Thanks so much for your interest in
joining our Wonderland workshop as our
Assistant. Here’s a little of what your
role might involve over the course of a
fun, energetic and exciting week.
To assist the Workshop Leader in
their day long workshop by taking part in
all the activities of the workshop as a
participant and mentor. The Workshop
Leader will lead activities which you help
the children follow and take part in.
Assisting the children in realising
the goals of the workshop. For instance
during the ‘Play in a Day’ you might go
around the small theatre companies the children have formed and help
them to come up with their story and how to stage it. You might be a
partner to a child who has none. You might re-explain the working and
objectives of a task to a group who has not yet fully grasped the idea.
You might offer ideas, suggestions and feedback as to the piece the
children are working on, and so on. It’s really fun.
To provide a little warm pastoral care, and if necessary discipline to the
children e.g. sitting with those taking some time out, showing them where
the toilet is, calming down those who might be getting a little emotional,
sorting out those who forgot something, adjudicating small spats etc. This
role is very important, as it allows the workshop leader to keep moving
things along, if one or two children’s behaviour could be in danger of
derailing it. Generally however, we all have the best of fun together and
these moments are rare, as the children love being at the workshop.
If agreed, and desired by both the leader and you the assistant, you may
lead the daily morning warm up for half an hour which focuses on warming
up the voice, body and the imagination. Typically this culminates in fun
drama games. Later in the day you can also lead more games with the
children if there is time. It is important to note that most assistants
want to do this, to gain the experience of it, but it is not essential that
you do so.
As the children do a lot in a week, and you are there for all five days of
the workshop, whilst the Wonderland leaders come and go for a day each
– three are only there for one day, and one for two, your role is to
provide continuity for the children. This is particularly vital for the short
‘Play in a Day’ they make in the first two days. It is your role to run their
plays with them every day after that on the stage, to help them
remember it, and to offer encouragement and feedback. This is usually
done as a little show for the incoming workshop leader for the day who
praises them for it, before that day’s activities begin.
Your most important role is fulfilling child protection laws by being the
second adult in the room, along with the Workshop Leader. This means
that you should always be a witness to the other’s conduct, in the very
unlikely event of an incident arising. There should always be two of you
on duty even during the lunch breaks. If you need to leave for any
reason you should ask one of the Art’s Centre’s staff to cover for you,
but their availability should not be relied on.
It is important to note that whilst the children have a lunch break, due to
Child Protection Laws, yours is not exactly such, so you need to bring a
packed lunch so you can still be on duty with them when they take their
break either in the theatre or outside.
Outside of the working time of the workshop, to design, make and print a
short program to be handed out to friends and family at the showcase.
This is usually just a folded sheet of A4 with the children’s names and
the roles they play, photographs of the workshop, a synopsis of the plays
they have made, a little about our company Wonderland and the Arts
Centre, a little biography from each child as to why they like drama, what
their hobbies are, where they live and go to school etc. It’s often the
children who come up with the ideas for this program and you simply
facilitate it. Quite often the assistants will work on this with the help of
the children over the lunch break. The result is a very personal program
from the children to their audience. A very memorable souvenir. If you’d
like lots of examples from past workshops email Alice.
You are required to be on duty during the five hours of the workshop,
plus to be ready and available to meet and greet the children from ten
minutes before the advertised start time. You are finished when the last
child has been handed back to their parents or guardians. Usually this
means within a few minutes of the workshop ending, if however a parent
is late, the child is often distressed, and clearly either you or the leader
(or both of you if there is not another adult present as a witness) should
stay with the child in the foyer until that last child is collected.
If anything of concern occurs, we would take that seriously, so please be
discrete and do not discuss your concerns with others, until you have
first called Wonderland’s Artistic Director Alice Coghlan at the first
available opportunity. Her number is 0879622891 or landline 01 6337783
email [email protected]. If her phone is off it is likely she is
teaching at another Arts Centre and will get back to you after class. If
something is more urgent than that time, please contact the Art’s
Centre’s Director.
To have a lot of fun with everyone.
