Britain's Best Recruiting Sergeant | Teacher Resources

BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT

TEACHER RESOURCE PACK FOR TEACHERS WORKING WITH PUPILS IN YEAR 3 – 6

BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT RUNNING FROM 13 FEB - 15 MAR 2015 WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A MAN? Little Tilley’s dreams are realised as she follows in her father’s footsteps and grows up to become Vesta Tilley, a shining star of the music hall whose much-loved act as a male impersonator makes her world-famous.

War breaks out and she supports the cause by helping to recruit soldiers to fight for king and country, but has she used her stardom for good? And is winning the most important thing?

The Unicorn commemorates the centenary of World War One and the 150th anniversary of Vesta Tilley’s birth in this feisty, song-filled and touching look at the life of Vesta Tilley (1864 – 1952), who was nicknamed Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant and led the way for female stars in music hall entertainment.

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BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT

CONTENTS CONTEXT INTRODUCTION A SUMMARY OF THE PLAY THE PLAY IN CONTEXT INTERVIEWS WITH THE CREATIVE TEAM

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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES PRE-SHOW WORK 1. MUSIC HALL ACTS - STOP AND SHOW 2. CREATING MUSIC HALL ACTS 3. PUBLICITY POSTCARDS 4. PRESENTING! CREATING THE COMPERE 5. A NIGHT AT THE MUSIC HALL 6. CAN I ASK YOU SOMETHING? 7. HERE’S MY ADVICE - WRITING TO VESTA/HARRY

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POST-SHOW WORK 1. FIVE MOMENTS 2. WHAT MADE THE PLAY MEMORABLE FOR YOU? 3. THE RECRUITMENT CAMPAIGN 4 ALGY AND VESTA - EXTENDED SEQUENCE (5 Parts)

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RESOURCE ONE - THE COMPERE’S SPEECH & MUSIC HALL NAMES RESOURCE TWO - NEWSPAPER HEADLINES RESOURCE THREE - RECRUITMENT POSTERS FROM WWI

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BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT

CONTEXT INTRODUCTION Welcome to the resource pack for Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant for teachers working with children in Years 3 to 6. Joy Wilkinson’s play brilliantly brings to life the world of music hall in the 1900s and the real life character of Vesta Tilley, a male impersonator and music hall superstar. Vesta was a child performer and wanted to be the first and the best at whatever she did. When she develops her act as a male impersonator, she challenges assumptions about what girls can and should be capable of.

When war breaks out in 1914, Vesta uses her fame for the war effort; she develops an act where she impersonates a soldier and sings patriotic songs, which she then performs at recruitment rallies and encourages the young men to sign up to fight there and then.

The play will be full of the songs, fun and images of the music hall, but intercut with moments that bring the reality of the war to life and ask us to consider what these young men really are signing up for. Hundreds of thousands of young men joined the army in 1914, proud to fight for king and country, this play begins to question what happens when the optimism and patriotism at the start of war gives way to the reality of four years of fighting and hundreds of thousands of young men’s lives lost.

These resources will support teachers in contextualising the play for their class before coming to the theatre, so that young audiences can tune in to the performance. The classroom activities can be used before and after your visit as ways of exploring themes, stories and characters relevant to the play. The resources do not take an objective led approach; however, teachers will be able to establish links to the relevant curriculum objectives for their particular year group and adapt them for their particular educational setting.

Vesta in and out of drag Page 4

BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT – CONTEXT

SUMMARY OF THE PLAY The play begins with four year old Matilda creating shows with her dolls and her dog, Fathead. Her father, Harry, is a music hall act and Matilda wants to follow in his footsteps and go on the stage. She eventually persuades him to let her have a go and her first performance is a huge success. After this Matilda and Harry go on tour together and soon she is earning £5 per week – a huge amount of money at this time.

Five years later Matilda feels she needs to change her act as there are lots of younger music hall acts coming up behind her. Matilda wants to be the best, she can’t be the youngest act in the music hall, so she comes up with another idea; she’s going to be a male impersonator.

Matilda decides to give herself a stage name; looking around her for inspiration she sees a box of Swan Vesta matches. She decides her name will be Vesta Tilley.

Vesta’s success grows; she goes to work in London where she meets the famous Dan Leno, the best panto dame in the business. They get ready for their acts alongside each other; Vesta putting on a wig and beard to become a man, Dan donning a skirt and eyelashes to become a woman.

One day a mother brings her young son, Algy, to see Vesta’s act. He’s sure he’s going to hate it: So let me get this straight, mother – this next act is a girl pretending to be a boy?

I don’t get it, what’s meant to be good about that? I hate girls, they’re boring.

I’d rather see a man getting shot out of a cannon.

But when he sees the act he loves it.

Vesta becomes a huge success; she tours to America, she earns £1000 a week and she sells Vesta Tilley merchandise to her fans.

The play then jumps to 1914 and Vesta is now an established music hall star. With the outbreak of the First World War, Vesta has to decide what to do; should she stop singing, dancing and making jokes? Or do what her father, Harry suggests: This war could be the best thing that ever happened for you. Play a soldier. All those young men. Take the mick, but give it a twist. Be the first, be the best.

Vesta goes on performing and one day, after singing a song about ‘Burlington Bertie’ – a rich young man from Kensington who gives up his luxuries to join the army, Algy is now a young man and still a big fan of Vesta.

Watching her soldier act, he decides he must join up.

When there are symptoms of war like alarm And Burlington Bertie sees his brothers in arms, Altho’ absentminded he does not forget That Englishmen always must pay off a debt He drops all his pleasures, the polo, the hunt And just like the rest he is off to the front.

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BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT – CONTEXT Vesta realises that she can have a real impact through her act; as she can persuade young men to join up and fight. So Vesta dresses as a soldier and sings new songs which persuade the young men that being a soldier is the right thing to do: I’ll be like a recruiting sergeant. They sign up with me then they go off to fight. The King will love me.

The other acts will hate me. I’ll be the first and the best.

At the end of her act, Vesta invites the young men in the audience to come up on stage and sign up there and then.

It’s all right, it’s all right now, There’s no need to worry anymore.

Who said the army wasn’t strong?

They soon found out they were wrong.

