old woman from Salford called Shelagh Delaney. The play, A Taste of Honey,
tells the story of Jo, a teenage girl, who has been left by her mother on Christmas.
Teacher Resource Pack
Written and compiled by Vicky Bell
under a foreign sky Contents Welcome to the Resource Pack
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Synopsis
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Post 1956 British Drama
3&4
Structure
5
Theatre Making Process
6
Understanding Yugoslavia
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Population Change: including internal displacement, immigration and human trafficking 8&9 Writing a Theatre Review
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Further Resources
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Welcome to the Resource Pack Under A Foreign Sky investigates the impact of current global upheavals, the forces of migration and how a new home can change who you are. Inspired by the global economic crisis and its mediatized portrayal, this taut, powerful yet hopeful piece provides a wealth of stimulus for political, geographic and dramatic debate. This resource pack has been written alongside the development of the play and is designed to help you discover the production in more detail, exploring the themes and creative elements of the play through a variety of written and practical activities. For drama students this pack looks at the early stages of the creative process and offers insights into the writer’s inspirations and director’s vision for the play. As rehearsals and the performances progress, resources relevant to the design and rehearsals will be added to the Theatre Centre website, www.theatre-centre. co.uk – look for Foreign Sky Online in the Education Section. For geography students the production, supported by this pack, aims to provide stimuli for the study of population change, particularly migration and places it in the context of the political environment.
Foreign Sky Online Over the coming months you will be able to follow the development of the play on our website www.theatre-centre.co.uk. This will include video footage of the rehearsal process, interviews with the actors and creative team, further exploration of the themes of the play and a mixture of practical and written exercises for teachers and students alike. So why not get interactive and get involved with Foreign Sky Online?
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This resource pack can be used to support the delivery of Key Stage 4 and A-Level Drama. The following table details the elements of each drama specification that is supported in this pack and where you can find the corresponding information and activities. Awarding Body Criteria Page Edexcel Unit 1: Drama Exploration Providing stimuli 4, 8 Explorative strategies 4, 5, 8 Understanding the drama medium 3, 4, 5, 6 Unit 2: Exploring Play Texts Understanding of context 3, 4 Developing characters 8 Analysing live performance 10 AQA Unit 1: Drama Written Paper Section B: Understanding of context 3, 4 Developing characters 8 Section C: Analysing live performance 10 OCR Unit A581: Underpinning Content Plot 2, 5 Understanding of context 3, 4 Developing characters 8 Improvisation 4 Unit A582: Drama in the making Providing stimuli 4, 8 WJEC DR1: Devised Performance Providing stimuli 4, 8 Analysing live performance 10 DR2&3 Understanding of context 3, 4 Developing characters 8 Btec First C7: Understanding Drama Understanding of context 3, 4 Understanding of process 6 C8: Performing scripted plays and C9: Acting Developing characters 8 D12: Design for Performance Interpreting performance 10
The script of Under A Foreign Sky is also available from Theatre Centre for £5. Email
[email protected] for an order form. The resources on pages 7, 8 and 9 can be used to support Geography at Key Stage 3, 4 and for A-level specifically: Level & Awarding Body KS3 GCSE AQA OCR: Edexcel WJEC: A-Level AQA OCR WJEC
Criteria 1.5 Physical and human processes 1.7 Cultural understanding and diversity. Geography A Unit 2 Human Geography Geography B Unit 1 Section B The Urban Environment, Unit 3 Section A Investigating the Globalisation of Industry Geography A Unit A674 Geography B Theme 2 Population and Settlement, Theme 4 Economic Development Geography A Unit 3 The Human Environment Geography B Unit 2 People and the Planet Geography A Unit 1 B A Global World Geography B Theme 3 People, Work and Development Unit 1 Physical and Human Geography Unit 3 Contemporary Geographical Issues Unit F762: Managing Change in Human Environments Unit F763: Global Issues Unit 2 Changing Human Environments
