Maggot Moon - The Year 7 Project (Part One)

THE YEAR 7 PROJECT

MAGGOT MOON

RESOURCE PACK & SCHEME OF LEARNING

MAGGOT MOON – THE YEAR 7 PROJECT

MAGGOT MOON Based on the novel by Sally Gardner Adapted for the stage by Jemma Kennedy Directed by Jesse Jones

FROM THU 26 SEP - SUN 27 OCT 2019 FOR PUPILS IN SCHOOL YEARS 6 - 9 “THE BEST THING WE HAVE IS OUR IMAGINATION...”

In a sinister 1950s Britain, the country is under the rule of the violent and oppressive Motherland.

Dark government forces are at work. Spies and surveillance are everywhere, and the truth is difficult to discern.

Meet our hero, Standish Treadwell. He is fifteen, he lives with his grandpa, and although his teachers are part of the regime, together he and grandpa are safe. But then one day, Standish’s best friend disappears. And suddenly all their lives are in terrible danger.

Can Standish be the hero who will save them all? Live drawing, cameras and projection bring Sally Gardner’s dazzlingly original, award-winning novel to life, in this story about protecting the ones you love and having the courage to stand up for what you believe.

Duration: Approx 1 hr

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MAGGOT MOON – THE YEAR 7 PROJECT

CONTENTS

5 8 11 14 16 4

INTRODUCTION ABOUT THE PLAY INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR, SALLY GARDNER INTERVIEW WITH PLAYWRIGHT, JEMMA KENNEDY INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR, JESSE JONES OVERVIEW OF THE SCHEME OF LEARNING

Full lesson plans will be made available to teachers taking part in the Secondary CPD session on Wednesday 18th September 2019, from 4.30 to 7pm.

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MAGGOT MOON – THE YEAR 7 PROJECT

INTRODUCTION – THE YEAR 7 PROJECT The idea for a project designed specifically for students in their first year of secondary school came about after feedback from Drama teachers around the benefits of bringing a whole year group to see a production and the potential that this shared experience has for exploration back at school.

The Year 7 Project consists of a six-week scheme of learning which explores the themes and ideas in the play Maggot Moon, while also linking to students’ experience of transitioning from primary to secondary school. As part of the project, there is a teacher CPD training session on Wednesday 18th September, 4.30-7pm. This session will give teachers the opportunity to practically explore the scheme of learning, before leading it with students. Participating schools must be able to commit to sending at least one teacher to this session.

Starting Year 7 is an exciting and challenging time, and the scheme aims to use the shared experience of a theatre visit to address some of the priorities schools have with students in their first year of secondary school; forming positive relationships with peers, adapting to the increased responsibility and the importance of building confidence, resilience, a sense of self and autonomy in the context of a larger school community.

The scheme of learning is designed to be useful to Drama teachers and accessible to non-Drama specialists who want to run the Year 7 Project as part of their English or PSHE curriculum. The activities in each session aim to engage students with the content of the production and create a meaningful context for learning, allowing them to explore their own thoughts and feelings in relation to the play and share these with their peers. Activities will promote collaborative working, asking students to work together to create their own drama and theatre responses to the stimuli, building in the key Drama skills and conventions used at Key Stage 3.

The six session plans are designed to be run as a complete scheme of learning. The sessions will build sequentially, but be flexible enough for teachers to adapt to their needs.

THE SCHEME OF LEARNING AIMS TO: • • • • •

Increase students’ confidence, self-expression and self-esteem.

Build positive relationships between peers through creative group work and collaboration.

Develop emotional empathy and the ability to think and interpret from multiple perspectives.

Develop core drama skills.

Develop literacy and communication skills and provide meaningful opportunities for speaking, listening and reflection.

• Promote inclusive practice and allow students to explore difference in a safe and supportive context.

• Encourage imaginative engagement and provide space for students’ own creative responses.

• Develop students’ capacity to engage with the play in an active, self-reflective way and become confident and articulate theatregoers.

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MAGGOT MOON – THE YEAR 7 PROJECT

ABOUT THE PLAY The Unicorn production of Maggot Moon is an adaptation of Sally Gardner’s 2012 novel. The play is set in the Motherland, a dystopian version of 1950s Britain. Our unlikely hero, Standish, uncovers a government plot to win the space race by staging a moon landing near his home. Standish goes on an adventure to expose the lie, bring down the government and rescue his best friend Hector.

