Heritage Archives - Page 2 of 2

Resurrecting the Shakespeare Hut

Digital Drama are honoured to be partnering the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Mustard Club in presenting ‘Resurrecting the Shakespeare Hut’ – an installation and dramatic reconstruction in the summer of 2016 to co-inside with Shakespeare 400 and the First World War Centenary.

Resurrecting the Shakespeare Hut commemorates the 100th anniversary of the opening of the YMCA Shakespeare Hut on the grounds of the current London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. As part of the YMCA’s many huts built for the rest and recreation of serving forces during the First World War, Shakespeare Hut was built to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the playwright’s death, with a particular remit to bring Shakespeare to the troops. The project will collect, record and present the heritage of this forgotten building as well as gathering local family stories of the First World War to preserve and share them with the wider community.

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For more information, to share WW1 family memories from the London Borough of Camden and for opportunities to volunteer, please contact Alison Ramsey at alison@digitaldrama.org

Resurrecting the Shakespeare Hut is being made possible by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Image from the YMCA archives.

Digital Drama Win Magna Carta 800 Grant

Digital Drama has received a grant from the Magna Carta Trust to create the Magna Carta Young Curator Badge as part of the 800^th Anniversary Commemoration.

The Magna Carta Young Curator Badge Project from Digital Drama engages young people in the history and cultural legacy of the Magna Carta through the creation of online media including blogs, video and animation for the Magna Carta Channel on Makewaves, the social network for schools. Students are rewarded with a Magna Carta Young Curator Badge as evidence of their learning and participation.

The Magna Carta Young Curator Badge will be piloted with the Runnymede South Confederation of Schools (network of 19 schools in the Runnymede area) between April and June 2015. The schools will be taking part in the Great Charter Festival on June 15^that Royal Holloway, performing with giant puppets to depict eight individuals who have fought for or enabled the ideas of freedom and justice over eight centuries.

As part of their contribution to the Festival and as evidence for their Magna Carta Young Curator Badge, students will track the progress of rehearsal and interpretation of the themes via videos, blogs and animation. This will be accompanied with a specific focus on the history of the Magna Carta and its impact on communities across the world.

Following the main activities, the roll out phase of the project will involve working with Makewaves to promote the Magna Carta Young Curator Badge to their community of schools (4,000 worldwide) and young users (70,000 worldwide). This project will bring young people in contact with Magna Carta historical primary source material and media skills workshops. Digital Drama and Makewaves will create teacher packs of specific project resources and ‘how to’ guides for the open badge to tie in with the Key Stage 3 curriculums for history and citizenship. Digital Drama will film a question and answer session with students and a Magna Carta expert to be uploaded to the Makewaves channel as a free resource to mark the 800^th anniversary.

Commenting on the award, Kate Valentine, Director of Digital Drama said

“We are delighted to have received the support of the Magna Carta Trust to roll out the Magna Carta Young Curator Badge on Makewaves. The project will enable young people to engage in the legacy of Magna Carta through creating media inspired by the themes of Freedom and Justice and be awarded for their achievement by the Magna Carta Young Curator Badge.

Stephen Creek of Makewaves states “It’s really exciting to have the Magna Carta Young Curator Badge available for the Makewaves community of young people to earn. This is one of the first digital badges in our vast library of awards to focus on the themes of Freedom and Justice, and we are certain that Makewaves users are going to relish the challenge of working towards their badges and learning about the history of the Magna Carta.”

Project Partners:

Makewaves: (www.makewav.es) is the safe social media platform for schools.

“We want to provide every school and every young person with access to these opportunities to help them develop the skills and self confidence they will need to succeed in today’s ever changing knowledge economy.”

Magna Carta Trust: (www.magnacarta800th.com)

The Magna Carta Trust’s 800^th Anniversary Commemoration Committee is charged by the Magna Carta Trust to co-ordinate activities, raise the profile of the anniversary and deliver a number of key national and international aspirations. For more information, visit www.magnacarta800th.com