teacher resource pack Synopsis This resource pack has been written alongside the development of the show and was accurate at the time of going to print. Please note there may be some changes during the rehearsal period. “Flight 4166 came in to land at Heathrow” A boy steps off the plane with his mother, they meet two men and step out into London; a mother is reunited with her daughter – she gives her a video camera; a young man arrives, makes a phone call and has a room for the night. They step out into the City of London where they can live freely – a new generous land willing to erase all their homeland troubles. “This is the dream. You think people believe? This is a dream.” Flight 4166 lands at Heathrow airport – a young man, Bojan, arrives, makes a phone call, makes another, then another then settles down under his coat for the night. A mother walks towards her daughter, Drina, and gives her a video camera as a welcome gift. Drina doesn’t react. A boy, Ibi, steps off the plane with his mother. “She said she was his mother. She wasn’t. She played mum for the day.” They were joined by two men, and went to the door marked exit. He stepped out into the rain and just disappeared. Elma is searching for him. We follow these three stories… Bojan arrives from Mitrovica, Kosovo on a student visa, he is eager to work and soon talks his way into a job as a kitchen porter, reluctantly agreeing to work long hours. Obsessed with Jamie Oliver he harbours ambitions of becoming a chef and soon befriends head chef Jason who promises to teach him. Still without a place to live Bojan sleeps in the kitchen, unbeknown to anyone and soon saves enough money to get a place of his own. Then cash goes missing from the restaurant and the manager is quick to point the finger at Bojan threatening to report him for working full-time hours against the terms of his visa. Bojan is eager to keep his job, but
more importantly, defend his honour, and as tempers flare he pushes the manager in frustration. “Stay down there, where I sleep. That’s where I sleep. This is nothing to you. But you keep this bit of space and control my movement round it like I’m a dog. I come I give everything and you treat me like this dirt.” With the police on their way Jason encourages Bojan to leave but Bojan is eager to prove his innocence.
Michael Lyle as Bojan.
Drina arrives from Kosovo to join her mother, Mirjana, who fled to London from Pristina during the Kosovan War. Drina, who has been living in Gra˘canica while her mum set things up in England, is reluctant to join her and even more loathed to leave her best friend, Zora. The girls make a pact to meet and move in together when they are sixteen. Drina keeps in contact through the video camera her mum bought her, sending updates over the web. She is determined that England is not her home and refuses to speak English. Her mother pushes her to fully integrate and cut ties with their culture to fit in with what is around them. In one such argument her mum finally explains why she had to leave, Drina doesn’t react and continues to film her mother, tensions rise and as her mum goes to take the camera off her it smashes to the floor. Without her lifeline and connection back to Kosovo Drina must face her new life in England. Elma doesn’t know Ibi, but she knows his story, she’s been there. A young child arrives in the UK with their mother, at least she seems like their mother, and they are collected and then simply disappear into a life of servitude. Elma was lucky, someone found her, and now she devotes her life to finding those like her. She sees the things that others can’t or won’t. Set against the backdrop of difficult economic times and a media obsessed with immigration we see the increased pressure, challenges and hope of life Under a Foreign Sky.
Daisy Whyte as Mirjana and Sophie Trott as Drina.
Photographs taken from Theatre Centre’s Script Development Week.
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under a foreign sky Post 1956 British Drama Director Natalie Wilson shares her thoughts on how Under a Foreign Sky builds on an established British Theatre tradition. Although Under a Foreign Sky is a new, contemporary play about 21st Century lives, its ambitions and inspirations come from an established tradition of British Theatre that emerged in the decade following World War II. TC’s new commission draws many of its sensibilities from the revolution that occurred on the British Stage in 1956, when Look Back In Anger by John Osbourne burst onto the scene. Look Back In Anger works as a landmark between the old and new worlds as Britain was still feeling the aftereffects of the war and austerity. It was a grey world; hierarchical and class-ridden with little counter-culture to relieve the tedium. It was a world when then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan stated “most of our people have never had it so good” whilst a large proportion of the population still lived with outside toilets and no central heating. John Osbourne’s play introduced a new voice onto the stage, that of the ordinary man, trapped in a low-grade life and observing injustice whilst remaining powerless and confused in the face of national events. Look Back In Anger was a cry for people to live their life now and not sit it out, accepting the rot. The newspapers proclaimed it the coming of the “Angry Young Man” which is a term that has defined the generation of playwrights from this era. It was produced by the English Stage Company then led by its founding director George Devine at their home, the Royal Court Theatre. Devine was driven to make a theatre that would free people and that made sense of the world around oneself. His goal was for theatre to be “about something”. The text was everything and this informed the unique aesthetic of the Royal Court productions, where what you left off the stage was as important as what was on it. This was