The story will be told through first-person narration. Standish speaks directly to the audience throughout, describing his adventure to us and taking us on the journey with him.

Another performer will support the storytelling by creating live animation onstage. These visuals build elements of the story and allow us to experience the way Standish sees the world. The language of the production will bring to life Standish’s strengths as a communicator.

‘Using animation, we are playing with the idea of the stark difference between the ‘surveillance world’ of the play and the world of Standish’s drawings and doodles. Those doodles have become an extension of his imagination. They are how he remembers and sees the world, and act as a form of escapism and a crutch in a world he cannot always navigate.’ Jesse Jones, director The set and staging will be minimalist. The dark and dangerous world of the story will be brought to life with cameras that monitor Standish’s journey. The ominous surveillance footage will contrast with the more imaginative and playful world of Standish’s doodles and drawings.

There’s a story I once heard about a giant and a boy about my age, and a stone. Just one small stone shot from a catapult that hit the giant between the eyes. He dropped down dead, that giant did.

All I need to defeat the Motherland is a single stone. And that stone-thrower will be me.

The play begins with Standish looking back on the events of the story.

Can’t read, can’t write. Standish Treadwell isn’t bright.

Standish takes us back in time to a typical school day in the Motherland where he is bullied by students and teachers. His only friend Hector has gone missing.

Standish is caned by his teacher, Mr Gunnell, for struggling to read in class and summoned to see the headmaster. In the headmaster’s office a sinister man dressed in a black leather coat is waiting to speak to Standish. He says that today is a very important day for the Motherland as a rocket to the moon is being launched for the very first time. He then interrogates Standish, asking whether he has ever seen anything in the field behind his house.

Standish takes us further back in time to explain how he met Hector and the events leading up to his disappearance. He tells us about how the Motherland is split into zones, and that he and his grandad live in Zone 7, where outcasts and the ‘impure’ are placed. There are walls which prevent them from crossing into other zones. What the authorities don’t know is that Standish’s parents dug a tunnel from the cellar below their house, under the wall and into a field beyond. His parents then went missing, but the secret tunnel remains.

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MAGGOT MOON – THE YEAR 7 PROJECT One day, Standish secretly goes through the tunnel to look for food and finds some wild strawberries.

When he returns home he discovers that he and his grandad have new neighbours: the Lush family.

Standish quickly becomes best friends with their son, Hector, even though they are from very different backgrounds; the Lushes were moved from Zone 1, an area where the elite of the Motherland live.

A few weeks later, while the friends are playing football together, Standish kicks a red ball over the wall into the prohibited area. Hector volunteers to go through the tunnel to retrieve the ball, but Standish tells him that it is too dangerous and not to go.

The boys’ friendship grows and they spend all their time together creating their own imaginary space adventure; inspired by the Motherland’s mission to the moon, they build a rocket in their attic. Then one evening, the red ball reappears, and Standish knows that Hector must have been through the tunnel. When he awakes the next morning he discovers that the Lush family has disappeared.

Standish returns to the tunnel to find answers and finds an astronaut hiding there. Standish and his grandad hide this ‘moon man’ in their basement. They are shocked to discover that he has had his tongue cut out for asking too many questions. However, the moon man explains his story by drawing pictures which show the mission to the moon is actually fake, and is being staged on the other side of the Zone wall.

Back at school, Standish is cornered by Hans Fielder, a member of the Motherland Youth, a group which spies on the population. Hans wants to know why the leather-coat man is interested in him, but Standish refuses to answer, and so Hans begins to beat him. When teacher Mr Gunnell sees what’s happening, he doesn’t stop the beating but instead joins in. Standish fights back and humiliates Mr Gunnell, landing a punch to his face. Humiliated, Mr Gunnell turns his anger on the weakest child in the class and kills him.

Standish is expelled for the incident with Mr Gunnell and his every move is monitored. The house is searched by government troops but they manage to keep the moon man hidden. The leather-coat man arrives and questions Standish. He tells him that he can see Hector again if he divulges the location of the moon man. But over the course of the interrogation, Standish realises that the leathercoat man is lying and that Hector and his family are actually imprisoned on the other side of the wall.

Standish comes up with a plan to rescue Hector and reveal the moon landing as a hoax. He knows this will be very dangerous and will probably mean sacrificing his own life, but he is prepared to do it.