Algy, now a soldier in the trenches, writes to Vesta asking her to come to France and give a concert for the troops to boost morale. Vesta has no time; she is busy making a film of what life is like for the soldiers with very realistic sets. And of course, a film can reach thousands more people than a live show.

With more letters coming back from the front, Vesta starts to get glimpses of the reality of the war. When a letter from Algy’s mother tells Vesta that her son dead, she is forced to think about the implications of what she does when she recruits young men to go and fight. Vesta finds herself afraid of the dark and afraid of her dreams, but on stage she feels herself, the self who is determined to win.

The play ends with Vesta as an old lady, looking back on her life and the choices she has made.

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BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT – CONTEXT

THE PLAY IN CONTEXT Vesta Tilley was born Matilda Powles in 1864 in Worcestershire. Her father was a stage comic and manager of a music hall in Nottingham.

With no cinema, television or radio, music halls in the 1860s and 70s were hugely popular places of entertainment, with shows that would include a mix of acts, popular songs, comedy and speciality performances – a little like the range of performances you might see on Britain’s Got Talent today.

Matilda first went on the stage aged four, and after a few years of success as a child singer, she developed her new act as a male impersonator. She changed her stage name to Vesta Tilley and her success grew. By the age of 11 she was supporting her whole family with her earnings – with 12 siblings this was quite impressive.

One of her most popular character creations was Burlington Bertie, in which she poked fun at an upper class ‘toff’ and his life of luxury and leisure.

Vesta’s father, who had also been her manager, died in 1888 and two years later Vesta married Walter de Frece, a songwriter who owned a chain of music halls across England. Vesta’s fame grew and she went on to tour to the British Colonies and America.

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BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT – CONTEXT When the World War began in 1914, Vesta used her fame for the war effort, appearing at recruitment rallies where she dressed as a soldier in army uniform and performed songs designed to appeal to young men’s patriotism, encouraging them to sign up. Songs included; ‘Jolly good luck to the Girl who loves a Soldier’ and ‘We don’t want to lose you but we think you ought to go.’

At the outbreak of war in 1914 there were only 700,000 soldiers available to fight. In August 1914 the government appealed for volunteers aiming to recruit 100,000. By the end of September, 750,000 had volunteered and by January 1915, there were over a million.

Young men had to be 18 years old to sign up and 19 years old to be sent overseas to fight. However, it estimated that over 250,000 under age boys signed up. Many were encouraged by parents and teachers, however they may well have assumed that the war would be over before they were trained and sent to fight.

By mid 1915, as the reality of the War began to show itself, volunteer numbers were falling fast. In January 1916 conscription was introduced and all men aged 18 to 41 were required to fight by law.

As the years went by popular support for the war fell. By the end of the War, just over 8 million British men had been to fight, of these almost a million died and two million returned home injured.

Vesta’s husband, Walter, was knighted in 1919 and she became Lady de Frece. Vesta performed for the last time at the London Coliseum in June 1920.

Image from National Portrait Gallery, London Page 8

BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT – CONTEXT

INTERVIEWS WITH THE CREATIVE TEAM JOY WILKINSON: PLAYWRIGHT Why did you want to write a play about Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant, Vesta Tilley, for the Unicorn Theatre?

As the mum of two young boys, I’ve become aware how early they get ideas of what is ‘for boys’ and ‘for girls’, but also how open they are to asking questions and adapting their ideas. Vesta’s story seemed a great way to explore that, tackling big questions in a form that is entertaining for all ages. Vesta played with ideas of what it meant to be male and female and broke down boundaries in people’s thinking about what women could do. Yet the War also highlighted the divide between men and women and, ultimately, Vesta reverted to a more traditional role. Was that inevitable? Are things different now? Vesta’s journey gives us a way to ask questions about who we are – boys, girls, and the whole gender spectrum – today.

The play contrasts the world of the music hall – a world of illusion and performance – with the reality of the First World War. What were the challenges of writing this piece for children aged 8 and above?

One of my son’s friends was talking excitedly about an incident with a bomb. It started off sounding like something from a cartoon or computer game, but then it became clear it was a real bomb from news footage.

To him, the two things were indistinguishable as it was all on TV and fantastical. This is the same for Vesta who is immersed in the music hall like a child is immersed in play, protected, with the troubles of the real world far away. The challenge was to find those moments when reality breaks through and explore how Vesta deals with it – by denial? Distancing? Making it part of a story? Or by facing up to it and trying to stop it happening? There are no easy answers, but hopefully Vesta’s choices help us to think about our own.

You have already written two drafts of your play and will be writing a third before rehearsals begin, could you tell us a little about the process of writing a play for you and what happens between drafts?

With a play inspired by the life of a real person like Vesta, I start with a lot of research. This gives me the raw material for the story and a sense of the character, but then, when I’m writing, I have to find ‘my own’ Vesta and let her lead the way through the first draft. It’s a lot like a child playing, making up characters that come to life and have a story to reveal. Then I have to get my grown-up head back on between drafts to see what’s not working and find ways to fix it. Before the next draft we’ll workshop the play with the director and actors, which is great for discovering different ways of doing things, maybe through movement or music instead of purely by writing. Plays always change as you collaborate, hopefully for the better!

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BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT – CONTEXT

LEE LYFORD: DIRECTOR Why did you want to direct Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant?

It’s an incredibly rich play, exploring a range of themes including: gender, war and our personal and collective relationship to war; celebrity role models - the power they hold and the responsibility that comes with this; ambition vs conscience; personal gain and ambition vs common good. I am always attracted to plays which have contradictions such as these at their heart; it asks big moral questions.

All of this perhaps makes it sound terribly serious, but I think if I am honest, the reason I most wanted to direct the play is it is a very theatrical piece. Four actors play over a dozen roles (one of which is a dog!) telling the story of Vesta Tilley’s life, much of which is set in the music hall and includes a number of songs and music hall acts. I love the world of the play and have always been fascinated by music hall – I really enjoy the relationship the audience and performers have in this genre. I am also excited by exploring such stark difficult subject matter as World War One and juxtaposing it with the seemingly upbeat music hall numbers.

Have you had any thoughts about the staging of the piece at this early stage?

I don’t have any specifics yet, but I certainly want the audience to feel they have come to the music hall and are involved and often immersed in the action. I am also excited about exploring the backstage/ onstage relationship and how we can flip between the two; I feel sure we can find an exciting physical way of representing this. In many ways it is a backstage rags-to-riches drama in the Hollywood tradition. I have a ‘total theatre’ approach to making work and enjoy collaborating with other artists; I believe all the elements of design, sound, music and staging should have equal weight, led by the text, to create an exciting event.

