Pre:

Background notes are provided on a range of circumstances in which violent extremism has been used in order to influence change, and young people are encouraged to discuss these prior to seeing the play.
The pre performance session therefore concentrate on;

• What is violent extremism?
• A range of recent historical examples for discussion
• Necessary vocabulary for the discussion of issues
• An attitudes survey

Post:

A range of materials and options are provided to enable teachers and other professionals to follow-up many issues raised by the play.
These include;

• Free speech, tolerance and democracy
• The reasons for differing attitudes and points of view
• The vulnerability of young people to exploitation & manipulation
• Commonalities between different groups and cultures
• Issues of national and cultural identity
• An attitudes survey

Case Study

Bury MBC in Greater Manchester used the play across 2008/09 and developed some new and key resources which we are now using to support performances throughout the UK. They have kindly given us permission to reproduce some of the key findings from their own evaluation of the work.

14 performances took place in 10 high schools to a total of 1850 Year 10 pupils. 65% of these completed a pre and post performance survey.

Key Findings:

The Legacy

The play and supporting materials enabled teachers to talk about controversial and sometimes very sensitive issues with young people. These issues included identity, class, racism, religion, loyalty and mistrust. Many responses from teachers and young people indicated a wish for work around these issues to continue. It is hoped that this initial work in Bury has given teachers the courage and skills to embed this work in the curriculum. Many of the resources can be used without the play thus enabling teachers to revisit the sessions in the future.

In addition to the outline lesson plans there are further activities provided and these include:

• Free-standing educational activities, information, resources and links to assist anyone seeking to help young and adult people gain a better understanding of all forms of extremism.
• Have Your Say on the Play‟ a section where anyone who has seen the drama can express a thought, opinion or view as well as asking pressing questions
• Free standing film clips from the play to provoke thinking and debate and to give focus to key issues
• A news feed
• Links to other projects and organisations
• Materials and guidance to assist and support evaluation and monitoring

Future Potential

• This resource will continue to evolve and our plans for 2010/11 include;
• New lesson plans looking at racist language, insults, confrontation and violent incidents
• New lesson plans for political education, knowledge, definition, political views and groups
• New lesson plans looking at myths and lies
• New lesson plans looking at the role and power of the media
• Online debates, live broadcasts to schools, blog, glossary, live news-feed
• Expanded context e.g. foreign policy, Middle-East, Holocaust, immigration, asylum seekers, Afghanistan etc
• Project work on the site by young people and schools; drama, film, multi-media, art, poetry, prose, debate, opinion etc
• More film clips from the play and the script will be published and available
• A new theatre based primary age input with support resources

We are working with our partners to create a whole communities approach to preventing extremism, with a particular interest in focused work in entrenched, embedded and new communities.

For more on GW Theatre and the One Extreme to the Other project go to
www.gwtheatre.com and www.extremenews.org.uk