Standish makes his way through the tunnel to the other side of the wall. He allows himself to be captured by the guards and is taken to where the fake moon landings will be staged. He meets other children who are being forced to work as part of the crew. Standish is also put to work on the set, as they prepare for the live broadcast the next morning.

That night Standish is taken to a cell, and there discovers Hector, who is close to death. They comfort each other with dreams of escape and stories of their friendship. Standish wakes the next morning to see Hector being taken away.

I know what Hector is doing. He is escaping from here as fast as he can. I don’t blame him. I just wish he’d waited for me. If this is the way the world spins I don’t want to stay either.

The next morning, Standish is taken to the film set and prepares to put his plan into action. As the live broadcast begins, Standish runs in front of the camera holding a sign that reads ‘HOAX’. He has exposed the moon landing as a lie, which will bring down the government. Chaos and gunfire break Page 6

MAGGOT MOON – THE YEAR 7 PROJECT out on set. With the help of Mr Lush, Standish tries to escape but is shot.

As Standish lies cradled in the arms of Mr Lush, Hector appears and takes Standish’s hand. He leads him to a car and they drive away, into a world of Technicolour light.

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MAGGOT MOON – THE YEAR 7 PROJECT

MAKING THE PLAY

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR SALLY GARDNER WHY DID YOU AGREE TO LETTING MAGGOT MOON BE ADAPTED FOR THE STAGE? I worked in the theatre, for about 20 years, as a set and costume designer. The last play I did was with Alan Ayckbourn at the National Theatre called ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore.

I thought it would be interesting to see how the book would be interpreted for the theatre.

WHERE DID THE ORIGINAL IDEA FOR THE BOOK COME FROM? I was on a diet where I wasn’t allowed to eat anything but astronaut food, I was in a foul mood and my children were round having a meal and said, ‘Oh go away Mum, you’re unbearable.’

I sat at my computer and started with ‘What if . . ’ and I thought, that’s interesting.

I wrote the beginning very quickly, but then I couldn’t go on as I hadn’t got a name for my main character. Names are very important to me. Then a friend came back from a walking holiday and said he’d been to a place called Standish Treadwell. I thought, that’s the name I’ve been looking for, and after that it just flew.

IT ‘FLEW’ MORE THAN OTHER BOOKS YOU’VE WRITTEN? Oh yes, I wrote it in about six weeks. Because in a funny kind of way Standish was me. I was so sick of people talking about dyslexia as if it was about bad spelling. So I wanted to show a visual and emotional intelligence that is beyond words.

THE PLAY WILL WORK WITH THAT; THE VISUAL ELEMENT OF THE PRODUCTION WILL HELP US TO SEE STANDISH’S DIFFERENT WAY OF PROCESSING THE WORLD. Yes, it is a very different way of processing the world and I think the way that Standish sees things is incredibly interesting. Unfortunately, the way he sees things isn’t on any curriculum.

YOU DON’T EXPLICITLY SAY HE’S DYSLEXIC IN THE BOOK. I didn’t feel there’s any need to. Anyone who is dyslexic would know immediately that he was. I think people are too fond of labels and then they think, I know all about that. But no, you don’t. I didn’t want to give Standish a label. And anyway, there was no word for dyslexia in the 1950s, it was known as ‘word blindness’ and that doesn’t really describe it at all.

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MAGGOT MOON – THE YEAR 7 PROJECT STANDISH HAS THESE STRENGTHS, GIFTS, OR CAPACITIES THAT OTHER PEOPLE DON’T HAVE. Apart from emotional and visual intelligence, he has an absolute belief in the honest truth and in his friend. And he’s willing to do something that no one does anymore — self-sacrifice. Standish is a young man who is prepared to die for his friends.

THE ENDING OF THE BOOK IS VERY MOVING AS HECTOR AND STANDISH GO TOWARDS AN IMAGE OF THE ‘CROCA-COLA WORLD’. CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT THAT? It was an experience from when I was young. America was a place I wanted to live in; they had Lucille Ball, they had colour television.

I could never read the words Coca-Cola. Like Standish, I was very perplexed by them. I remember seeing the big sign at Piccadilly Circus and thinking it said Croca-Cola. I thought it must be CrocaCola because I’d been told about crocodiles’ teeth dissolving in it.

