Buckingham Royal: Community art and drama

This was the eleventh year of a project initiated by the Town Council to sponsor the two secondary schools coming together for a joint art and drama project. I have been to many of these over the years and last night's performance was no exception to the usual: it was powerful, creative, insightful and cohesive. The art on display was equally poignant and a feast for the eyes and mind.

The drama featured four vignettes on the subject of 'community'. The first focused on the impact of smart phones on building (and eroding) a sense of community in young people. The next looked at how the world would be different if there were no sport, and how that would affect life and community relations. The third one looked into in and out crowds, discrimination and bullying. And the last (or was it the third!) explored how major calamities (such as the Aberfan disaster in 1966) bring people together. Given that these 40 or so young people only had about 10 (very hot) hours in which to assemble each performance, these were amazing, moving and sometimes funny shows. Thank you!

I would of course prefer to show you pics of the smiling young people from both schools involved in each of these sets, but I cannot. So you will have to imagine the 'Buckingham Royal' (as they called themselves) drama group in your imagination or look at the Advertiser story for one peek. But also here is one from the RLS twitter feed.

The two drama teachers: Clare Checkley (TBS) and Rachel Stevens (RLS) did a brilliant job guiding the students through this. Well done to them too!