embodied most successfully by his most constant Design collaborator, Jocelyn Herbert, who was renowned for her minimalist designs. Devine championed the writers who presided over the British Theatre for almost two decades. They included Arnold Wesker, John Arden, Charles Wood, Joe Orton, Ann Jellicoe and Edward Bond, amongst others. They were young writers who were given the opportunity to be taken seriously with their new plays in a theatre world that was still dominated by French windows and country houses and where human interactions happened in living rooms, divorced from the social and political trials of life. This new generation of writers wanted to create a theatre that was humane, socialist (in many differing interpretations) and “about something”. These new plays have become great milestones, e.g. Roots and The Kitchen by Arnold Wesker, Live Like Pigs by John Arden and Saved by Edward Bond, and chart a changing 3
society and the changing outlooks and attitudes of working class people. They are notable as the plays gave voice to small, invisible lives, muted by social circumstances, class and poverty. For example, in Arnold Wesker’s Roots, his protagonist Beattie Bryant, a young woman from a Norfolk farming family, spends most of the play mimicking her middle-class fiancé’s opinions and ideas. She is at his family’s house when she receives a letter from him, telling her the relationship won’t work. Abandoned, she leaps onto their table and speaks her own thoughts in her own voice for the first time. At the same time as the Royal Court was liberating the written world, a theatre in East London was having a similar historic impact on British Theatre but taking a different path. Theatre Workshop was a company formed in the 1940s, touring new political and agit-prop plays around the village halls and working men’s clubs of England. It was founded by Joan Littlewood and Jimmie Miller (who later became Ewan McColl) with a clear mission to represent the working man and his plight onstage. The work was crude, rough and political but was created with passion and vigour. The style of Theatre Workshop’s work drew on popular forms and was very much rooted in the language of the working class, an audience that the company was committed to serving. In 1953, the company took on the lease of a crumbling music hall in Stratford, East London, where it became resident, existing today as Theatre Royal Stratford East. Jimmie Millar left and Joan Littlewood ran the company with her lifelong companion, Gerry Raffles. Joan Littlewood’s socialism lay less in the political abstractions of class and wealth but more in the belief of the hidden potential that exists in every individual. She developed a style of theatre which fused strong visuals, physical languages (she was the first Director in England to train her actors in Laban technique), regional and colloquial voices and popular theatrical forms. She believed in the chemistry of the actual event coming together with an audience rather than the primacy and worship of a fixed text. However, she was instrumental in bringing to the stage two revolutionary writers with plays which uncovered voices and characters previously invisible on the British stage. In 1956, Theatre Workshop produced The Quare Fellow by Brendan Behan which charts the long night in Dublin’s Mountjoy prison before the execution of an axe murderer. An indictment of capital punishment, it presented the underclass of men with a gallows humour and without sentimentality. In 1958, Joan Littlewood staged the first play by a 20 year old woman from Salford called Shelagh Delaney. The play, A Taste of Honey, tells the story of Jo, a teenage girl, who has been left by her mother on Christmas Day. Jo has an affair with a Nigerian sailor and becomes pregnant. Left by the sailor, a gay art student moves in and looks after her. When her mother returns, the
teacher resource pack student is chased away but Jo is left again when her mother learns who the baby’s father is. The play ends with Jo starting her labour pains alone, facing a new life with her baby, determined to survive and thrive. A Taste of Honey brought up every taboo that still existed in British society but offered the thought that change is inevitable if the younger generation find their own voice and their own morality that is defined by the world around them and not out-dated notions of right and wrong. Under a Foreign Sky is a clear descendent of this movement of British Post-war Theatre. It aims to show individuals in the world, moving through it and to give a voice to those that sometimes we don’t see. It aims to bring poetry to its theatrical structure and language, to present the potential not only of the characters but of the audience to change the world. It asks if it’s possible for individuals to transcend seemingly impossible social and political circumstances, to overcome hopelessness in the face of so much strife and to see the potential in every individual and in themselves.
Laban Technique Laban is a way of visualizing, interpreting, describing and notating all human movement created by Rudolf Laban. It is one of the most widely used systems of human movement analysis, used by dancers, actors, athletes, physical and occupational therapists.
