Developed from the work of educator Vivian Paley, Story-Acting has been specially created to encourage imagination, story-telling and creative play. It is suitable for pre-school and infant-school children.
 
The workshop process:
     We begin with a highly interactive performance, which looks at the world through the eyes of a child. We make use of every-day attainable props. The performance gets the children’s imaginations going and is an exciting introduction to the world of stories.
 
    The next stage is the story-making: We capture the children’s unique stories by asking open-ended questions and writing their responses verbatim. This was initially developed from the work of educator Vivian Paley.
The adults are often amazed by the stories the children can create, so teachers and carers are welcome to watch the process. We will leave support materials at the end of the session to remind you of how to run your own story-acting activities after our visit.
"The sessions are run in such a way that the skills of how to run a storytelling session are passed onto you so you can easily replicate it."
 
The workshop is suitable for all, including children witgh limited or no English. For EAL children, we observe their play and write down what we see. They often feel a greater sense of achievement than anyone, when they later see their play acted out and turned into a story.  
"...it was ensured that all children could take part, including children with special needs and English as an additional language."
 

    The culmination of the workshop is the story-acting: We guide the children in a fun “playing-out” of their stories, where everyone has the chance to act through simple movement and sound. They feel great pride when their stories are told and enjoy getting involved in the playing-out. It's designed to be a relaxed, natural "game", using simple movement to tell the childrens' stories.

 
    The children enjoy the interactive performance, explore their own ideas and make a story in an easy way. They feel pride when their stories are told and enjoy getting involved in the playing-out.
"Not only did it encourage the children's imaginations, it also helped with their confidence and speaking and listening skills."
 

Fees and further information:
  • Fee: £170 for a whole day. This can be with 1 group for the entire day, or if preferred it is possible to run 2 workshops with different groups (1 morning and 1 afternoon). 
  • Fee: £100 for a half-day workshop.
  • A single group is considered to be up to 1 class.
  • Staff from your venue must remain present.
  • Further reductions can be arranged for groups with a charitable status.
  • It can be arranged to pay in instalments by cheque or bank transfer.
 Our actor-educators have full CRB clearance and public liability insurance.

 

Contact:    actable@live.com    07891 670114