What for you are the challenges of directing this piece for an audience of children aged 8 and above?

I think it is a challenging piece for children but I believe children are much like adults in that they respond to a really exciting and inventive piece of theatre. Thanks to talent shows such as Britain’s Got Talent and The X Factor, young people are actually fairly familiar with the concept and world of Variety, it is only the context which is different here. It is important that the play resonates and isn’t just a living history experience.

Essentially it is a period piece, but I am keen to find a contemporary layer, be it in the sound or set or costume design, as the themes of the play are as relevant now as they were at the time the play is set.

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BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES INTRODUCTION These activities use drama, writing, drawing and reflective discussion as ways of exploring and creating meaning. Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant is aimed at years 3 - 6 and teachers will be able to establish links to the relevant curriculum objectives for their particular year group and can adapt them for their particular educational setting.

The pre-show activities aim to prepare teachers and their classes for their visit to see Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant by engaging with some of the action, characters and background to the play so that the children’s responses to the performance can be expanded and deepened.

The post-show activities pick up on some of the themes of the play and focus on Vesta Tilley’s role in recruiting men to enlist as part of her music hall performances during the early years of WWI.

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BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT - CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

PRE-SHOW ACTIVITIES The pre-show work for Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant focuses on engaging young learners with the setting of the play through a series of activities based on music hall performers. This creates a way of exploring an unfamiliar form of entertainment in a participatory way and develops an understanding of the milieu within which Vesta Tilley was working.

Unlike most other visual media with which young learners are familiar, a theatre performance is a one time opportunity. There is no repeat or rewind. Being tuned into the play in a way that sparks interest and engagement can give young audiences a personal investment in the action that sustains and deepen responses.

The pre-show activities are linked, with each activity building on the previous one, creating incremental development of engagement, response and understanding.

The work is learning led and the main aim is to engage the class with the performance of Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant that they are going to see. Teachers will, however, be able to identify a range of different curriculum areas that can be focused on. There is, for example, an opportunity to develop persuasive writing in the postcard to Vesta; and exploratory use of language in the creation of names for music hall acts. Above all the activities are connected to a context that makes them both motivating and meaningful.

THE MUSIC HALL Before the arrival of cinema, and the development of all the different forms of entertainment that we have available in the 21st Century, the music hall was the place to go for a night out. It was much less formal than theatre, often with tables where people could drink and chat between performances. There were performances twice nightly and the performers were often rushing between venues to perform at four different halls in one evening. By 1908, in London alone, there were over eighty music halls with each hall vying with the others to pull in an audience.

Songs sung by music hall stars became popular and many of the acts became the celebrities of the day, pulling in big audiences wherever they performed. Vesta Tilley was one of the most well-known performers of the time.

The UK’s tradition of variety theatres began in the music halls. Like the variety performers who appear in Britain’s Got Talent, the music hall performances had jugglers, escapologists, acrobats, dancers, musicians, comics and other speciality acts as well as singers.

For more information on music halls, photographs, programme, posters and images of the sheet music for popular songs that will be useful for the classroom visit websites of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the East London Theatre Archive: www.vam.ac.uk/page/m/music-hall/ www.elta-project.org/browse.html?type=theatre&id=59

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PRE-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

1. MUSIC HALL ACTS STOP AND SHOW INTRODUCTION This activity introduces information about music halls to create a context for the drama work that follows and introduces the types of acts that people might have seen at the time of Vesta Tilley. It also animates the imagination in preparation for the work that follows.

TIME 40 minutes

ORGANISATION Classroom and hall space. Whole class, pairs and individual work

RESOURCES Images and information about music halls from the Victoria and Albert Museum’s website: www.vam.ac.uk/page/m/music-hall/

STRATEGIES Freeze frame, paired improvisation

RUNNING THE ACTIVITY Introduce the class to the term ‘music hall’ and explain what it refers to as it will be an unfamiliar form of entertainment.

• The Victoria and Albert website has helpful information and good visual resources.

• If the class has studied the Victorians, this will be a useful point of reference as the music halls became popular during the mid-1800s.

• Many in the class will have contemporary reference points for this activity. For example, Britain’s Got Talent is about variety acts and Ant and Dec are a good example to give when explaining the role of compere.

Tell the class that they are going to imagine some of the acts that appeared in the music hall. Once they have found a space they are going to stand still and then, at a signal from you, they will walk around the room. When you will call out: Stop and show… (and a music hall performer) the class has to stop and show a still moment from that act. For example: Stop and show the tightrope walker balanced on the high wire. Teachers may need to add a little more narration to engage the imagination of the class.

Everyone finds a space and when they are still, the game begins. These are some ideas for performers that the class can be asked to ‘stop and show’: • The tightrope walker balanced on the high wire • The fire eater swallowing fire • The incredible, amazing whistler • The singer of operatic songs singing an aria • The escapologist escaping from chains

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PRE-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES Add in acts that have more than one performer: • In pairs show the ventriloquist getting the dummy to do the talking • In pairs show the magician and their assistant, pulling a rabbit out of a hat • In fours show a troupe of acrobats preparing to turn a somersault • The dog trainer whose dog can do amazing tricks • A group of tap dancers performing their routine • A pair of jugglers juggling eggs Teachers can bring one or two of these to life for a moment and to draw attention to the different ways the acts have been interpreted.

AUDIENCE RESPONSES Now, ask the class to get into pairs. Ask them to imagine that they are members of the audience who have just been to the music hall and seen all the different acts. They are on the way home and talking about what they’ve seen and the performers who really impressed them.

Teachers can use detail from the ‘stop and show’ moments as illustrations: Maybe they have both loved a particular act, maybe they disagree about who was the best, maybe there’s someone they want to make sure they see again, maybe there was a moment when they thought what was happening was impossible or when they thought something would go wrong.

• On a count down from five, ask the pairs to have the conversation about what they have seen. Stop the improvisation after no more than a minute.

Tell the class that you are going to replay some of the conversations so that the class can hear what others were saying about the performance.

