Teechers (Acting Edition S.)

Product Information

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. We’re delighted to announce that, with the kind permission of John Godber, we are making available to schools our 2018 archive recording of Teechers. Access will be free of charge to teachers while theatres remain closed as a result of COVID-19.

Sara Howlett switched perfectly between the intimidating youth Hobby to the newly qualified Miss Nixon; it was impressive to watch the teacher grow in confidence as she found her feet and overcame all obstacles and insults presented to her. Howlett gave great depth to this character, enabling us all to fondly reminisce on teachers that positively impacted our own educational journey, no matter how long ago that may have been. I don’t suppose that it will come as any surprise that my play TEECHERS is based on my personal experience as a drama teacher at Minsthorpe High School, West Yorkshire, between 1979-83. I had written about the education system in 1981 with a play called E.P. A. (Educational Priority Area), but I think that I was too close to the subject matter for it to be in anyway objective. It was only with the distance of time that I was able to assess my years as a drama teacher and wor4k out what I wanted to say about the Comprehensive education system. What I felt was especially pertinent, was watching this performance on a day where teachers across the country could be seen striking — and despite Teechers being a comedy play, there is an underlying social commentary that can not go unnoticed. It was a small cast of just three, and they each had a plethora of uniquely devised roles up their sleeves, differentiating clearly as they portrayed each student and teacher represented throughout the text. Sara Howlett, Sophie Bullivant and Laura Castle have my upmost respect for their continuous energy and superb stage presence as they performed such an extensive amount of text without a single break between them.

urn:lcp:teechersclassroo0000godb:epub:b9b49e62-3c55-41de-aa09-b64e0e951d56 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier teechersclassroo0000godb Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t6652kr0p Invoice 1652 Isbn 057301678X Lccn 89204735 //r95 Ocr tesseract 5.0.0-rc1-12-g88b4 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.9507 Ocr_module_version 0.0.14 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-NS-2000477 Openlibrary_edition YorkMix Radio‘s own Laura Castle played the charismatic Gail, and as with the rest of the cast also plays a multitude of roles — you’d think she’d run out of accents but each time a fresh portrayal was given; a personal favourite being Doug the caretaker who’s interactions with Miss Nixon were hysterical. Castle is a exceptional performer with a extensive skill set, and she is a joy to watch. Laura Castle The cast never tire, bouncing energy off each other like fully charged Duracell batteries for the whole story & never skip a beat in sharing the ups & downs of life at Whitewall with us.

At the heart of TEECHERS is the very real assertion that the arts, and especially drama, should form an essential part of the school curriculum. It also attempts to demonstrate the effect that exposure to the arts has on young people. The conceit is that Gail, Salty and Hobby have invented the play TEECHERS, which the audience is watching, and ipso facto, during their drama lessons they have become skilled and analytical story tellers and observers, able to comment on society as they live through it.I will aim to write about the techniques and strategies used in ‘Teechers’ by John Godber and my own performance of the text that help my understanding and appreciation of the play. ‘Teechers’ is a school play performed by three students based on their new Drama Teacher and follows events that may or may not have happened over his first month or so in the School. It is a clever and insightful comedy, which employs a lot of the dramatical techniques I have learnt in my drama course. Credit must be awarded to the creative team and volunteers at Joseph Rowntree Theatre for their phenomenal technical design and execution, especially their use of lighting, which enabled the piece to flow flawlessly. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-11-10 11:07:59 Boxid IA40280020 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier If only we could say that things have changed & that Shakespeare & Drama are celebrated instead of relegated!

Much of the subject matter in the play is based entirely on my own experience, and when Nixon leaves Whitewall at the end of the play-within-a-play, to join St Georges, I was almost certainly reflecting on my own time in teaching, and my eventual departure to run a theatre company in Hull that I had never heard of. Set within the troubled walls of Whitewall School, East Yorkshire, Teechers is a comedy that centres around three unforgettable characters: Hobby, Salty and Gail — who with the help of their new drama teacher Miss Nixon create their own devised performance, presenting to us a play within a play.

Find sources: "Teechers"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( July 2011) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) The essence of TEECHERS, and perhaps part of its attraction, is that the actors and director have the same resources available to them, that a drama teacher has in their classroom or studio; namely, a desk, some chairs and a massive imagination to work with. This open invite for the production team to use its imaginative resources can be very attractive and means that new productions have the potential to bring something new to the play.” It is a play within a play in which three students performed for their teachers. Everything in the play is reduced to the bare essentials, with very little set and the three actors playing twenty other parts. The students perform to an audience an account of their time in secondary school (given the name 'Whitewall High School' for their performance), specifically their time with Mr. Jeff Nixon, the new drama teacher who ignites their passion for the stage with his idealism and belief that all children should be treated equally. The children mention that the names of the characters have been changed: Mr. Nixon's real name is Mr. Harrison, mentioned at the beginning. At the end of the play, he leaves Whitewall High School to teach at St George's, another school that is regarded more highly. Once the three kids know that Nixon is leaving, they start to understand how much he helped them. Salty, in particular, wants to carry on with drama once he has left school. They are gobby as the pupils and flustered as the teachers, switching between parts with dazzling speed. In a role first taken by her father, Martha Godber plays a working-class drama teacher who dares to see the potential in the disillusioned pupils. But winning them over turns out to be a lot easier than conquering a school hierarchy that, with its eyes on “specialist technology status”, sees creativity as an optional extra.

I really think that every school should see this production as part of the curriculum!!! We were all totally transported & rooting for Hobby, Gail and Salty.

Cite this page

Will Miss Nixon abandon her students for a soothing private school? Who puts the bounce in Miss Prime, the PE teacher? Will Mrs Parry ever find her Koko? And why does everyone smell of spring onions? Multi-role acting is a good device because it allows you to have a lot of characters with a small cast. It is also a good chance to show your acting skills as you really have to define each character with voices, facial expressions, signature movements and costume. There was little in the way of costume and props as scene/character changes occur so often. A costume may just consist of a blazer you can take off in a second, maybe with a hat or something. Sophie Bullivant brought fire to the role of Salty, and despite the name had an air of sweetness to her character as she was the first to warm to Miss Nixon. Sophie’s monologue towards the end of the show was a particularly prominent moment within the performance. As she spilled her truths on the schooling system, she entranced everyone in the audience as she delivered her lines with great power — again I’m sure resonating with many. The cast were so warm, encouraging and generous with their time, sharing advice and their experience. We thought that Mr Nixon may run an amateur theatre company out of school and that he left his old school because of an incident with a pupil. Mr Basfords wife could be a high-flying business woman who earns most of the cash and boss him about at home, which is why he’s so strict and nasty. Hot-seating really gets you into the head of a character and is great to do before performing to get every aspect if his/her personality to a tee.In the short role-play we performed, we tried to use techniques in the ‘Teechers’ script (and some) which would enhance our performance.