Schedule

The University of Chester currently runs a two semester system. Semester 1 runs from October to February, and Semester 2 from February to June. Student involvement was bound by these time frames, but initial contacts were made by the tutor prior to the start of Semester 1 in each year.

In November 2004, two final-year drama undergraduates followed up initial contacts with Traveller support networks in North Wales.

Between February and May 2005, the two final-year students organised weekly Forum Theatre technique workshops with Traveller children at St Anne’s Primary School in Wrexham. Sporadic weekly workshops and visits (for example, to go ice skating) were also arranged with a Traveller youth group who met less regularly, but who were keen to keep contact. They were joined in April by eight second-year students who helped augment the workshops.

In May 2005, a final Forum Theatre event was held at St Anne’s Primary School for the Traveller children. A visit to the university (including a Forum Theatre event and a shared meal) was organised for the youth group in late May 2005.

This schedule was repeated in the second year of the project, but we carried out two projects in different geographical locations. The two final-year students worked from November 2005 until June 2006 with a group of disaffected young travellers and their parents in mid-Cheshire (Middlewich). These were young people aged 11–17 who had been excluded from school. This project culminated in a visit to the university and a special Forum Theatre workshop for them. In 2005–2006 six second-year students extended the Forum Theatre work at St Anne’s in North Wales by working with children aged 10 who were about to transfer to secondary school. The theme here was Moving On, something that had great resonance for the Traveller children. It proved very fruitful as a starting point for the first Forum Theatre performance we presented to the children in this second year of the project, as we felt more confident about choosing the content of the Forum.