I had a miserable childhood, and I thought that if I lived in America everything would all be all right.

My image of America was simple — there were enormous cars that were so extraordinary-looking and people could have them in glorious colours. We lived in this grey world that still had pea-soupers.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING IN THE STAGE ADAPTATION? I don’t know. I do remembering reading an article about Daphne du Maurier. When she was asked what she thought about the films of her books, she said she wanted very little to do with them as she had too many books that she wanted to write. She was lucky to have Alfred Hitchcock directing them but that’s by the the by. I agree — a book is a book, a film is a film and a play is a play.

I made a connection with Jesse [Jones, the director] because he is dyslexic and he too has a great visual intelligence.

BUT NOT JUST THOSE WITH DYSLEXIA? It’s a book that has gone around the world and has affected many people. I went to Brazil with it, and I met a man in a book shop and he just burst into tears and gave me a huge hug. He said it was the first time he had read a book with two boys kissing.

It was going to be be included in the national curriculum in Brazil, but I knew it wouldn’t happen.

The church came back and saying, ‘Two boys kiss ...’ I wrote to them and said,‘That’s the least of the problems with this book; there’s a child killed by a school master.’

IT’S SEVEN YEARS SINCE YOU WROTE THE BOOK. HOW DO YOU THINK IT WILL RESONATE FOR PEOPLE NOW? I think it is incredibly relevant, and it’s getting more, not less so. I think we are sleepwalking our way into disaster and I feel as powerless as the people in Germany must have felt before the Second World War. When Michael Gove became Education Secretary, I couldn’t bear what he was about. He has a lot to answer for — for the purgatory and misery that he put dyslexic pupils through. I don’t know why they Page 9

MAGGOT MOON – THE YEAR 7 PROJECT are not allowed to do oral examinations.

I THINK ALL CHILDREN ARE CRAVING MORE CREATIVITY AND IMAGINATIVE WAYS OF EXPLORING THE WORLD. Of course they are. I went to a school, and I was talking about imagination and I said to the class, ‘You all have imagination.’ A boy put his hand up and said, ‘No we don’t, Miss. Only John has imagination, John’s artistic.’ I said, ‘Well, that’s great, but you all have imagination.’ I gave them a menu and told them, ‘This is what you’re going to have for lunch.’ They all put up their hands saying, I want this, I want that. ‘Look,’ I said, ‘you’ve nothing, not even a picture, and yet you’ve all imagined what it is you’d like to eat. That’s imagination.’

It’s really serious what’s happening in schools today. And this idea that we’re going to have a wonderful Britain to export, while we are getting rid of the arts and crushing imagination in our schools — I don’t know what we’re thinking of. It’s very worrying.

YOU’VE SPOKEN BEFORE ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF QUESTIONS. The thing is, the question is king. There is no right answer, there is only the question. Question everything. The minute we stop asking questions, we’re in a dictatorship.

In another school, a little boy stood up and said ‘Miss, we’ve been arguing, my friend and me, about whether Standish dies at the end. Can you tell us?’ And I said ‘No, I can’t,’ and he said ‘What? You wrote it.’ And I said ‘I know I wrote it, but I can’t tell you,’ and he said ‘Oh no, we’re going to be arguing about this until we’re sixty.’

IN THE MOTHERLAND, THE REGIME EXPECTS THE PEOPLE TO ACCEPT THE WORLD AS THEY PRESCRIBE IT. BUT HECTOR AND STANDISH IMAGINE WHAT MIGHT BE OVER THE WALL, OR THROUGH THE TUNNEL, OR IN THE PEOPLE’S PALACE. The Lushes are interesting because you can see them as the enemy, but they aren’t. Mr Lush tried his best and he got sent to Zone 7. When they first appeared in my head, I wasn’t sure about them. I was with Gramps. I thought, maybe you’re right Gramps, maybe they’re like the Greenflies, maybe they shouldn’t be trusted. It was Standish who went up to Hector and said what he said. I thought, that’s interesting, Standish, you think they’re all right. And it developed from there.

There was a publisher who said the story needed a girl and I should change Hector into a girl. I said, ‘Why?’ and he said ‘Well, I think they need to have a kiss.’ I said ‘Yes, and obviously it’s Hector. I’m not changing him into a girl.’

I really hate that thing schoolchildren say — ‘Oh, you’re so gay,’ and I suppose that is my response to it.

