Theatre students make a difference

24 September 2007

Theatre Performance students from NEWI have been demonstrating how their skills in applied theatre can be used to deliver important messages.  The students gave a special performance of a play they have created, to help school children, to an audience of delegates at a Women’s Aid conference held at NEWI. 

The performance entitled ‘Home Alone’ was written by the students on the BA Hons Theatre Performance degree course and aims to show children who need somewhere to turn that there is help out there for them. The play comprises of five characters and deals with a range of issues which could be faced by children.  It looks at bullying, family problems and abuse in the home and uses the stories of the five different characters to illustrate the different ways in which children can seek help from friends and relatives, teachers, social workers and charities such as the NSPCC and Childline.   

The students performed the play at a number of local schools last year and it was following this success that they were asked to perform it for the Women’s Aid conference.  Shelley Jones, Inclusion Welfare Officer from Flintshire County Council was at the performance and is working with Elen Mai Nefydd, Senior Lecturer on the course to create a DVD of the play for use in schools.  Shelley Jones said, “The play is excellent and is very effective in getting the message across to children.  It empowers them to go to someone and makes them realise they are not alone.” 

If funding is available the DVD will be produced in conjunction with Flintshire Council and will initially been shown in schools in Wrexham, Flintshire and Denbighshire and will then hopefully be rolled out for use in schools all across Wales.