• Explain to the class that you will walk round the room and when you stop next to a pair it will be as if you hand is a microphone. When you hold your open hand over their heads they can have their conversation about what they have seen at the music hall. When you close your hand and move on, they stop.

Use what has been created in the ‘stop and show’ and the audience improvisation to reflect on what an audience wants from an evening’s entertainment at the music hall. Remind the class that, at a time when popularity was mostly spread by word of mouth, what audiences said about an act was really important.

Everyone wanted to become so popular they were top of the bill and once there to stay ‘top of the bill’.

• ‘Top of the bill’ is a colloquialism that comes from the period of the music hall. Posters of the time showed the names of the acts in order of popularity – big names, like Vesta Tilley – were at the top of the play bill with less well known acts or one who had lost favour with the public were in smaller letters towards the bottom of the list of acts.

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PRE-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

2. CREATING MUSIC HALL ACTS INTRODUCTION In this activity the class works in small groups to create a music hall act that are top of the bill performers and to create a freeze frame image of the part of their act that always gets the attention of the audience. This work will be developed in the activities that follow. They will also create a stage name for their music hall act, using the example of how Vesta Tilley devised her stage name through a playful exploration of language.

TIME 50 minutes

ORGANISATION Classroom/hall. Small group work

RESOURCES The list of performers used in Activity 1. At the Music Hall; flip chart/IWB; a box of Swan Vesta matches

STRATEGIES Freeze frame

RUNNING THE ACTIVITY Organise the class into groups of three or four. Explain that they are going to imagine that it is 1900 and they are a music hall act. They have to decide what their act is. The ‘stop and show’ activity will have introduced some types of performance that the class can choose from.

Ask the groups to decide what sort of performers they are and to work out what part of the act always gets the attention of the audience: the moment of skill, expertise, daring or maybe even comic genius that everyone talks about after the show. What makes their act special?

Give the class time to discuss and then to prepare the freeze frame moment they want to show to the rest of the class – the moment that everyone will talk about on the way home.

Share the images the groups have created with the whole class as work in progress that will be developed in a later session.

Ask the groups to make sure that they can remember what they have created because there are two more things to do before they can share their work with the rest of the class.

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PRE-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES NAMING THE ACT Remind the class that every act has to have a name that people will remember. The class will have examples from their own cultural reference points where performers have changed their names to make themselves more memorable.

• Tell the class that Matilda Powles changed her name to Vesta Tilley when she became a music hall performer. She got the name Vesta from a box of matches and Tilley is the short form of Matilda.

Swan Vestas still exist and it would be helpful to have a box to show the class.

• Share some of the examples of familiar brand names and household products that you have used to create music hall stage names. For example: Jimmy Vim and the Cheerios - comedy acrobats; The Bold Brothers - amazing escapologists; Sally Burger and the Chipstix Sisters – song and dance act.

Start by collecting as many names of household products, brand names or foods that the class, working in pairs, can list in two minutes. Write these up on the IWB. Model how you can experiment and combine a real name with a brand name from the list to create a name that sounds right for a particular sort of act. Each group is going to create a name for their act.

• The name they create has to have a combination of a real name and household product or foodstuff which sound right for the act they have invented.

• The act has to have a ‘strapline’ that says something more about the act to draw the audience in.

For example: Jimmy Vim and the Cheerios - comedy acrobats. Falling over has never been so funny!

Ask the class to work in their groups to create a name for their top of the bill music hall act.

• This is meant to be a playful activity with the class being as inventive with language as possible.

Challenge the groups to create more than one.

• The names that have been created can be used to make a poster for several acts in the style of a music hall playbill. This will allow the class to experiment on the computer with font, layout and the ‘strap line’ that accompanies each act.

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PRE-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

3. PUBLICITY POSTCARDS INTRODUCTION

In this activity the class create the postcards that their act uses as publicity. It is an opportunity to discuss the different ways people communicated with each other before social media and even telephones. The work also provides an opportunity to develop art techniques.

TIME 50 minutes

ORGANISATION Classroom space. Individual work

RESOURCES A5 card; 3B pencils; black pens; charcoal

RUNNING THE ACTIVITY Tell the class that performers came from all over the country to perform in London music halls. They went on tour to other parts of the country too and they were away from their families and friends for long periods of time.

• There are connections to be made to contemporary entertainment and the extended tours that bands, comedians and theatre companies make. Ask the class to think about how 21st Century entertainers would stay in touch with their families and friends and discuss how different it would have been in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

• One of the ways that people stayed in touch at that time was by postcard. Music hall stars had postcards made showing them in their music hall costumes.

• The image of Vesta Tilley on the poster for Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant is taken from a postcard of her dressed up for her music hall act. There are other examples of postcards on the Victoria and Albert Museum’s website: www.vam.ac.uk/page/m/music-hall Ask the class to create a postcard that their act uses for publicity that has a ‘photograph’ of the performers, the name of the act and the strap line.

• The activity provides an opportunity to look at black and white photography of the period and to use art materials and techniques that will capture that.

• The writing in role composed late in Activity 7 can be written on these postcards.

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PRE-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

4. PRESENTING! CREATING THE COMPERE INTRODUCTION In this activity the class is introduced to the role of the compere who introduces the music hall acts. Using an extract of script from the play, the class rehearses a fluent reading of the compere’s introduction to the acts they have created. It is an opportunity to develop expressive reading within a meaningful context. This work links to Activity 5: A Night at the Music Hall.

TIME 30 minutes

ORGANISATION Classroom space. Pairs that are from the same music hall act

RESOURCES Copies of the compere’s script and music hall names (RESOURCE 1), a copy on the IWB

STRATEGIES Expressive reading, learning by heart

RUNNING THE ACTIVITY Explain to the class that every music hall had a compere or master of ceremonies whose job was to introduce each act.

• Music halls were noisy, sociable places where people often sat around tables and ate and drank so the compere had to really make sure they were heard and that people stopped to watch the act.

• Comperes had a special way of announcing the acts that made people pay attention.

• Display the extract from the script on the IWB: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to … (add the name of a music hall) Please put your hands together to welcome our next extraordinary act.

Presenting... (add the name of the act and its strap line).

Read the compere’s speech out aloud, modelling how to add the name of a music hall and the name of the act. Then work with the class to experiment with ways of reading that they think will make the audience want to stop what they are doing and watch the act. How does the compere command attention and make the next act sound exciting?

