By Mrs Horton (Drama Teacher)

Year 6 pupils took to the stage not just to entertain but to educate and inspire. As part of their drama curriculum, they explored the art of didactic theatre, a form of theatre that aims to teach a message to the audience and inspire them to make changes in their own lives to better society. They examined how acting, sound design, costume design, set design and dance can combine to create powerful climate change messages.

Through workshops and rehearsals, students learned key techniques of didactic theatre, such as directly speaking to the audience, exaggerated stereotyped characters, dance and song to break up the action and remind the audience they are watching a play, and symbolism through design elements. They applied these skills to call on the audience to take action to protect our planet.

Every element of their performance was carefully crafted to amplify the message. Over the course of three lessons, each class worked together to create a coherent performance where they collaborated to make sure costumes communicated the characters’ stereotypes; set and sound communicated the rainforest location; dancers and actors used their knowledge of didactic theatre performance to make sure every action highlighted their l messages.

The final performances were delivered to an enthusiastic Year 5 audience. Year 6 inspired them to think about how they can make simple changes to protect our planet. Their performances demonstrated how theatre can spark meaningful conversations. Bravo, Year 6!