Clever Work with Children and Animals
February 2009
Beware of little spiders. Anansi is a 'trickster' she’s clever, cunning, sometimes mischievous and uses her wits to make up for what she lacks in size and strength.
While old Mr. Williams fell asleep in his garden chair the artful spider crept under the fence and began to trick his animals into falling one-by-one into the clutches of an evil scorpion. Mr. Williams had warned the children in the audience to watch out for her but Anansi used her charm and lure to cajole them into trusting her. The children, however, soon began to see the truth behind her pretense and watched with delight how a clever chicken foiled her villainous intentions.
Based on an old West African and Caribbean folk tale the story of Anansi and the Yam Hills was performed beautifully by the second year students on Lambeth College’s BTEC National Diploma in Performing Arts. They took their educational show on tour during January and February this year to four local primary schools and nurseries. The show is an interactive tale which strives to help children learn to count, find out how food is grown and discover what a ‘yam’ is. It is also very funny. ‘Being greedy and self-serving doesn’t pay’ provides the all-important moral to the story.
The play was devised by the students and directed by their tutor Ruth Kendrick. The project involved researching, looking at the work of other children’s theatre companies and visiting schools to interview the ‘target’ audience, the teachers, and establishing the most appropriate material and approach.
Student performer Alexandra McKell really enjoyed the project. She said: “The tour was spectacular. It really tested my ability and range of acting skills. Now I have the confidence to really wow a crowd.” Fellow performer Jordan Ewan who played the scorpion said: “Performing Anansi gave us the opportunity to get back to our cultural roots and perform an educational piece in front of children.”
Nursery teacher Nilay Enver from St Helen’s Catholic School said: "Our children loved it and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The animals were fantastic and the story was simply told so that the children understood what was happening.”
Ruth was very proud of the way her class went about staging the show. “The experience they have gained has inspired the students to form a Children’s Theatre in Education Company which will begin touring independently next summer.” She said.
In the meantime – never trust a spider!
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