Standish puts it really beautifully. ‘I didn’t fall in love with a girl, I didn’t have a chance to fall in love with a girl. There were no girls to fall in love with.’ He fell in love with Hector, and that really says something about what love is. It’s not defined by gender, and I think that’s important.

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MAGGOT MOON – THE YEAR 7 PROJECT

MAKING THE PLAY

INTERVIEW WITH PLAYWRIGHT JEMMA KENNEDY WHY DID YOU WANT TO ADAPT MAGGOT MOON? It was love at first read. I met Jesse and we were both obsessed with the book; it was just so interesting, funny and sad, and the world was so gripping. Jesse had been told it was completely unadaptable which made us want to do it even more. Funnily enough, that never occurred to me because I just thought ‘This world is amazing, this story is amazing.’ It’s so rich, visually and linguistically. It feels like it’s perfect for the stage.

WHAT CHALLENGES DID THE BOOK POSE FOR THE STAGE? The biggest challenge for us was how to catch the linguistic tricks of Standish’s language and his misunderstandings and his dyslexia. We spent a lot of time talking about how we might use sound and music and different dramatic techniques to put that across. But actually, nothing quite worked.

We went around in circles for about a year and then we realised that finding a way to dramatise Standish’s filter was the key. The way he narrates and talks to the reader is unique; that was the thing we wanted to capture the most. It was only when we decided to make it a one-man show that everything opened up and we thought ‘We just have to tell it like it is.’ We did research and development at the Unicorn and then Jesse brought in a fantastic actor, a sound designer and an animator and we just built the play using the book.

It was a very different way of working, like a devising technique. It was making a show, not writing a show in the traditional way. The challenge for writers is that you often have to throw away most of what you write. You keep the stuff that works, but you always end up throwing away what you love the most.

WHY DO YOU THINK THE STORY WILL BE ENGAGING FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES? First and foremost, it’s the character of Standish. He is such a great anti-hero. He is very human and flawed and vulnerable. He’s an outsider. But he’s also supremely gifted in ways that he doesn’t really understand yet. Within his school environment, Standish is seen as the stupid kid, a kind of dunce, and he’s picked on by teachers. Any underdog is always great for a young audience. They have a natural empathy for anyone who’s having a hard time.

Standish has no parents. He’s got a grandad who he loves to bits, but his mum and dad have gone, we don’t know where. He’s quite a modern hero in the sense that he is fighting to find his place in the world where the traditional nuclear family doesn’t really exist. He also has this incredible friendship with Hector, who has gone missing. That’s a wonderful hook to set up at the beginning. It’s something I think a young audience will really understand. Friendships are so vital, especially school friends outside the family. You make your own friendships, you don’t get given them.

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MAGGOT MOON – THE YEAR 7 PROJECT It’s also a cracking adventure story with a great plot. Standish is the unlikely hero, like David in the David and Goliath story. We really root for him, right from the word go.

WHERE IS THE PLAY SET? I don’t think that has to be spelled out. I think this story could travel to any country in the world and make sense. What I love about the book is that you can project your own experience onto the world of the story. It’s set in a state that wants everyone to be the same, and if you’re different they shove you out to the margins of society. They don’t like the weak, they don’t like subversive people, they don’t like anyone who questions their authority. I think a young audience will have a strong understanding of that kind of totalitarianism.

HOW DO YOU THINK A STORY ABOUT THE SPACE RACE IS RELEVANT TO YOUNG AUDIENCES TODAY? We are delighted that this has landed in 2019, which is the 50th anniversary of the first moon landings. One of the things Jesse and I talked a lot about was fake news. The book is, on one level, about a gargantuan piece of fake news created by a nasty government to send a message to the rest of the world that they are more powerful and stronger than anybody else. That’s a very interesting concept for a younger audience, because it dramatizes something that is politically very relevant to them, and does it in the context of its own organic story.

We are always fascinated by space travel and now we are talking about sending people to other planets. It’s never gone away, this notion about conquering space and the great unknown. It’s something that young people’s imaginations can really grasp.