• The colloquial phrase ‘put your hands together’ may be an unfamiliar one for many children and may need to be the focus of discussion.

Give copies of the script (RESOURCE 1) to each group so that they can experiment with ways of reading. The speech could be said by one or two people who share the lines.

• The group will need to add the name of the act they have created in preparation for sharing their work with the rest of the class.

• Each group will also need a list of the music halls to choose from. Their choice can be added to the compere’s speech.

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PRE-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES •

Emphasise the importance of the compere’s introduction and encourage the class to learn to say the lines without reading the paper. The presence of the compere is what ‘sells’ the act to the audience.

Share the different ways the groups have brought the text alive and discuss the ways it would make the audience want to listen.

• Make sure the class know that they can pick up tips from each other that they could use. Tone of voice, pacing and pausing, gesture, stance, for example, will all have an impact on the compere’s effectiveness.

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PRE-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

5: A NIGHT AT THE MUSIC HALL INTRODUCTION

In this activity the groups create a night at the music hall with the compere presenting the acts that have been created. The groups have prepared freeze frame moments that capture the part of the act that always gets the audience’s attention in Activity 1 and the compere’s speech has been rehearsed in Activity 4.

TIME 30 minutes

ORGANISATION Hall or a classroom with the desks moved to create a space. Group and whole class work

RESOURCES The compere’s script (RESOURCE 1)

STRATEGIES Freeze frame, rehearsed speech, improvisation

RUNNING THE ACTIVITY Give the class time to work in their groups, revisiting the image of their act’s most memorable moment.

• The groups will need to revise their image to enable one of the group to take on the role of compere (or if this is not possible rehearse with the compere moving into the image as one of the act).

Ask the groups to rehearse: • The compere announcing their act and the moment when the performers take their places to show the memorable moment. How this happens is up to the group to decide.

Sharing the work. The scenes are going to be watched by the rest of the class. You might wish to set up space where each of the scenes will be presented as if it is music hall.

Explain to the class that what they are going to see are glimpses of the acts in the music halls. These are the performers that everyone talks about on their way home and when they are booked to appear it’s always a full house.

• When each act is presented, you could invite the class to respond in role as the audience, applauding and talking to each other about the act and what they enjoyed.

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PRE-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

6. CAN I ASK YOU SOMETHING? INTRODUCTION Previous activities have created a sense of the music hall and the acts that perform there. In this activity the class draws on what they know to give advice to Harry Ball the Tramp Musician, another music hall act. The class are in role as the music hall performers and the role of Harry Ball is taken by the teacher. The activity introduces Vesta Tilley, Harry’s daughter, who is trying to get him to let her join his act. What advice can the performers give him?

TIME 25 minutes

ORGANISATION Classroom or hall space. Whole class work.

RESOURCES Teachers will need to prepare questions and information for Harry Ball; a scarf or hat to signify the role of Harry; chairs or benches

STRATEGIES Teacher-in-role, Mantle of the Expert

RUNNING THE ACTIVITY As teacher-in-role you are drawing out the ‘performers’ understanding of the challenges as well as the pleasures of working on the music hall circuit.

Gather the class together and explain that in this activity one performer wants to ask the other performers for some advice. None of the performers are top of the bill acts yet – but are working hard to try to get there.

They have all been on the same bill that night.

As you will have seen all the acts you will know how to ask questions that draw on the skills the performers have shown. Any subsequent questions should build on the responses of the group. The in-role conversation that takes place seeds ideas and responses that can be drawn on in the next activities.

• Ask the class where they think the performers would gather to together after a performance.

Would they be backstage, in a café or maybe in the music hall after the audience has left?

• Agree where the meeting will take place and tell the class that you are going to join them in role as a performer called Harry Ball, whose daughter, Matilda, wants to be a music hall entertainer. When you are wearing the hat, or the scarf, you will be in role as Harry.

• Once the class has gathered together join the group as Harry Ball. Explain that your daughter wants to be a music hall artist. She’s really good at singing and dancing and spends time practising.

In fact, she has already joined you on stage as part of your act and the audience loved her.

• Tell the ‘performers’ that you want their help because Matilda won’t take advice from you because you are her father.

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PRE-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES Some questions you might ask in role when exploring and extending ideas around the performers responses to your dilemma: How old were you when you discovered you had a talent?

Is there an ideal age to start in the music hall?

How did you all get to be so good at what you do?

My daughter is very talented, I wonder if it’s all about talent?

What else does it take to become a music hall top of the bill?

How do you find life on the road and staying away from home much?

There are great things about being on stage, aren’t there?

How do you feel on stage with the spot light on you?

I wonder if it’s good for a child to receive all that attention?

What is childhood about?

This can be a difficult life. What do you think?

Audiences can be difficult, can’t they? How can a four year old cope with that?

Draw the discussion to a close, thanking them for their advice and step out of role as Harry.

The things they didn’t say: Ask the class to get into pairs still in role as the performers.

The performers have given Harry all sorts of advice. But they all have views about Harry’s daughter becoming a music hall performer at the age of 4 that they didn’t want to say to him directly. There will be positive and negative opinions.

• •

•

In pairs ask the performers to have the conversation that takes place after Harry has left.

Explain that you are now going to let the whole class overhear some of the conversations that have been taking place. When you hold an open hand over the heads of a pair of performers it is going to act as microphone and the whole class will be able to hear what is being said. When you close your hand the conversation stops, you move on to another pair and open your hand and their conversation begins.

Out of role, discuss the responses of the performers. The class might be able to make connection to contemporary examples of child performers such as Michael Jackson.

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PRE-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

7. HERE’S MY ADVICE WRITING TO VESTA/HARRY INTRODUCTION The previous activities have introduced the class to Vesta Tilley’s father and to some information about the way she started in the music hall. The work in role and the reflective discussion out of role will have given the class the opportunity to think about Vesta Tilley becoming a performer at such a young age. In this activity, the class can choose who they write to: the young Vesta or her father Harry.

TIME 25 minutes

ORGANISATION Classroom space. Individual work

RESOURCES Paper, the postcards created in Activity 3

STRATEGIES Writing in role

RUNNING THE ACTIVITY Explain to the class that they are going to write a postcard. They can choose whether they write to the young Vesta Tilley or to her father Harry Ball.