Natalie Wilson, Director and Artistic Director of Theatre Centre
Paula B.Stanic, Writer
Activity: Finding the hidden story Learning outcomes:
3 To be able to use improvisation to find inspiration to develop a piece. 3 To build confidence in improvisation skills, particularly accepting offers from fellow actors. 3 To be able to identify hidden voices in society, understand why they are hidden and why they might need to be heard.
In her article Natalie refers to the era of the “Angry Young Man” in theatre which began to give voice to a previously unrepresented section of society. Under a Foreign Sky continues this tradition in its exploration of the plight of immigrants from the Balkan States. This exercise looks at ways that you could find the unheard voices in your community.
s a class list a number of places you are all familiar with, these could be as broad as an airport or beach A or be specific such as a particular park or fast food outlet in your town. l Choose one of these places and mark out the space in the room. You may do this by using masking tape on the floor so that everyone is clear where the different areas are or you may simply agree the places and visualise them in your imaginations. l Stand around the edge of the room in a neutral stance. One by one begin filling the space with the different characters you can remember seeing in these places and improvise their behaviour, responding to the entrance of other characters. l Keep the improvisation going for a few minutes once everyone has entered. As ideas come forward respond to them, new ideas may emerge and you may decide your character is different to who you originally thought they were – this is OK. l At the end of the improvisation discuss as a group the different characters you saw in the scene. Which characters did you feel you knew the least about and why? Are there stories that we walk past every day and don’t notice? l Following on from this you may wish to hot seat that character to find out more about their story or perhaps research into a particular issue that may affect that character. l
Variation: You may wish to try this exercise with each member of the group looking through newspaper or internet articles to look for a hidden voice before they enter the scene.
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under a foreign sky Structure There are many different ways that we can consider the structure of plays; Stanislavski teaches us that plays must serve their super objective, a through line that links to all the small units and objectives. To gain understanding of a character, an actor must be aware of their character’s relation to the super-objective. Another way is to consider the different acts as beginning (Act 1), middle (Act 2) and end (Act 3). Act 1 will often introduce the setting, characters and situation and end with an event that thrusts them from their normal life to something different, Act 2 develops the story through a series of small complications that lead to an ultimate crisis and Act 3 resolves the crisis. Sometimes stories will start at the end of Act 1 and reveal character and situation as the plot develops but Act 1 is still there. In the case of Under a Foreign Sky it is useful to consider the story arc and character arc. The story arc is similar to the super-objective in that it is the through line of the play. Nigel Watts outlines the story arc as having eight points which are: 1. Stasis – the everyday life in which the story is set. 2. T rigger – something beyond the control of the protagonist that sparks the story 3. T he quest – sparked by the trigger; a negative trigger sparks a quest to get back to normal while a positive trigger sparks a quest to maintain or increase this state. 4. S urprise – this takes up most of the middle and is a series of events including obstacles, complications and troubles for the protagonist. 5. C ritical Choice – the character needs to make a crucial decision to follow a particular path. In many classic stories, the “critical choice” involves choosing between a good, but hard, path and a bad, but easy, one 6. C limax – The critical choice(s) made by the protagonist need to result in the climax, the highest peak of tension. 7. R eversal – The reversal should be the consequence of the critical choice and the climax, and it should change the status of the characters, especially the protagonist 8. R esolution – The resolution is a return to a fresh stasis – one where the characters should be changed, wiser and enlightened, but where 5
the story being told is complete. You can always start off a new story, a sequel, with another trigger… (How to Structure A Story: The Eight-Point Arc, Ali Hale post on dailywritingtips.com) Within this story arc we also need to consider character arcs because if characters only respond for the purpose of the story they start to become two dimensional rather than having their own thoughts, feelings and attributes that would affect the course of events. “Simply put, a character arc takes its form when a character starts the story off with a certain viewpoint and then through trials and tribulations, that viewpoint changes. Essentially, the arc is the emotional or psychological growth, transformation and development of a character. A positive change in a character leads to a happy ending. A negative change or no change in a character leads to a tragic ending.” (Taken from Lights Film School Blog, 03/06/10 http://www.lightsfilmschool.com/blog/what-isa-character-arc/605/) Under a Foreign Sky uses both of these arcs; Drina’s going from sad to happy and Bojan’s going in reverse to emphasize the contrasting fortunes of immigrants in the UK. We need to be careful that character arcs are not too simplistic and that characters are not immediately changed, it often takes time and reinforcement over a number of events before we will change our attitudes and so to ensure characters are believable we must be careful to do the same.
teacher resource pack
Activity: Identifying Story and Character Arcs. Learning Outcomes:
3 To understand the concept of the story arc and character arc and be able to identify their key features. 3 To be able to write your own story arc. 3 To be able to use character arcs to highlight contrasting fortunes.