HOW DO YOU THINK YOUNG AUDIENCES WILL RESPOND TO THE DARKER MOMENTS OF THE PLAY? The book was a prize-winning bestseller, written for young readers. The fact that it has been read so widely and loved so much is a very clear indication that it speaks to a young audience. So in a way, the groundwork has been done for us. The darkness and the violence can be challenging and scary. Personally, I don’t think young audiences should necessarily be kept away from that. They love jeopardy and they love darkness - in a controlled environment. And I think they love it when bad people get their comeuppance. A sense of justice is very present in them. We understand that the regime is going to be brought down if Standish succeeds in throwing a stone against Goliath. But there is tragedy in his sacrifice, and that’s a very bittersweet ending.

His sacrifice is sort of inevitable. But there’s a lot of ambiguity about what happens to Standish and Hector. I’ve tried to imagine them walking away together, free and happy. I think some audiences will believe that they die and some won’t. As far as I understand it, readers of the book have the same dilemma. It brings up questions for the audience about what we want for the characters. What’s realistic in the scope of the story? Ultimately the moral code of the book is about doing things for other people rather than putting yourself first.

I think teachers and parents shouldn’t be overly worried about it being too distressing for young audiences, because it’s so overtly theatrical. We are not going to show a teacher killing a child in a three-dimensional sense; we are going to be suggesting it with one actor. I think it’s more powerful that way. We can leave some things to the imagination of the audience.

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MAGGOT MOON – THE YEAR 7 PROJECT Great stories often involve death and sacrifice, and it’s a very powerful thing to have a story about two best friends who sacrifice themselves for a greater good. The gift Sally gives us, at the end of the story, is the sense that Standish and Hector are going to be together forever, which is really beautiful.

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MAGGOT MOON – THE YEAR 7 PROJECT

MAKING THE PLAY

INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR JESSE JONES WHAT WAS IT ABOUT MAGGOT MOON THAT ATTRACTED YOU TO THE PROJECT? The first thing that drew me to it was reading an article by Sally Gardner. It was about her experience of dyslexia and about a character in her book - Maggot Moon - who is very dyslexic. As a dyslexic myself, the article jumped out at me. And then when I read the book, it became so much more than a story about dyslexia. Standish’s story celebrates imagination, creative thought and being inquisitive.

It’s about holding faith in yourself and your ability to be intelligent, even if the people around you are telling you that because you can’t read or write you are worthless. I suppose it’s that kind of underdog or unexpected hero story that really excited me. I wish that I had read the book or had the book read to me when I was young.

The theme of friendship is very strong in the story. Hector is from the educated elite. Standish is a boy who is on the edges of society. These two boys have grown up in two different worlds. Their relationship provides an incredibly powerful, exciting lesson that we as theatre makers and storytellers should be telling.

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT STANDISH’S WORLD, THE MOTHERLAND? Standish lives in a dystopian world, a world of surveillance. Although his world is a dystopia of the past, it speaks to us now.

I feel the Western world is edging towards fascism and a populism that is really quite dangerous. We are seeing fake news, clickbait, articles that are never verified. And the more people read them, the more weight they have, without any kind of fact-checking whatsoever.

That is something young people are dealing with today. They need to be able to work out the world around them. They need to be able to speak truth to power if they think something is wrong, which is something that Standish does in this story. It is a lesson that not everything is what it seems, that the people in power are not necessarily always the best holders of that power.

Standish has a way of finding the truth in what people are saying. Maybe that comes when you find it more difficult to understand the written word. You have to see between the lines of what people are saying. You become an expert in reading people; you can’t consume propaganda if it’s written down.

You see and hear the world slightly differently, which maybe gives you the power to see the lie.

WHAT CHALLENGES DID YOU FACE IN STAGING THE STORY? We started by trying to stretch the story to fit a more theatrical form, but in doing this we missed the idea that Standish should be telling us about the world. We found that when you try and show too much of that world, you can lose the danger of it. Going through that process led us to explore the performance as a kind of enhanced reading of the book, with Standish giving us his own testimony.

We found that Standish talking to and connecting to the audience was the best way of bringing the book to life.

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MAGGOT MOON – THE YEAR 7 PROJECT Standish doodles a lot. He sees things in pictures and uses flowery language to describe things. Using animation, we’re playing with the idea of the stark difference between the ‘surveillance world’ of the play and the world of Standish’s drawings and doodles. Those doodles have become an extension of his imagination. They are how he remembers and sees the world, and act as a form of escapism and a crutch in a world he cannot always navigate.