The letter has to give the advice that Harry or Vesta needs to hear to help them make their decision about the future.

Whichever letter they choose to write, and whatever advice they choose to give, they have to make a convincing argument that they think the reader will listen to.

Ask the class to think about who is going to read the letter: a 4 year old girl who has talent as a performer and is eager to perform in the music hall, or her father who is also a music hall performer and can’t make up his mind whether or not she is too young.

As performers they have lots of experience to draw on and there may be examples of what has happened to them or what they wish they had done that will help Vesta/Harry decide the future.

The letters could be drafted first then written up on the publicity cards the class have made in Activity 3.

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POST-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

POST SHOW ACTIVITIES Sharing experiences of the play, discussing moments that have surprised or intrigued, figuring out with others the moments in the play that have been puzzling or comparing interpretations are all ways in which audiences respond to performance and talking informally about the performance with friends on the way back to school will be the immediate and instinctive response to seeing Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant.

Activities 1, 2 and 3 create opportunities for teachers to deepen young learner’s responses to the theatre performance and for the class to discuss what is memorable for them.

Activity 4 is a sequence of activities that will enable the class to develop some of the action and themes of the play beyond the final scenes and to explore different perspectives on Vesta Tilley’s recruitment campaign.

1: FIVE MOMENTS INTRODUCTION

This activity gives the class the chance to discuss their responses to the play and re-visit and re-imagine significant moments from the performance.

TIME 50 minutes

ORGANISATION Hall space. Small group and whole class work

RESOURCES Paper and pens for caption making

STRATEGIES Still image, reflective discussion

RUNNING THE ACTIVITY Start with a whole class discussion about the visit to the Unicorn and seeing the play. Remind the class that when we see a play or see a film no one remembers everything and that what we do remember is often the parts that have been the most significant for us.

In small groups, ask the class to discuss Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant and agree on 5 moments that the group thinks tells the story of the play. Each group then create 5 still images of those moments to share with the class.

Ask the groups to compose a caption for each of the images. Teachers may like to ask the class to think of an alternative title for the play that their 5 moments present.

When each group shares their work with the whole class, take time to discuss the different interpretations that have been presented. This reflective discussion is central to widening the whole class’s response to the play and to the themes it contains.

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POST-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

2. WHAT MADE THE PLAY MEMORABLE FOR YOU? INTRODUCTION

This activity creates opportunities to deepen young learner’s responses to theatre performance through more structured talk about how the different aspects of theatre contribute to the experience of watching the play.

It builds on Activity 1.

TIME 20 minutes

ORGANISATION Classroom space. Pair and whole class work

STRATEGIES Critical reflection

RUNNING THE ACTIVITY Organise the class into ‘talk partners’.

In their pairs, ask the class to discuss their personal responses to the play – their memorable moments, their likes and dislikes, and any things that puzzled them.

Draw the class together into a circle and share the memorable moments with the whole group. Ask each person to say what it was about the moment that made it memorable. This might include not only the way it was presented on stage but the way it made them feel or the things it made them think.

It is likely that the moments that are mentioned will include references to action, characters’ performance but there will also be references to other aspects of theatre: set; lighting; music; sound; props and costume etc.

The contributions will bring together a rich detailed description of the performance. When the class has shared their responses, teachers can draw together the way in which all the elements of theatre contribute to the whole experience.

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POST-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

3. THE RECRUITMENT CAMPAIGN INTRODUCTION

When the First World War broke out in 1914, the government appealed for volunteers to join the armed forces. In August 1914, 100,000 men joined up, by September there were 750,000 volunteers and byJanuary 1915 over 1,000,000 men had enlisted, including many under aged boys. But by 1915 the number of volunteers was falling fast and, by 1916, the government passed the Military Services Act that brought in conscription for men between 19 and 45.

The music halls were used in the volunteer recruitment campaign for soldiers in the early years of the First World War and Vesta Tilley was particularly successful in encouraging young men to enlist. Although Vesta Tilley was known as Britain’s Best Recruitment Sergeant her success was not solely due to her ability to raise volunteers during her stage act. There were also appeals in the newspapers and a widespread propaganda poster campaign that would have influenced the men’s decision to join up as part of Vesta Tilley’s act. This activity explores some of the other ways young men were encouraged to join up in the early years of the war.

TIME 40 minutes

ORGANISATION Classroom space, small group work

RESOURCES WWI recruitment posters from www.iwm.org.uk

STRATEGIES Discussion; still image; thought tracking; teacher narration; writing in role

RUNNING THE ACTIVITY Download a range of recruitment posters for the First Word War. The Imperial War Museum has a set that give a sense of the different approaches that the Government adopted including posters designed for recruiting in Canada and India. Choose a set to print out that people might have seen in the places around where Vesta Tilley might be performing.

• Start with looking at a selection of posters on the IWB as a whole class, focusing on the different ways in which they have set out to persuade men to join up.

• Discuss with the class where people might have seen these posters - shops, railway stations etc.

• Divide the class into groups of 2 - 3 and give each group a copy of a poster.

• Explain that each group will be asked to work in role to create a moment when the poster’s message made an impact on them.

• Ask the groups to begin by looking at the poster - what message does it set out to convey? Who is it directed at? How do the colours, the image and the words work together to create an impact on the people who will see it? Where do they think the poster might have been displayed?

• Share the discussion with the whole group

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POST-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES • • • •

• • • •

Return to the small groups.

Explain that they are now going to imagine that it is 1914 and there are posters and recruitment campaigns to get young men to join up to fight in the war.

Remind the class that at this point no one knows that the war will last for 4 years nor has anyone heard reports of what it is like at the front.

Ask each group to imagine that they are people who see one of the posters. They can be young or old, men or women. Who are they? Where do they see the poster? Why do they take time to read it? What impact does it have on them? Create this as a still image.

When the groups have created their images. Look at each of these in turn.

Thought tracking will enable the class to hear what is going through the minds of the people at this moment.

Reflect on the responses the class has created and the range of feeling and intentions the thought have revealed.

Ask the class to write in role as the character they have created. They can: write a letter to someone close to them to explain how they felt and what they thought about the recruitment drive; write a diary entry where they are pouring out their concerns about the decision they have just made; write a letter to the local newspaper to encourage others to make the decision to join up.