About Wonderland Workshops
Wonderland’s weeklong workshop for budding young performers immerses
children in our world of drama, music, dance, singing, sound art, clown and
comedy and theatre design. From backstage to centre stage our workshop
offers every child a chance to shine.
Wonderland Productions has been hailed as one of Ireland’s brightest young
theatre companies by the Irish Times who described our production The Miser
as ‘Quite simply superb...witty wonderful Wonderland...without any risk of
overstatement Wonderland is a company that is going places.’ FIVE STARS. The
Independent described Wonderland as ‘one of the most strikingly inventive
companies to emerge in recent years.’
We have run Wonderland Workshops and Camps since 2005, and in 2010 when
we were Theatre Company in Residence at Mermaid Arts Centre we began our
weeklong Children’s Workshops, which have been so popular with children that
they have gone on to tour to Arts Centres nationwide!
Our Wonderland Workshops uniquely combine a ‘stage school’ with the work of a
professional theatre company and each one takes place on the stage of the
theatre. Every workshop leader is also a working Theatre or Opera Practitioner
and a part of Wonderland’s success story, being either Wonderland actor or
singer or a member of Wonderland’s Production Team. Indeed some of our
students have even gone on to appear in our productions!
Every Wonderland Workshop’s aim is to make friends, to perform, to learn life
skills – yes, but most importantly to encourage each young performer to grow
and develop through the performing arts - and just as crucially to have the best
of fun together.
To better orientate you, as to what our workshop with you might be like, here is
a sample outline of one our summer workshops at Riverbank Arts Centre
Newbridge in July 2012.
Monday: Artistic Director Alice Coghlan will spend the first morning
helping the young performers get to know one another. After this she will lead
a fun workshop in exercises focused on voice work, acting and comedy and
clown. She will also help the young performers to brainstorm ideas for their
Play in a Day on the Tuesday, and in so doing will share and demonstrate some
of the principles of directing and writing. Alice will also tell the children about
what her job as director and writer’s is like and who is who in the theatre and
opera world where she works.
Tuesday: The star of Wonderland’s hit Italian dinner theatre show La
Locandiera Claire Jenkins http://www.wonderlandtheatre.com/lalocandiera.shtml, will
teach acting, voice and improvisation. Together with the young performers
Claire will devise a short ‘Play in a Day,’ where the young performers invent and
imagine the story together based on the theme ‘Labyrinths and Quests’ from
Wonderland’s
forthcoming
premier
of
Sylvia’s
Quest
http://www.wonderlandtheatre.com/sylvia.shtml, before they write and create it.
She will direct and help develop the young performers play with them.
Wednesday: At the Easter Camp the children requested a Day of Sound
Art and Music, so we are delighted that Tommy Foster the sound designer and
composer of our Gullivers Travels, Dubliners and upcoming Sylvia’s Quest will
spend a day helping the children to make and record soundscapes for their
‘Quests and Labyrinths’ plays. Tommy and the performers will bring as many
noise making items and instruments as possible to theatre with the aim of
creating a Foley Studio on stage! Tommy will also share some of experiences as
a sound designer and show the children how he created the monstrous
soundscape for the yahoos of Gulliver’s Travels, how he evoked the Edwardian
Dublin of James Joyce or the time-travelling fantasies of Sylvia’s Quest.
Thursday: Back by Popular Demand - Amy Therese Flood is a trained
dancer and actress and has worked on all of Wonderland’s recent shows as an
actor, dancer, and assistant director. Her workshop will see a day of dance,
where young performers will have a fun introduction to various dance genres
and will also have a chance to choreograph their own dances and physical
theatre routines, which will become part of the story of their Play in a Day.
(If the young performers are keen to dance to a particular song they are
encouraged to bring in the music earlier in the week)
Friday: Artistic Director Alice Coghlan will return to rehearse the Play in
a Day, dance and sound numbers for their enthusiastic audiences that
afternoon. This is also the morning when the young performers will be shown the
lighting and technical facilities at the theatre by the theatre’s In House
Technicians. For many of the young performers this is the highlight of the week
– as they collaborate with the theatre’s technician to choose and design the
lighting and sound for each scene of their showcase, and select some sound
effects too. And then it’s on with the show. ‘There’s no business like show
business!’