WHY DO YOU THINK HECTOR AND STANDISH ARE SO INTERESTED IN SPACE TRAVEL? Because of the environment he’s in, Standish is obsessed by the idea of space travel and going to a new place and starting a new world. Does Standish really believe that they are going to lift off into space in the model they have made in the attic? Maybe he does. Or maybe he’s willing to believe. Out of necessity, he has come to believe that you can travel to these places within your imagination, and maybe that’s as good as really going to them. Those are the things he has to hold on to.

Hector is aware of the harsh realities of their world in a way that Standish maybe isn’t. He is spoken to in quite a grown-up way by his dad, who is a scientist. Hector is academic and he knows what is possible, scientifically and in terms of the world of make-believe. Maybe Hector is no longer able to connect to that imaginative place in his brain. It’s Standish’s friendship with Hector that reignites in him that imaginative world of play that he can use as a form of escapism.

THERE ARE SOME DARK MOMENTS IN THE PLAY. HOW DO YOU THINK YOUNG AUDIENCES WILL RESPOND TO THESE? Whenever events get too much for Standish, he takes us into the world of his past with Hector. This world will be presented in a much more light and imaginative way that will provide a sense of relief.

When the narrative becomes frightening, Standish uses these stories as a form of escapism, offering a sense of light and shade within the production for the audience. He is telling us the story, so it will feel like something that has happened to him which he has lived through, rather than something that is an immediate danger to him. He deals with death in his imagination, and I think young people will be able to place themselves within his world in quite a safe way.

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MAGGOT MOON – THE YEAR 7 PROJECT

OVERVIEW

OF THE SCHEME OF LEARNING Six detailed lesson plans will be made available to teachers who attend the Year 7 Project CPD session on Wednesday 18th September, 4.30pm - 7pm. This practical session at the Unicorn will take teachers through these activities, allowing them to experience them for themselves before running them with their students.

The scheme of learning is designed to be useful to Drama teachers and non-Drama specialists who want to run the Year 7 Project as part of their English curriculum. The scheme will utilise key Drama skills and strategies including: group discussion, text work, still image, simple devising, marking the moment, physical theatre, underscoring, ensemble and chorus work, character moulding, teacher in-role and sharing and responding.

The lesson plans will introduce students to extracts of text from the play, providing the opportunity to explore their own personal and collective responses to the play’s characters and themes, and find links to their own life experiences. The scheme of learning links thematically to questions relevant to students in their first term of secondary school. It will provide opportunities for creative and collaborative work exploring themes around friendship, trust and mistrust, what is real and what is fake, standing up for what is right and sacrifice.

The following outline will give an indication of what will be explored in each of the six sessions. This is subject to change as we develop the sessions in more detail.

SESSIONS ONE AND TWO: INTRODUCING STANDISH AND THE MOTHERLAND Students will be introduced to our protagonist Standish Treadwell and will begin to see the dystopian world he lives in through his eyes. Standish is a teenager who struggles with reading and writing, but has a vivid imagination and emotional intelligence.

Work will include ‘scribing’ Standish’s interior thought and feelings; echoing the innovative form of the play, where live drawing and animation will bring Standish’s world to life for the audience.

Improvisation, scene-making and teacher-in-role will be used to explore school life in the Motherland - a repressive regime where rules, discipline and conformity are essential.

SESSIONS THREE AND FOUR: SURVIVING THE MOTHERLAND Students will find out more about the Motherland and how some students are members of the Motherland Youth and inform on others to the authorities. Using text from the play these sessions will allow students to explore and stage the dynamic between Standish and his enemies, Hans Fielder and Eric Owens.

Drama work will focus on the forces that are driving the behaviour of Hans and Eric and the nature of the choices they make. These will be contrasted with the way Standish responds to what is happening in an increasingly repressive regime.

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MAGGOT MOON – THE YEAR 7 PROJECT SESSIONS FIVE AND SIX: STANDISH AND HECTOR The friendship between Standish and Hector is at the heart of this story, and the sacrifice each is prepared to make for their friend, but also in the pursuit of the truth and justice. These sessions will enable students to reflect on their experience of seeing the play and continue to explore the themes of trust and mistrust, friendship and sacrifice, and how we know what is true and what is important in life.

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MAGGOT

MOON

A Unicorn production Based on the novel by Sally Gardner Adapted for the stage by Jemma Kennedy Directed by Jesse Jones Resource pack written by Catherine Greenwood and Nicola Chambers

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