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POST-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

4: ALGY AND VESTA EXTENDED SEQUENCE INTRODUCTION Algy’s mother brought him to the music hall to see Vesta Tilley perform and he became a fan. It is through Algy’s journey from a young fan of Vesta Tilley, to his enlistment as a soldier during her recruitment appeal and his death in the trenches that creates the poignant juxtaposition between Vesta’s perception of the war and his experience of it. Algy became a soldier in what was called ‘Vesta Tilley’s Platoon’, made up of the young men who joined up at one of her music hall recruitment performances.

Activity 4 is a sequence of five linked activities exploring the gap between Vesta Tilley’s recruitment campaign and the realities of WWI of which she knew very little.

PART 1: VESTA TILLEY’S PLATOON TIME 40 minutes

ORGANISATION Classroom space, whole class and small group work

RESOURCES WWI recruitment posters from www.iwm.org.uk, newspaper headlines (RESOURCE 2)

STRATEGIES Discussion, still image

RUNNING THE ACTIVITY Start by discussing with the class the scenes in the play where Vesta encourages men, including Algy, to join the army to fight in the First World War. The class may need some historical detail about the way soldiers were recruited for WWI. Vesta Tilley was known as Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant and, encouraged by her, many men, some of whom would have been under age, volunteered to join the army during her performances. By 1916 the Government had passed the Military Service Act and men between 19 and 45 were conscripted.

Teachers may want to look at WWI recruitment posters with the class to support this discussion if they have not done Activity 3.

Explain to the class that they are going to imagine the photographs that go with newspaper headlines (RESOURCE 2) about Vesta Tilley’s success in recruiting me for the army. Share one of the headlines from the resource pack with the class and imagine the photograph that might go with it. How will they show who Vesta Tilley is amongst all the new recruits?

Divide the class into groups of 4-5. Give each group a headline and ask them to create the photograph. Each photograph has to include Vesta Tilley as well as the soldiers and, as she used to appear in her music hall act dressed as a soldier, they will have to consider how to represent her very carefully.

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POST-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES Look at each of the still images and discuss how each group has made sure that one of the figures is Vesta Tilley.

These are no longer ordinary men: they are soldiers off to serve their country. What attitudes to being a soldier do the images show in the faces of the men and in the way they are standing or sitting?

Remind the class that at this point no one knew how long the war would go on for. Nor did anyone know the conditions the men would be fighting in or how many would die on the battlefields of Belgium and France.

In the early years of WWI people used to say ‘it’ll be over by Christmas’.

PART 2: THE LETTERS FROM ALGY TIME 50 minutes

ORGANISATION Hall space, whole class, small group, pair and individual work

RESOURCES Letter from Algy, photographs of the conditions in the trenches (online image search for ‘writing in the trenches WWI’) , writing paper, small brown envelopes

STRATEGIES Still image; teacher narration; improvisation; writing in role

RUNNING THE ACTIVITY Vesta Tilley gets sent letters from the trenches. One of them is from Algy, a young man who used to come to see her perform at the music halls. The letter is the one from the play.

Dear Miss Tilley, I hope all’s well with you. Me and the lads are a long way from Victoria Station now, out here in the trenches, but we’d love to see you again. Is there any way you could come out here and cheer us up, sing us a song? Yours, Algy.

•

• •

• • •

Start by looking at the photographs of life in the trenches with the class. What details do they notice? What sort of conditions are the men living in? Would Vesta Tilley have known what it was like?

Read the letter from Algy to the class and remind them, that as they will recall from the play, Vesta never went to visit the troops.

Ask the class to work in groups and to recreate the images that they made as Vesta Tilley’s Platoon.

They had their picture in the paper with Vesta Tilley when they got their brand new uniforms and kit. Now they are in the trenches.

Ask the class to find a way of transforming their Vesta Tilley’s Platoon image to one of the men now in the trenches.

Share these with the class and discuss the way in which the men have altered.

Ask the class to work in pairs: One in each pair is Algy who always says that he knows Miss Tilley personally the other is a soldier who is trying to persuade Algy to write again. Algy wrote months ago and there has been no response from her. What do they want to say to her now? Do they still want her to come to entertain the troops?

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POST-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES •

• • • •

How do they feel about that night at the music hall when they signed up to join the army? What are they going to tell her about life in the trenches? What sort of arguments and tensions might arise in the cramped conditions in which the soldiers have to live?

Ask the groups to improvise what happens between the soldiers.

Watch each of the scenes and discuss the different responses the soldiers have to Vesta Tilley and their decision to volunteer.

Ask everyone to write the letter to Vesta Tilley that Algy then sends.

Ask the class to put their letter in small brown envelope and to address it to Vesta Tilley.

PART 3: VESTA OPENS A LETTER TIME 20 minutes

ORGANISATION Hall space, whole class work

RESOURCES The letter from Algy’s mother in a white envelope; the brown envelopes; a chair

STRATEGIES Teacher narration; still moment; thought tracking

RUNNING THE ACTIVITY Place all the letters in the brown envelopes in the centre of the circle.

• Ask the class to form a circle and tell them that Vesta Tilley receives lots of letters from soldiers but she rarely opens any of them. She is too busy with her performances and recruiting soldiers for the army.

• Vesta Tilley has never seen the trenches, never seen what it was like on the battle field. The class will remember from the play she made a film about the war that she said was realistic.

• Tell the class that one day a letter arrives in a plain white envelope and as you do add the white envelope to the pile of brown ones.

• Ask the class why they think this is the envelope that Vesta Tilley chooses to open.

• Open the white envelope and read the letter: Dear Miss Tilley, you don’t know me but I have been coming to your shows for a long, long time. I used to bring my son. He fell in love with you the first time he heard you sing your song Algy. That was his name though he wasn’t anything like the boy in your song. My Algy became a soldier at one of your concerts. I am writing to tell you that my Algy’s dead. A shell hit his trench. He had no chance.

•

•

Set a chair in the middle of the circle and ask for a volunteer to sit on it and to take on the role of Vesta Tilley at the moment after she has read the letter. Is she still holding it? How might she be sitting?

Remind the class of the reasons they thought she would have for choosing the white envelope.

Ask them to move into the circle and to stand next to the figure of Vesta Tilley when they have imagined what is going through her mind at this moment and to voice these thoughts.

