About Our Educational Theatre
Chain Reaction Theatre Company bring dynamism and expertise to the field of personal health and social education, ensuring that young people are equipped to make positive decisions about their futures. We are committed to creating fun, interesting and dynamic work to guarantee enjoyment whilst learning.
As an arts organisation that was originally set up by young people, we are very aware of how young people can switch off if they are not full engaged by what they are watching. They often refuse to accept or connect with important messages when put over in a stuffy or patronising manner. Therefore, we take great care to produce accessible performances, allowing our young audiences to form an immediate connection.
Our unique style of theatre uses a mixture of parody, comedic sketches, current music, popular characters and pop culture references to ensure that our audiences engage and that the important messages have maximum impact. These techniques keep our audiences engaged, allowing the clear information and accurate facts we provide to be easily digested and retained.
The company prides itself on its consistent ability to work with any age-group on any issue. Whatever the brief, we always ensure that a powerful and engaging theatrical experience is the final result.
Our work has five main aims:
- Encouraging self-esteem
- Building self-confidence
- Respecting individuality
- Promoting informed choice
- Tackling health and social issues
With these as the driving force behind each of our educational productions, we actively prepare young people for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences they face while growing up. By providing entertaining yet thought-provoking theatre and interactive workshops, Chain Reaction Theatre Company enable young people to make positive, informed decisions about their lives.
OUR EDUCATIONAL SHOWS
We currently have twelve educational shows in our repertoire that explore issues including community cohesion, aspirations, conflict resolution, drugs and alcohol, smoking, healthy eating, bullying, sexual health and emotional wellbeing. Each show is designed for a specific age group between 5 and 16. We tour our educational theatre productions to schools, community venues, theatres and youth centre’s. Many of our shows have a number of supporting resources including Teacher Resource Pack’s hot-seating sessions and accompanying workshops, please click here for more details.
For a full list of our educational shows, click here
CURRICULUMS
Most of the issues that we explore have minimal statutory regulation in the National Curriculum, leaving a serious gap in young people’s education. Chain Reaction seek to fill that gap by offering information and facts through the medium of theatre, guaranteeing that young people leave our projects more knowledgeable, confident in that knowledge, and equipped to make informed, positive life decisions.
All of our shows and workshops complement and/or support:
- PSHEE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education)
- SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning)
- Every Child Matters
- Healthy Schools Scheme
- A range of other curriculums, educational strategies and Government guidelines
PARTNERSHIP WORKING
Since 1994, Chain Reaction Theatre Company have forged strong partnerships, successfully working alongside a wide range of organisations nationwide. These include Local Authorities, Primary Care Trusts, Health Authorities, Healthy Schools Teams, catering services, Youth Offending Teams, Community Safety Teams, Drug Action Teams, youth services, the police, NSPCC, bereavement services, 5-A-DAY initiatives, Sustain, Connexions and counselling services.
We ensure that we continue to develop good working relationships with other agencies that work in areas of health and young people. This enables a supportive and collaborative approach to the programmes that we deliver and in turn strengthens our work and knowledge.
OUR PROCESS
Chain Reaction welcomes new commissions for theatre and workshops relating to issues that affect young people today. We work alongside professionals and specialists throughout the writing and devising process of each of our projects. This involves training sessions, research and consultation to make certain that we fully understand the subject in hand and ensure that factual and statistical information is correct.
Typically, our theatre pieces have a central story forming the “running thread” through the piece and providing characters that the young people can identify with. Through this story we show the central characters learning or discovering something they didn’t know before. This story is then interjected with sketches appealing to the audience’s immediate field of reference, for example we have based scenes on EastEnders, Little Britain, The Simpsons, Teletubbies and Dr Who.
We have made it our signature to take contemporary songs that young people know and to change the lyrics to fit the topic at hand. All the shows open and close with music, and the songs we have used in the past are from artists popular with young people, such as Beyonce Knowles, Robbie Williams and Girls Aloud.
Our performances are also regularly updated to ensure that they reflect current youth culture.
OUR REPUTATION
Schools in our target areas know and love our work; they trust us to deliver successful projects that educate young people on any issue in an upbeat and innovative way. Our many partners and funders know first-hand the massive benefits and positive effects of our work – we are repeatedly approached to work with many different organisations to deliver our important messages.
Our role is to make sure that all young people we come into contact with leave our performances more knowledgeable and confident in their knowledge. Chain Reaction Theatre Company is synonymous with excellent standards, engaging theatre and encouragement of informed choice in every aspect of the work we do.
INVOLVING YOUNG PEOPLE
We constantly ensure that young people are involved in the planning and evaluation processes of our projects. Listening to young people’s views and feedback on our work and the current issues we explore helps us to make sure that our projects are relevant and our shows easy to relate to and are interesting to young people.
WHY THEATRE?
Theatre is a unique and powerful medium that creates strong, relevant and memorable experiences for all of us. It provides an open and supportive vehicle to explore sensitive issues. Its ability to engage the emotions of everyone involved (performers and audience) enables theatre to help young people understand issues from other people’s perspectives. Our experience has proven time and time again that, through the engagement of emotion, young people retain information.
when producing educational theatre it is vital to never lose sight of this. You have to
be able to relate to young people and have compassion for them and the issues that
they face whilst growing up. This is a major factor in the success of Chain Reaction;
we don’t intimidate or patronise: we just tell them exactly how it is.”
Sarah Choppen, Artistic Director, Chain Reaction
