Theatre in Schools Scotland comes to the Islands

Jason and the Argonauts by Visible Fictions will be at Back Primary School on Thursday 5 October with a performance attended by Back, Tong, Tolsta and Sgoil an Rubha primary schools.

The show will be at Stornoway Primary on Friday 6 October with performances for Stornoway Primary, Laxdale School, Sgoil an Taobh Siar, Pairc School and Lionel School.

Theatre in Schools Scotland was launched with great success as a three year pilot project in 2016 to create a touring and producing model with the ambition to ultimately bring one piece of high quality theatre to every schoolchild in Scotland each year.

Theatre in Schools Scotland has been developed by Imaginate, the national organisation in Scotland which promotes, develops and celebrates theatre and dance for children and young people and the National Theatre of Scotland, in partnership with leading performing arts companies/organisations for children and young people; Catherine Wheels Theatre Company, Visible Fictions and Starcatchers.

A Comhairle nan Eilean Siar spokesperson said: We are delighted to be able to support and welcome Theatre in Schools Scotland to the Western Isles this autumn and we are pleased that productions of this calibre are able to perform in remote communities such as ours, providing our learners with the opportunity to experience the arts at a professional level within their curriculum.

Scottish theatre productions for children and young people are generally accepted as being some of the best in the world, celebrated both in Scotland and globally. Theatre in Schools Scotland aims to ensure that children in Scotland have the opportunity to access this world class children’s theatre in their own school.

In addition to the performances, there will be resources available online for teachers. These will include show information; videos for teachers and children; post-show activities for teachers in the classroom and tools to help teachers and pupils evaluate the performances. These resources are available from theatreinschoolsscotland.com

Theatre in Schools Scotland has developed a unique partnership model to bring these theatre productions into schools. The tour is cross funded by the Scottish Government funded National Theatre of Scotland, Creative Scotland funded theatre organisations, touring networks, local authorities and individual schools.

This year’s tour is supported financially by The Scottish Salmon Company and the Culture & Business Fund Scotland.