Under a Foreign Sky has three protagonists in Bojan, Drina and Elma and although interlinked each has their own story and therefore their own story and character arc. This exercise will help you identify the key features of each arc and then develop your own stories using these concepts.
hoosing either Bojan or Drina complete the diagram on the previous page, making a note of each C element of their story arcs. (A4 copies are available to download from our website.) l Within these story arcs note the outlook of the characters of Drina and Bojan at the beginning of the story and at the end, list the series of events that led to this change in attitude (many are likely to occur in the Surprise stage of the story). l Consider how quickly the character changed their outlook. Do you think this helped to make the characters believable? Discuss with a partner. l Working in pairs you are going to create a story with contrasting character arcs. You are two characters entering a new country for the first time. One of you is positive, the other is negative. Give your character reasons for this outlook. l Using the story arc on the previous page as a template make notes on each phase of the story, considering what must happen to each character to change their outlook. l Sit back to back and read your story, each person reading the part that is relevant to their character. Listen carefully to each others story. Is there only one moment where their character could change their mind? If yes consider other moments you could add to help build this change. This will strengthen your story and make it more believable. l
Theatre Making Process Theatre Centre is a new writing company and as such much time is spent on the development of the play; the writer works closely with the company as the piece is drafted and young people are consulted at key stages along the way. The flow chart opposite gives you an insight into our development process from initial conception of the idea to production. As technologies develop Theatre Centre is keen to enable you to access resources in a more immediate and relevant way. We will be uploading footage of the development process as well as exercises for you to explore each stage in more detail. 6
under a foreign sky Understanding Yugoslavia In the play writer Paula B. Stanic explores the plight of immigrants coming to London from the Balkan States specifically Kosovo. She explains… “In 2010 I went to Kosovo for the first time and was really struck by the reactions of the people I was with. All had grown up there, some had stayed and some had gone to the UK to escape the growing tensions between Albanians and Serbs in the 90’s. Although everyone remembers it for the war at that time there is still so much going on that we hear little about – segregation, rioting and so much anger on all sides over what has happened. I was really interested in what’s going on now, particularly for young people who have to live with the aftermath and with the current economic climate on top. This is the background to what I hope are essentially three very human stories.” It is therefore important to understand the history of Kosovo if we are to really understand the characters, the choices they have and the impact on the international community. The History of Yugoslavia Yugoslavia was first formed in 1918 and recreated as a socialist state following WWII. The constitution listed 6 republics in the federation, these were:
This timeline gives a history of the break up of Yugoslavia, particularly focusing on Kosovo’s unique place within this.
Activity: The Breakdown of Yugoslavia For this exercise groups will need access to the internet, paper and pens. Learning Outcomes
3 To be able to use research to effectively inform role play. 3 To understand the breakdown of the Yugoslav Republic. 3 To be able to effectively write and deliver a speech.
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sing the timeline above as a starting point, split the class into 6 groups each representing a country from U former Yugoslavia. In your groups research the role your republic played in the breakup of Yugoslavia. l Using this research prepare a speech explaining why your country wanted to stay/leave the Yugoslav federation. l Select a member of your group to act as President. The rest of the team are delegates from the country. Each delegation has come together at a meeting to discuss the reasons for the breakdown of the Yugoslav federation. Each President is to present the speech from their country. l Following each speech the President supported by their delegation will take questions from the other teams. Limit this to 3 questions. l At the end of the speeches open this into a discussion of whether you think more could and should have been done to save the Yugoslav federation.