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POST-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES PART 4: WHAT ALGY SAW – DID YOU KNOW IT WOULD BE LIKE THIS VESTA? TIME 50 minutes

ORGANISATION Classroom and hall space, whole class and small group work

RESOURCES Photographs that show the reality of WWI (online image search); Elgar’s Elegy for strings Opus 58

STRATEGIES Discussion; slow motion transitions; underscoring

RUNNING THE ACTIVITY Tell the class that they are going to see some of the things that Algy and the other soldiers in the Vesta Tilley Platoon saw in the trenches. Remind them about what they have already explored and what they know about Vesta Tilley’s responses to the letters.

• Show the class images of WWI battlefields. Talk about what they find memorable about each image. In Part 2 the class looked at photographs of the conditions the soldiers lived in. These photographs will show the destruction that the soldiers witnessed.

• Ask the class to consider the sounds and the atmosphere of the setting as well as the thoughts and feelings of the soldiers in response to the events they witnessed.

• Organise the class into groups of 3 or 4 and ask them to create two still images. One is a recreation of the image from the front page of the newspaper that the class made in the first activity, the second is an image from the trenches based on responses to the photographs.

• Ask the groups to find a way of changing from the newspaper image to the image from the trenches in slow motion – starting in stillness, then transforming in slow motion into the new image, then ending in stillness.

• Introduce the class to the music that will be played as they show their transforming images, Elgar’s Elegy for Strings, so that the class gets a sense of the tone of the piece they are creating.

• Share each of these with the class with Elgar’s Elegy for Strings playing.

• Teachers may wish to develop these pieces further by having Vesta Tilley present as an onlooker to the events and including her responses in the slow motion transition.

• When the images are being viewed ask the class to think about Vesta Tilley. Ask the class to talk in pairs as they look and to consider these questions: What impact do they think these might have had on her?

Why might knowing what was happening in the trenches make her carry on with her recruitment campaign to get men to join the army?

Why might they make her have doubts about using her act to recruit men into the army to fight in this war?

• It is important that the class is encouraged to think about the questions from the different perspectives. There is no one answer or one answer that is more ‘right’ than the other. This work draws on Activity 3: The Recruitment Campaign.

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POST-SHOW CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES PART 5: ONE LAST RECRUITMENT VESTA TIME 50 minutes

ORGANISATION Hall and classroom space, small group and whole class work

RESOURCES Experience and understanding from previous work

STRATEGIES Conscience alley; writing in role

RUNNING THE ACTIVITY Explain to the class that they are going to be imagining that it is 1915, by the end of the year all men between 19 and 41 will be conscripted into the army. But Vesta Tilley has been asked to do one last recruitment performance to get more men to volunteer before the law is changed. The country needs more troops. If the class has done any work on the history of the First World War they can use their historical understanding to inform this activity. They will also need to be reminded about the work they have done as part of Activity 3: The Recruitment Campaign.

• Explain that they are going to have to imagine that Vesta Tilley knows what men are experiencing in the trenches and the immense loss of lives of young soldiers. But she no longer knows what to think or what to do.

• Divide the class in to groups of 3. They are all going to be in role as young soldiers who have lost their lives in the trenches. Ask half of the groups to think of 4 reasons why Vesta should use her performance to encourage more men to join the army. Ask the other half to think of 4 reasons why she should not ask any more men to join up.

• Remind the group about the importance of using both logical and emotional approaches.

• Explain they are going to be the conflicting voices of men who Vesta Tilley has recruited and who have died in battle. Vesta Tilley hears them as as she walks down the corridor of the music hall where she has been asked to perform. Ask the groups to rehearse what they are going to say to Vesta - a different line from each member of the group.

• Ask the groups to form two lines to make a corridor that leads to the stage in the music hall. All the ghost voices that want her to stop recruiting on one side, all the ghost voices that want her to continue recruiting on the other.

• Rehearse the ghost voice corridor – like the ghosts in the play these are the ordinary voices of the men who have died in the trenches not cartoon spooky voices!

• Ask for a volunteer to be Vesta Tilley and ask them to walk down the corridor and listen to the voices.

• Several ‘Vestas’ can walk down the corridor and teachers can develop the way the voices are speaking their lines and discuss the impact it has on those who play the role of Vesta.

• Gather the class into a circle and have a whole class discussion about Vesta Tilley and the way she used her act to recruit volunteers; what she did and didn’t know about the war and what she chose to ignore.

• Remind the class of the whole story of her life: her early start in the music hall, her efforts to always be the best, the way the public loved her performances; the role she played in recruiting for the army. What would the class want to say to her?

• Ask the class to write a letter to Vesta Tilley. They could write as themselves; as member of the government; as a parent of one of the soldiers. What would they say? What might they ask?

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RESOURCE ONE

SCRIPT AND MUSIC HALL NAMES FOR PRE-SHOW ACTIVITY 4 Choose a music hall name: Admiral Keppel Music Hall, Chelsea Trocadero Music Hall, Piccadilly Salmon & Ball Music Hall, Bethnal Green North Pole Music Hall, Greenwich White Lion Music Hall, Hackney Wick King Of Prussia Music Hall, Hoxton Black Dog Music Hall, Lambeth Cat and Shoulder Music Hall, Hackney Bird Cage Music Hall, Bethnal Green Stepney Palace of Varieties, Stepney Dolphin Music Hall, Hackney White Raven Music Hall, Whitechapel

The compere’s speech Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Welcome to …….………… (music hall name) Please put your hands togetherto welcome our next extraordinary act …....... (name of act)

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RESOURCE TWO

NEWSPAPER HEADLINES FOR POST-SHOW ACTIVITY 4

Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant Signs Up More Men

Music Hall Star Welcomes New Recruits

My Men Are Ready To Fight - Says Britain’s Best Recruiting Sergeant

Vesta Tilley’s Platoon Ready for Battle

The Music Hall Recruits March Off To War

Vesta Tilley Wishes Her Men Good Luck!

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RESOURCE THREE

Recruitment posters from WWI Page 35

BRITAIN’S BEST RECRUITING SERGEANT A Unicorn Production

CREATIVE TEAM Written by Joy Wilkinson Directed by Lee Lyford Resource pack written by Susanna Steele Developed with Catherine Greenwood, Ella Macfadyen and pupils and staff and Eleanor Palmer Primary School