FRANTIC ASSEMBLY IN THE HOUSE

Some ‘frantic’ activity has been going on at Leeds City College – all in the service of producing hard-hitting, topical drama.

Members of Frantic Assembly visited the School of Creative Arts on Monday, May 10 and Tuesday, May 11 to share their expertise with Level 3 acting students.

Jonnie and Jess from the groundbreaking theatre group’s Learn and Train team came in to demonstrate some key physical theatre skills that the students could incorporate into their forthcoming ‘on tour’ productions.

Curriculum leader, Danielle Bailey, said the students were delighted with the visit, which had to be conducted with special arrangements in place to ensure it was Covid-secure.

INSPIRING VISIT

“This is the first time Frantic has worked with us on a project and they’ve been great! I love their work and would definitely work with them again.

“They’ve been working with us throughout the school’s Tour project. We’ve had four sessions with them: three online – one when we were at home, two when we were in studio and they were at home – and now the final one in college.”

HOT TOPICS

“I set my group a brief each year where we choose topical subjects to create powerful performance pieces from. This time we are focusing on racism, looking at its roots and the stance against it, and gang crime – by exploring how easily people can be groomed and led down this path.

“The key thing is that the topics we choose try to reflect what is happening now while also referencing what has gone before.

“Frantic came in to help us develop and refine key sections of the performance material, using their ‘building blocks’.

COVID SECURE

“Due to the pandemic the studio was set out with a two metre distancing line which they stayed behind, and they kept their masks on, so it was a bit different!

“It worked well, though, with them demonstrating things and then asking the students to follow their instructions.”

The students will be giving a mixture of performances to secondary schools.

Discover more about the School of Creative Arts here.