London Bus Theatre
Aim: Changing the attitudes of young people towards alcohol
Region: Essex
Amount approved: £18,900
Through the medium of drama and performing arts, the London Bus Theatre Company is educating the young people of South Essex on the dangers of alcohol.
Through funding designated by Drinkaware, the project is designed to address the attitudes and behaviour of young people in two key age groups; Year 6 and Year 9. The scheme, which began in March 2009, sees travelling workshops visit schools in the area, where up to 60 children can be accommodated in each session.
Sessions focus on addressing all aspects of alcohol consumption, from health implications to effects on personality and personal safety. The sessions also offer strategies on how to manage peer pressure, a particular issue with the older groups.
Kathy Austen, Chair of the London Bus Theatre Company acknowledges the need to address attitudes to alcohol before young people even reach secondary school, “It became very apparent to us that children are increasingly aware of alcohol from a young age, whether that be through television or, more frequently, seeing family members drink. Our biggest hurdle is that they simply don’t realise that it can be harmful and are naïve to its consequences”.
The initiative also recognises the need to engage Year 6’s differently to the Year 9’s. “Thirteen and 14 year-olds are far more socially aware and wary of making a show of themselves in front of their mates, so we employ teenage actors to perform relevant plays on the effects of drinking”, comments Kathy.
“With the Year 6’s there is more opportunity to explore the effects of drinking with games and we encourage them to split into groups and come up with performances themselves. We even get them to wear ‘beer goggles’ which impair their vision in a similar way to being very drunk, which always gets interesting feedback!”
One strand which is consistent through both groups is the use of ‘forum theatre’ in which performances are regularly interrupted by the workshop leaders and young people to address issues and questions as and when they arise. “We find this technique extremely effective with all the young people we work with as they’re essentially answering the questions themselves, instead of being ‘talked-at’”.
The workshops are hugely popular, with many being booked up to three months in advance. Resources are provided to the schools post-session including DVDs and lesson plans for follow-up classes. To date, evaluation from the London Bus Theatre Company in which groups are re-visited has shown around 80% retention in information by the young people who visited the original workshops.
Visit the London Bus Theatre Company website
- Page last updated by
- Root User, 19 Apr 2010.
- Page checked on
- 23 Jun 2009