teacher resource pack Population Change Internal Displacement: The movement of people in some of Kosovo’s key cities. Pristina is the capital city of The Republic of Kosovo and has experienced mass migration many times. Between 1953 and 1999 the population increased from around 24,000 to 300,000. The greatest increase was amongst the Albanian population, many of whom had travelled from the mountain areas. By the start of the 1980s Albanians made up over 70% of the City’s population. In 1989 a harshly repressive regime was implemented by Slobodan Milosevic which led to Albanians being purged from state industries and institutions. Following many years of ethnic tensions and armed unrest, open conflict between Serbian forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army began in 1998. In March 1999 NATO began airstrikes against Yugoslavia amid the Kosovan War and widespread violence broke out in Pristina. Serbian and Yugoslav forces shelled several districts and conducted large-scale expulsions of ethnic Albanians accompanied by widespread looting and destruction of Albanian properties. Many of those expelled were directed onto trains apparently brought to Pristina’s main station for the express purpose of deporting them to the border of the Republic of Macedonia, where they were forced into exile. The United States Department of State estimated in May 1999 that between 100,000-120,000 people had been driven out of Pristina. Several strategic targets in Pristina were attacked by NATO during the war and most of the city’s 40,000 Serbs fled. The few who remained were subjected to harassment and violence in revenge by Albanian gangs, which reduced Pristina’s Serbian population still further.
Gracanica is a town 10 km from Pristina where the majority of citizens are Serbian. It was formed in 2008 by the Kosovan government and despite the majority of inhabitants being Serbian, Serbia refuses to recognise it. During the Kosovan war it was transformed from a sleepy little town into an administrative centre serving the needs of 75,000 Kosovan Serbs who lived to the south of the Ibar River. Gracanica is made up of a population of approximately 10,000 citizens, many of whom are Serbian refugees driven out of Pristina. In 2010 the ethnic breakdown of the wider municipality was 85.7% Serbian, 3.7% Albanian and 10.6% other. Mitrovica is known as the divided city, with the River Iber as the dividing marker. When the NATO bombing campaign ended in 1999 Albanians returned to the former Yugoslav province. This led to many Serbians fleeing to the North and a split between a predominantly Albanian South and Serbian North. Tensions between the two sides became even stronger in 2008 when the Albanian majority in Kosovo declared independence. Then in May the Serbian North held their own parliamentary elections declared illegal by the UN. Partition has been suggested for the area. This would enable the Serbian North to create parallel structures of governance and live under Serbian law. However this has met with resistance from Albanians. International recognition of Kosovo is proving to be a particular challenge to Mitrovica, with Serbia declaring that it, along with Kosovo, is still part of Serbia while Albanians consider Kosovo to be an independent state. The status of Mitrovica along with that of Kosovo continues to be debated with talks between Serbia and Kosovo having begun again in March this year (2011).
Activity: Migration Monologues Learning Outcomes
3 To be able to use research and automatic writing to create a monologue. 3 To understand reasons for human displacement in Kosovo. 3 To understand how political actions affect the lives of individuals. In groups of three and using the information you have been given about the cities of Mitrovica, Pristina and Gracanica discuss why you think the writer chose to place Drina as being from Gracenica; Bojan as being from Mitrovica; and Mirjana as being from Pristina. l Choose a character each to explore in more detail. l Make two columns on a sheet of paper – on one side list words that come to mind when you think of your character, on the other side words that come to mind when you think of the city your character is from. l You are now going to do a piece of automatic writing; a diary entry from your character the night before they leave for London. Take another sheet of paper and set a timer for 4 minutes and start writing, don’t stop to think, if you get stuck simply write ‘I don’t know what to write’ until something comes to you. l Now read over your text and make three changes. You must cut a line, add a line and change a line. l Share your pieces with your group. Could the pieces come together to form one? Do they follow the same order? Are there natural breaks where another character could come in? Are they confused and could lines be shared between characters? Improvise ideas to form a piece that explores each character’s migration. l
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under a foreign sky International Displacement The Kosovan war not only displaced people within Kosovo but as Serbian forces sought to ethnically cleanse the population, many Albanians fled to the borders with refugee camps being overwhelmed with the amount of people seeking safety. Many European nations were called upon to offer support; however this was not without its problems with many concerned that refugees might never make it back to their homes. Britain was amongst the countries who opened their doors to Kosovan refugees despite an earlier warning from Tony Blair “that bringing in refugees across Europe would be a “policy of despair” and play into the hands of Serbia’s President. […] A Downing Street spokesman said “Our top priority is to get these refugees back to their homes and enable them to rebuild their lives in a secure environment. The immediate requirement is to provide food and shelter. […] Labour MP Ann Clwyd said “I’m very pleased at this news. I think it’s essential we make this kind of response. I’m sure the right place for
the people is in their own homes if they could only stay there, but the situation is now so desperate.”” Sunday, April 4, 1999 Published at 20:17 GMT 21:17 UK http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/311601.stm Trafficking “Human trafficking is the movement of people by means such as force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them. The UN describes trafficking as a form of ‘slavery’. It knows of victims from 127 countries and of their exploitation in 137.” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ uk/5343036.stm) Many trafficking victims sent to the UK are from Eastern European Countries including Russia, Albania and Kosovo and purposes can range from sexual exploitation to domestic servitude and forced labour. “The first reports of Kosovar women and children came during the conflict in 1999, when over 800,000 Kosovars were living in refugee camps in the Former Yugoslavia
immigration in the uk Recently, the UK immigration system has been completely overhauled with old immigration routes made redundant and a new points based immigration system introduced. The new system for UK immigration consists of five new tiers that are open to all citizens outside of the EU.
