics and
watched a lot of TV. Revisiting them as a man was insightful. Take Superman for
example – as a child he was the cool strong man with a cape and an S-curl hairstyle.
But looking back I realised that to me he represented a lot more. Both Ka-el and I did
not know our real fathers and lived in a world that was not our own. This gave me a
lot of food for thought. I recorded interviews of myself speaking about my childhood
(they would leave my director in stitches). I also wrote poems about Uganda – these
really gave me a sense of clarity in what I was doing.
And what about the process?
Being a father, an alumni of the Complete Works and a member of SpokeLab gave
me a structure and lens to deal with these themes. I complimented this with the rich
fuel of poetry workshops and reading. It helped me build a routine – writing, reading
and note taking. At points it felt like I was back in boarding school. I even joined my
friend Charlie Dark’s running Collective Rundem Crew and took some personal
development classes. As my friend Roger Robinson says – get your head right, get
your work right.
And how does it feel – now that the show is up and running?
Whenever I return from a leg of the tour and put the key in the door I know there
are three people waiting for me on the other side. Only one of them should be
awake, the other two are giggling behind a bedroom door waiting for me to tuck
them in.
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