Jonathan Petherbridge, Artistic Director at South East London-based theatre company, London Bubble, is telling me a story. It involves a classroom, a young boy and the three little pigs. But, as the story progresses, the three little pigs become the three little friends… It then evolves into three little friends and a television set! Then, the three little friends in a television set… Then the three little friends in a television set with Jonathan Petherbridge!? Confused yet?
‘This was breaking all the rules!’ laughs Petherbridge, explaining that the story evolved over a number of weeks in a London classroom, and that the storyteller – a young child – was really ‘getting off on being able to emboss the story’ and in turn, was inspired to write. ‘The trouble in our country,’ Petherbridge observes, ‘is that too often we try to teach children to write and spell before we give them the desire to write. Essentially, drama and story helps to develop the imagination.’
This is the philosophy underpinning a teacher education programme run by London Bubble, which the company hopes will raise the profile of drama in ‘early year’ educational settings. The three-stage training programme aims to pass on story-gathering techniques to education professionals working with children aged three to eight, and runs parallel to the company’s production, You Can’t Say You Can’t Play.
An adaptation of the book of the same name by American teacher and writer Vivian Gussin Paley, You Can’t Say You Can’t Play and the accompanying training scheme explores the author’s ideas about the power of storytelling in children’s early years. Gussin Paley’s books and techniques, Petherbridge explains, have formed the inspiration for much of London Bubble’s work in early year settings for the past three years.
According to Gussin Paley’s theory, in their first five years of life children use the mechanism of ‘play’ to learn language, mannerisms and meaning. However, in her article ‘Story and Play: the Original Learning Tools’, the expert further argues that upon entering school, ‘this natural theatre they have been performing, this playfully deep fantasy approach to life is no longer acceptable.’ Gussin Paley sees this as a serious problem. ‘For when play is eliminated,’ she says, ‘the model for story making is eliminated as well.’
Based on Gussin Paley’s ideas, the London Bubble education programme provides a tool for teachers to encourage ‘storytelling’ and ‘play’ in the classroom. ‘I asked some teachers [recently] about how often they invited children to tell stories in the classroom,’ Petherbridge recalls, ‘and only one of the teachers’ hands went up. The problem is that children go into the classroom and are encouraged to learn and encouraged to read, but they’re often not encouraged to find their own voice.’
On the surface at least, it would seem that the Gussin Paley’s storytelling technique is relatively straightforward.
‘The simple procedure,’ says Petherbridge, ‘is that a teacher has a book in which the children are invited to dictate their stories. They can speak anything up to a page of any story they like and then, later in the day, the teacher marks out a stage area in tape on the floor, and the class sit around it. When the teacher reads out the stories, she will also ask the teller of that story and any other children to stand in the stage area and enact it to the class.’
‘It sounds terribly easy,’ he acknowledges, ‘ but it’s actually very profound in a way. It’s inviting the child to contribute to the classroom or to express something to the class. I don’t think they have an opportunity for this to happen in the rest of the school day.’
In addition to cultivating the imagination and stimulating alternative modes of expression, Petherbridge says that the technique also encourages the young to build vital learning skills.
‘It is done within a structure where children actually have an audience and learn to become part of an audience,’ he comments. ‘So it develops listening skills and concentration, as well as creativity. It also develops bonds of community within the
classroom, so I think it’s quite profound and should be part of the curriculum,’ he asserts.
However, Petherbridge also acknowledges that for some teachers, the idea of handing over control to the children in their classroom can be difficult. For this reason, he says, the education program unfolds in three stages.
‘The first stage is to go in and demonstrate and talk about the techniques with the teacher so as to get them on-side,’ he explains. ‘The second stage is to bring the teachers in [to London Bubble] for a training session and then the third stage is to assist the teacher implement the technique in their classroom and offer them support.’
Petherbridge describes the whole package as an easy-to-use tool-kit to equip teachers with the skills to teach creatively.
‘What we want to provide is a structure that is as simple as the tools in a paint-box, or the tambourine and woodblock for music,’ he says. ‘Something that is a tool-kit for teachers, so that they can encourage classroom storytelling. Something that is so simple that everybody understands it and everybody enjoys it.’
The director also points out that the programme fits into the overall framework of London Bubble’s philosophy, which is to make theatre relevant to Londoners.
‘The London Bubble ethos is to make theatre for Londoners of all backgrounds, and the way we try to do that is to try and find relevance… and then we try to find entry points that we think will encourage people to [embrace theatre] throughout their lives. This is one way of doing it.’
For further information on this education programme contact Louise Owen on 020 7232 5969 or louise@londonbubble.org.uk
Interested readers can find Gussin Paley’s work ‘You Can’t Say You Can’t Play’ HERE
