MetaPlay started life as a Participative Theatre company mainly doing community theatre projects. These have ranged from our programme ‘Ask the Kids!’ which for 5 yrs worked with primary and secondary school pupils in Islington, looking at Collaborative Working and developing social and emotional literacy through play.
We worked with about 150 children per year for 3 months per year, working in schools and in some after school clubs.
MetaPlay has also developed specific themed projects, notably our anti-knife crime plays using forum theatre to work with teenagers in High Schools, PRU’s and Community Centres to explore issues of peer group pressure, staying safe and raising awareness of the dangers of knife crime. We toured 3 of these plays in Islington between 2011 and 2014.
We have also toured specific commissions as with the Islington Peace Forum, devising a show for primary schools and high schools on the themes of friendship, anti-bullying and resisting peer pressure.
MetaPlay have also run long term community centre based drama clubs for children aged 7 -12. These have taken the form of community based drama and related arts activities, playing collaborative and drama games, developing and devising scripts, making costumes and props and putting on shows.
MetaPlay have also run community theatre programmes for Refugees and for older people.
Our Theatre Project: ‘The Lady Survives’ was based on short stories collected from refugees and then given to actors to devise from. The multi-lingual show which was developed toured to community centres around Islington and Hackney Borders. The show was accompanied by a 30min forum theatre session.
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