Thursday 14 April saw the première performance of The Evolution of Integration from the pupils of Brownlow Integrated College. Pupils of the school, which celebrates its 25th year of being a Transformed High School this year, decided on the theme for its Drama Club to work on, the idea being that they would produce a few short sketches for an assembly, but under the leadership of Mrs. Wendy Kinley, the pupils began to explore the topic in a non-confrontational way, and soon came up with more ideas than they knew what to do with.
Step in BAFTA Award winning Dr. Ronan Blaney, who took the pupil’s concept for a pivotal set of scenes and helped develop the scripts in to the humorous cornerstones of the whole play. After this, it made sense for the few short sketches to become a full production. Mrs. Kinley and her colleague, Paul McLean, began the process of workshopping and rehearsing the various pieces until they became a full play, complete with dance and song!
“The ideas were a group effort,” said Mrs. Kinley “we’d discuss possible ideas; the pupils would workshop the plot with the direction of one of us, then we would take away the story and create a script. It was a very organic process.”
The piece follows the story of two young people, from both sides of the community, who have a desire to leave their segregated school systems behind and join each other in one school. Their journey starts in violence, but slowly follows the path of resolution leading to the beginnings of a new story, one where they learn what makes them different together.
The piece included the memories of staff that were there when the initial decision was still in discussion, 25 years previous. The idea of an integrated school in the Craigavon area was being discussed by the North Armagh Group for Integrated Education, but it soon became clear that Brownlow High School, a school that was already informally integrated, could assume that role within the community, and Brownlow Integrated College came in to existence.
“It was interesting exploring the history of the school in a new way,” commented Thomas Frampton, Head Boy and current Year 12 pupil “and playing a variety of characters with a varying degree of compliance was a fun challenge.” “It was great fun learning how to create a play, but also performing it.” Year 8 pupil, Molly Hobbs said, “When I first got involved, I didn’t expect it would become what it eventually did, but it was so much fun to do… I can’t wait to do another one!”
The performance couldn’t have been timelier, the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education, in conjunction with the Department of Education, have launched a review of the development of Integrated Education. The review, which is available at www.nicie.org has been created to discuss the purpose and planning of Integrated Education at both government and local level.
The show saw the school open its stage for the first time in over a decade to three audiences which included local primary schools, the general public and our own student body. A special mention and thanks must go to the Integrated Education Fund and the Extended Schools Programme without whom this show could not have taken place.
“The Evolution of Integration” was an overwhelming success and we look forward to building this experience to strengthen our links with the local community.
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