Immigrants who can demonstrate they possess certain skills that cannot be found in certain areas are understandably much sought after.
The largest groups of people given British Citizenship in 2006 were from India, Pakistan, Somalia and the Philippines. With several Eastern European countries entering the EU in 2004, the UK has seen a mass increase in numbers, notably skilled workers from Poland, since there is free movement of labour within the EU. With the introduction of the points based system, immigration to UK has been managed better thanks to a new system to cope with the demand for skilled labour shortages.
The UK is open to young people who might not already possess the skills and experience but would like to visit all the same.
Skilled workers from outside the EU whose jobs are on the Critical Skills Shortlist are especially attractive to the UK and will find their Between 1991 and 2001 half the population increase was due to foreign- application for a UK visa will be looked upon more favourably. Skills born immigration. In 2007 the number of people moving to work in the such as engineering, teaching, doctors and nurses are currently in UK reached a staggering 237,000, an increase of 46,000 on 2006. demand.
The Youth Mobility Scheme is one such scheme targeted at 18-30 year olds. The UK visa is open for two years and entitles the holder to work for up to one year. http://www.globalvisas.com/uk_immigration/uk_immigration.html (taken 24/05/11)
Silent Debate: UK Immigration Policy Learning Outcomes
3 To understand and be able to think critically about the UK’s immigration policy. 3 To be able to form and express a cohesive argument. 3 To be able to analyse an argument and form your own opinion.
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In groups of 4 give two people a black pen and two people a blue pen. Read the information above regarding recent changes to the UK’s immigration policy. The group members with blue pens are promoting this policy and two with black pens are against it. l On a sheet of paper the blue team start by writing the sentence “We agree with this policy because…” and finish the sentence l The black team then responds with a sentence starting “We don’t agree with this policy because…” and finish the sentence l Continue this debate until you fill the sheet of paper. At no point in this activity should anybody talk, all points should be made through writing. l At the end of the exercise each person should use a different coloured pen and read through their debate again adding any extra points they would like to make for either team. l Once everyone has finished look through the debate as a team and see who you think made the stronger points and why.
teacher resource pack Republic of Macedonia and Albania and rumours circulated that girls and women were trafficked from these camps. Likewise after the conflict at the end of 1999, other stories were disseminated about increased kidnappings of Kosovar women and girls. Some of the National Government Organisations interviewed in this study, most notably The Centre for the Protection of Women and Children, confirmed this rumour by telling the researchers about assisted victims of trafficking who related that they had been kidnapped just after the conflict.“ (Trafficking in Children in Kosovo, UNICEF, Kosovo, June 2004)
Kosovar victims are from rural areas and poor families and often have low levels of education and literacy. Some have experienced domestic and sexual violence in the home and often originate from communities with very traditional gender roles where males are favoured over females. This scale of poverty makes them vulnerable to trafficking as they seek a way out often lured with the promise of a job that is not delivered upon. Young women and girls are often at most risk as they are able to offer most financially, first living a life of domestic servitude and then working as prostitutes as they get older.
In most cases trafficking victims are from amongst the most vulnerable sections of society, the majority of
Trafficking is an organised crime, usually involving gangs, and is essentially another form of slavery.
