The History
For a number of years London Bubble has been running pioneering projects in Early Years settings, using the techniques of American teacher and writer, Vivian Gussin Paley. Initially inspired by Vivian’s book, The Boy Who Would Be a Helicopter, we began using her techniques of story dictation and story acting in Southwark nursery schools. These techniques involve writing down, word for word, stories that are dictated by the children. A performance space is then created, and the children are invited to act out the stories. This technique not only improves levels of confidence and communication skills, but also introduces the children to the basic elements of creating theatre at an early age.
This work, called The Helicopter Project, led to the staging of a conference at the British Library in March 2001. Entitled The Drama of Children, the conference attracted people from across the UK working in both the early years education sector and the theatre industry. A number of respected speakers, including Vivian Gussin Paley herself, spoke about the importance of stories and drama in early education.
The next stage of London Bubble's work in this area was the creation of a piece of theatre for young children and their parents, teachers and carers. You Can't Say You Can't Play was based on Vivian's book of the same name, and toured to five London theatres in the Spring of 2003. The play examines how storytelling and drama can be used to tackle the issue of exclusion in the classroom.
We are currently researching opportunties to develop this work further, and are looking for reception clases to work with us on this project. If you are interested in talking to us about this please contact us.
London Bubble has recently provided INSET training in Helicopter Techniques for schools across London. This training was provided in parnership with Make Believe Arts, a company set up Trisha Lee, a former member of the London Bubble team.
