Orkney Islands Council’s Education and Leisure Services in partnership with Orkney Alcohol and Drugs Partnership is teaming up with Scottish Youth Theatre, Scotland’s national theatre by and for young people, for a creative alcohol awareness project with all Primary 7 and Secondary 1 pupils in the county. The Wise Choices workshops will take place from March 8 to 19 2010 with organisers hoping to develop aspects of the workshops with schools in the future.
“Alcohol awareness is an important message for our young people”, says Chris Giles, Principal Teacher Expressive Arts. “We wanted to address the issue in a way that would engage the young people and make them actively think about the impact that alcohol abuse can have on our families and communities. What better way than to use drama to enable them to explore the many aspects of this critical subject in a relaxed and fun environment.”
Scottish Youth Theatre offers a range of workshops that use drama to help explore social issues. Recent collaborations have seen SYT work with Culture and Sport Glasgow to deliver the “Kool Kids” project with schools in North Glasgow focusing on themes of healthy living; with ChildLine to create and deliver a promotional DVD for its anti bullying service aimed at young males; with NCH Drama Project working with ‘at risk young people’ in Inverclyde on a long term project focused on personal and social development, and with the Southbank Centre in London on a nationwide project ‘Operation Soapbox’ that resulted in an exhibition about young people’s voices and opinions.
“An important part of Scottish Youth Theatre’s work is to partner a variety of organisations and use drama to help explore issues,” said Fraser MacLeod, Associate Director of Scottish Youth Theatre. He then continued, “young people are fantastically creative and our aim in all our collaborations is to harness this creativity. Through a series of workshops and performances the Orkney pupils will explore the impact of alcohol abuse. We hope they will then apply what they have learned in the workshops to make wise choices in their daily lives.”
Wise Choices will see two of Scottish Youth Theatre’s tutors, Steven Leach and Katriona Wilson, working with teachers and pupils over the next two weeks. Each day mixed groups of Primary 7 and Senior 1 pupils will come together for a series of workshops and performances. An associated CPD programme for teachers will enable them to then continue the project in schools across the islands.
“Sustainability is a crucial element of the this project,” adds Chris Giles. “Wise Choices is not simply a two week initiative, but will be developed by drama and class teachers across Orkney in the coming months to ensure that as many of our young people as possible can learn the message about wise choices.”
Orkney Islands Council