Activity: Reviewing a live performance of Under a Foreign Sky. When thinking about reviewing a piece we automatically think about writing but there are many different ways reviews can be shared. You may wish to think about creating reviews for TV, radio, websites as well as newspapers. This activity will allow you to create an imaginative response to seeing the play, thinking about all aspects of the production. In preparation When seeing a piece that you are going to review, remember to get a programme. This will help to remind yourself of the piece when you come to write the review as well as provide you with useful information about the background of the piece, the cast and creative team. After the performance make some initial notes: l What was the play about and what happened in it? l How do you feel after seeing the piece? What do you remember most strongly? Why? l What did you like and dislike about the production? Remember a review is about sharing your views on a piece supported by examples to illustrate your ideas and thoughts. Creating the review: 1. Start with a strong image that will get your audience’s attention and introduce the play. For example: “Mad Forest is the name of a wood near Bucharest whose oddly twisted trees make it very hard to negotiate. It’s a fitting title for Caryl Churchill’s tangled play” – Lyn Gardner, The Guardian “It lives on the page but it dies on the stage. That, alas, is the story of Hanif Kureishi’s second brilliant novel, The Black Album.” – Michael Coveney, The Independent 2. O nce you have done this, include a SHORT synopsis of the play. What genre is the play? – comedy, tragedy, political, etc. Remember a review is more than just repeating the plot. 3. Think about how the themes relate to the life of the audience. 4. Move on to your likes and dislikes of the piece. Make sure to include at least one sentence each about the: l acting l direction l design l sound Where appropriate use the names of the artists or creative team. 5. W hat effect did the play have on you and the audience around you? How did you feel during the piece and afterwards? Why? 6. Do you think the creative team achieved their vision for the production? 7. Conclude with whether or not you would recommend other people see the piece with a summary of why.
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With Their Backs to the World, Asne Seirstad, 2005, Virago Press
Further Resources Post 1956 Drama 1956 and All That: Making of Modern British Drama, Dan Rebellato, 1999, Routledge Look Back in Anger, John Osbourne, 1978, Faber and Faber The Art of the Theatre Workshop, Murray Melvin, 2006, Oberon A Taste of Honey, Shelagh Delaney, 2008, Methuen Drama
Migration The Guardian: Anger and Fear in a City still divided February 2008 www.theguardian.co.uk/world/2008/ feb/18/kosovo.serbia The Guardian: Ethnic Albanians & Serbs clash in Kosovo town May 2010 www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ may/30/kosovo-serbia-mttrovica-election-violence
Story Structure
BBC News: English pupils ‘Less tolerant on immigration’ November 2010 www.bbc.co.uk/news/ education-11810609
How to Structure A Story: The Eight-Point Arc, Ali Hale post on dailywritingtips.com
UK Immigration: http://www.globalvisas.com/uk_ immigration/uk_immigration.html
Lights Film School Blog http://www.lightsfilmschool. com/blog/what-is-a-character-arc/605/
Trafficking
An Actor Prepares, Constantin Stanislavski, 1936, Methuen, 1988 The History of Yugoslavia Crossing Continents – Kosovo (radio documentary BBC Radio 4 10/04/2009) The Death Of Yugoslavia (documentary series BBC 1995)
Trafficking in Children in Kosovo, UNICEF, Kosovo, June 2004 For Sale – The trafficking of Albania’s children – UNICEF Sex Slavery is Widespread in England: http://news.bbc. co.uk/1/hi/england/6459369.stm Quick Guide: UK Human Trafficking: http://news.bbc. co.uk/1/hi/uk/5343036.stm
Yugoslavia: The Avoidable War, George Bogdanich 1999
UNICEF: http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_3717. html
History File Yugoslavia http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/ static/map/yugoslavia/
POPPY project: http://www.eaves4women.co.uk/ POPPY_Project/POPPY_Project.php
Creative Team Writer: Paula B. Stanic Director: Natalie Wilson Designer: Matt Edwards Sound Designer: Dan Steele Lighting Designer: Aideen Malone Dramaturg: Lisa Evans Production Manager: Mark Lovell Marketing Resources: Caroline Schreiber Theatre Centre Artistic Director: Natalie Wilson
Theatre Centre tours new plays across England which connect with young audiences, inspire their creativity and reflect their diversity. The Company invests in new collaborations with writers and teachers to create theatre which is pioneering and truthful, providing young people with a space for learning and artistic achievement.
Theatre Centre Shoreditch Town Hall, 380 Old Street, London, EC1V 9LT T: 020 7729 3066 F: 020 7739 9741
[email protected] www.theatre-centre.co.uk
