A Creative Collaboration

A Creative Collaboration

Author：Mark Duff / Kalani Fraser

01

The Setting

Extra-curricular programming is an opportunity for our international teachers to share their hidden talents alongside our many vendors. This semester, Mr. Duff teamed up with Ms. Kalani to present a brand-new short English drama based on the famous children’s book ‘The Gruffalo’ by Julia Donaldson.

HD Beijing recognizes the importance of drama and music and is keen to find opportunities for our children to perform drama in English in front of their friends and parents on the main stage. The Gruffalo was an obvious choice for Mr. Duff to choose as inspiration, as it is one of the key texts for Grade 2. This led to the EP becoming a nostalgic reflection of learning for our Grade 2 and Grade 3 learners.

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“A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood. A fox saw the mouse and the mouse looked good.”— Gruffalo 的台词

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The Gruffalo is a wonderful story that begins with a clever little mouse who outwits his big scary enemy. The tasty little mouse needs to make his way through the deep dark woods. How will he do it? By inventing the Gruffalo, a fearsome creature with terrible claws, terrible tusks and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws. It’s a brilliant trick. The little mouse’s self-preservation is a witty scam that delights children time after time.

During each lesson, the children learned to develop their reading and comprehension skills through a routine of script and lyric learning. They began to expand their vocabulary to improve self-expression, improving confidence in speaking and listening and public speaking. More importantly, the children learned to be a critical part of a team, being masters of their parts whilst developing important communication skills.

02

The Problem

Earlier on in the planning, the children in Mr. Duff’s EP realised they had one big problem. They had actors, they had a script, they even had songs, but they had no set or costumes! The children launched a plea for any creative groups of children across HD school who might be able to help them solve this problem. Luckily, Ms. Kalani’s DT afterschool program recognized their ability to help and offered to collaborate with them.

03

The Solution

Project Think is a Design Thinking extension EP that challenges learners to think creatively, collaborate and communicate effectively to solve a real-world problem. This semester, the children started by investigating their own lives to find problems to address. Learners brought in lists of their findings to share, and Ms. Kalani and Ms. Guo brought some of their own. One particular problem was introduced in the form of a video from Mr. Duff, explaining a problem from his own musical theatre EP—they had an imminent performance and no costumes! Right away, learners were keen to help.

They set off to approach a solution by working out what information they had and what information would still be needed to solve the problem. Learners quickly worked out a list of over 20 specific questions whose answers would inform their designs: “What size are the actors? Is the stage inside or outside? What are the characters’ personalities? How much time do we have?”

Learners realised quickly that Mr. Duff might not have all of the information they needed and organized their questions into three categories: Ask Mr. Duff, Ask the Actor, Take Action. Then they sent a list of questions to Mr. Duff and scheduled a meeting with actors to interview them about their characters and measure them for costumes. Once all the information was gathered, each designer paired with one actor and sketched out a costume design for the production.

Once ideas were made visible on paper, learners set off to construct custom garments for the production. Every owl, mouse, fox and snake required two or more sets of hands, and the Gruffalo required the skill and imagination of all 12 designers in the course. The DT workshop became a symphony of invention, where each designer fluidly waltzed through independent and collaborative periods, inquiry and feedback, inspiration and endeavour to create new work at a pace supporting the collective progress of the team. After a few fittings and edits, the costumes were ready for public viewing on the stage.

04

The End Result

On the day of the performance, the children participated in something special and wonderful which they would remember for a long time to come. As the winter evening approached, each child could be seen leaving the theatre with their parents, hand in hand singing songs and sharing the tale of ‘The Gruffalo’. This was a wonderful creative collaboration and we are particularly proud of the problem solving and teamwork that took place among our students and in their respective EPs.