On the afternoon and evenings of Monday 3^rd July and Tuesday 4^th July, the Key Stage 2 children from Anston Greenlands Primary School put on a stunning performance of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’

As you know, this year, our production was a bit different: all aspects of the performance were turned over to the children. It started back in February when the children voted to put on ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ from a selection of plays. They also made the decision to set the performance in modern times, rather than producing a traditional version of the play.

Since then, they have taken over every role in the theatre – as well as acting, singing and dancing, the children have been in charge of choreography and directing. They have designed and created props, make-up, scenery and costumes. Musicians have composed and performed tracks to complement the acting. Another group have focussed on creating blogs about our project for the school website. Our sound technicians, lighting technicians and stage hands were all KS2 pupils. Marketing, including ticket and programme design and sales, has been carried out by the children. Additionally, a group of pupils were in charge of catering during the interval.

I hope that all members of our audiences would agree that all that hard work paid off. The staff team were thrilled with the quality of the performances from our musicians, actors, singers and dancers. There are definitely some future stars of stage and screen in our school! All of our behind-the-scenes crew worked maturely and with terrific independence to make sure that the play ran as smoothly as possible.

A huge thank you goes to our parents, carers, grandparents, family members and friends for all of your support with learning lines, providing costumes and finding props. You made a fantastic audience – thank you for laughing and clapping in all the right places!

On Tuesday 27^th June, the Y3 and Y4 book club met up with the Y5 and Y6 group for an exciting celebration event.

We started with a final vote on the books which we have been reading over the last few months. The winner of the Y3/4 award was ‘Android in the Attic’ by Nicholas Allan. In the Y5 and Y6 book group, ‘Car-Jacked’ by Ali Sparkes topped ‘The Giant Beard That Was Evil’ by just 0.25 points!

Next, the children worked together in mixed-age groups on book-based charades and Pictionary games. Then, there was a chance to enjoy some refreshments whilst the teachers judged the competition entries.

Finally, we had prize-giving, with some very happy bibliophiles receiving books signed by Sir Tony Robinson, Adrian Edmondson and recent Children’s Laureate, Chris Riddell.

Finally, after all their hard work, the musicians have finished creating the music for the play and have joined the actors and other students. They are now busy joining in with the rehearsals and adding some life to the play!

Also the next big thing is painting the scenery because who can have a play without a backdrop? Lots of the children are working hard at bringing Eloise’s scenery design to life.

Although most of the props are complete, there are still some finishing touches to be made; some of the prop designers are now busy making posters to advertise the play.

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Thank you for all the help with costumes so far; soon we’re going to be taking pictures of the children in their costumes before the big night.

By Katie and Louis

Today we have spent the morning with the prop designers. They have also started some prop creation, including a throne and paper balloons, which will be decorations for the wedding scene.

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Additionally, they told us some interesting facts about William Shakespeare. For example, he was the oldest surviving son of Jonathan Shakespeare. Did you know that William Shakespeare died on his birthday?

Our play will have a modern twist, so the characters are going to be famous celebrities.

In the classroom, the costume designers were discussing who each character should be. You might see David Beckham, Victoria Beckham or even Simon Cowell!

The costumes designers then interviewed the actors to see if they were happy with their modern characters. They also made an announcement in the hall to keep everyone informed.

Next, they split into groups to begin designing costumes for each character. Noah told us he was enjoying drawing Titania’s costume.

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After interviewing the costume designers, we discovered the most popular Shakespeare character was Oberon and their favourite modern character was Simon Cowell. We also asked which Shakespeare plays people had read; A Midsummer Night’s Dream was the first play the designers had learnt about.

Bloggers: Albie, Llayton, Spencer, Charlie and Louis