60% of our audience during term time is comprised of children attending with their class group and teachers. We value the contribution school groups make to The Ark and always have this audience at the forefront of our minds when programming events.
Teacher-Training: An Introduction to Physical Theatre
This will enable teachers to use drama and theatre to create rich learning opportunities in the classroom. There will be a particular emphasis on providing opportunities for teachers to engage with and enjoy their own creativity. For more information please click here
The Girl who Forgot to Sing Badly
The Ark, in association with Theatre Lovett, presents the world premiere
of The Girl who Forgot to Sing Badly. Written by Finegan Kruckemeyer, directed
by Lynne Parker and performed by Louis Lovett, The Ark’s Theatre-Maker
in Residence for 2010, The Girl who Forgot to Sing Badly is suitable for
2nd class and upwards.
School performances are on Tuesdays to Fridays from 29 January to 5 March (excluding
the mid-term break 16 – 19 February) at 10:15am and 12:15pm each day, with
previews on Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 January.
This production is part of The Ark’s Theatre-Maker in Residence 2010: Inspire
new theatre for generations.
For more information and booking please contact 01.6707788.
Christmas Inklings with visual artist Liz Smith
Join us at The Ark this winter for visual arts workshops, with
regular Ark artist Liz Smith.
Illustrate, design and construct a pop-up card or picture capturing Christmas
tales and winter wonders!
Pre-school to Senior Infants (3 - 5 years, public workshop) will draw animals,
trees and winter scenes which will be transformed into pop-ups!
First to Second Class (6 - 8 years, public workshop) will construct 3-D foldable
forests, buildings and Christmas characters which will move from side to side
with the technique of pull-outs.
Third to Sixth Class (9 - 12 years, public workshop) will investigate more advanced
methods of paper construction with moving pop-ups and pull-outs.
For more information, dates and schedule, please click here
Download Christmas Inklings worksheet for schools here
Earth Explorers
Earth Explorers is The Ark’s flagship visual arts project for 2009. By participating in Earth Explorers, you will be involved in a large scale programme which hopes to inspire, in the youngest of our citizens, a long term interest in the visual arts and a caring commitment to our natural surroundings.
We hope to encourage children to engage with concepts relating to our natural environment, and the impact that we all have on the places that surround us – to explore topics of environmental awareness, natural surroundings, sustainability, and the reusing and recycling of materials - exploring these themes through visual arts and science.
Download full details of our schools programme in May for Earth Explorers here
Finally, The Ark is celebrating World Environment Day, which takes places on Friday 5 June. Find out how you and your pupils can mark this day in your own classroom byaccessing our free worksheet of ideas here
You can also find out more about The Ark in our monthly In Touch column.
The Ark welcomes your contribution, if you have any questions, feedback or suggestions for our online schools section, please do not hesitate to contact boxoffice@ark.ie or phone 01.6707788
The Ark and Dublin Dance Festival Children’s Season
Join us for a schools performance of The Ugly Duckling’s Dancing Cabaret; attend Projects & Projections 2, our continuing professional development workshop for teachers, in association with Dublin West Education Centre and Navan Education Centre, or why not bring your class to our Dance & Percussion Workshops.
More information is available here
Schools resource pack: The Ugly Ducklings’ Dancing
Cabaret by Cas Public
This free resource pack offers suggestions for preparatory and follow-up work
in the classroom. The pack can be used by teachers to facilitate discussion in
the classroom around the themes and content of The Ugly Ducklings’ Dancing
Cabaret by Cas Public. Some suggestions can be used before the visit to key the
children into the dance piece and other suggestions are for use after the visit
for further exploration of contemporary dance and to reflect on the piece itself.
This is a resource pack for teachers to use selectively. We encourage teachers
to select and adapt the suggestions offered in this pack to meet the needs, interests
and developmental level of particular class groupings.
The schools resource pack has been written by Cas Public and is for use by kind
permission of the company.
Download schools resource pack for The Ugly Ducklings’ Dancing Cabaret
by Cas Public here
The Giant Blue Hand
The Ark’s flagship theatre production for 2009 was The Giant Blue Hand written by acclaimed playwright Marina Carr, directed by Selina Cartmell and produced by Muireann Ahern. We received a huge amount of feedback from schools attending our production and you can see some of these responses from teachers below:
"Fab show, the boys loved it.
Teachers loved it too! I would highly recommend it to other teachers.”
“Fantastic performance, Children
were enthralled, Visually impressive, Great Value.”
“Always a
pleasure to come here.”
“Really enjoyed performance, All students
were entertained from beginning to end, Thank you.”
“Well organised
- excellent show for age group involved. Definitely will come again!”
