9 schools, 12 weeks, 300 students, 4 PaddleBoat members and 2 fantastic sharings. The Spring term was hectic but incredibly fun. Young people across the county learnt drama skills, shared stories about WWII and had the opportunity to perform on a professional stage. We were also lucky enough to work with two brand new schools this term - Brampford Speke and Barton Hill. Having worked with each school over the term, for the first time PaddleBoat hosted two Schools Sharing P

‘A multi-functional, flat-pack, interactive set - that can fit in a school hall or a 400 seat theatre’ is the usual (very broad) brief we give our set-designer, Simon Hall, at the start of each project. Thankfully he doesn’t ever flinch and is a joy to work with. Simon has created the sets for children’s theatre shows for many years with his own company, Quirk. Therefore he is fantastic at giving us suggestions at how to create a set which will spark children’s imaginations a

This Summer, we were very lucky to work with 23 talented 6-11 year olds for a whole week. This was one of our Theatre Weeks, which we ran this year with Exeter Northcott Theatre. The idea is that a group of children will work together for a week, learning drama skills and creating their own original work which, at the end of the week, they share back on a professional stage to their friends and family. This time, we wanted our group to tell a particular story - Clare’s. We we

Every school we have worked with has provided an insight into childrens' reaction to Clare Hollingworth and her role in WWII. The children have given their ideas, thrown themselves into devising scenes and questioned what they know about Clare, journalism and WWII. Now it is our turn to explore Hollingworth’s life in our rehearsal room. Before we start any practical rehearsals we often discuss the rough make-up of our show, for example; What ages it might be for? How will the