Arts Award
10 October 2016
On Monday 10 October we visited Stratford upon Avon with nineteen Stoics who are taking part in the Arts Award programme for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Royal Shakespeare Company and a visit to The MAD Museum (The Museum of Mechanical Art and Design).
We started the day in Bancroft Gardens admiring the Gower Memorial, which depicts in bronze some of Shakespeare’s most notable characters. Discussing both the sculptures themselves and the infamous scenes they represent, the Stoics impressed us with their knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays.
Upon arriving at the RSC we had the opportunity to try on some RSC costumes before the tour. Backstage, we saw everything from the technical control room to the wig and costume department.
We left the theatre gift shop with tickets for an upcoming production of ‘The Tempest’, purchased by the staff, and a bow and arrow, purchased by Anthony Roginsky (Fourth Form, Walpole). Stoics were then free to explore the town before meeting outside Shakespeare’s birthplace.
Lastly, we visited The MAD Museum, which celebrates interactive, mechanical art, kinetic art and automata. Stoics rushed around the museum excitedly, pushing buttons to see how each piece moved and creating their own kinetic art.
Before heading back to Stowe, we published a quiz on the VLE which encouraged Stoics to reflect on what they had learned during the day. Several pupils completed the quiz on their phones on the way back to School. With five pupils getting all ten questions right, we decided to pick a winner at random and Tabbi Candler (Fourth Form, Queen’s) won a set of badges from the RSC shop which featured some wonderful Shakespearean insults. ‘Thou smell of mountain goat’ was definitely the group’s favourite.
Thanks must go to the Stoics for representing the School so well throughout the day.
Lucy Miller and Collette Stirzaker, MiC Arts Award