Music theatre organisation Made by Mortals have run their interactive Armchair Adventures workshops to more than 5,000 primary school children in the North West over the past six months, since it was created during lockdown.
In the last six months alone, the Armchair Adventures interactive podcast has racked up 16,000 listens for its six episodes, with two more episodes still to release. In addition to this, the CIC has delivered 35 online theatre workshops to primary school children, based on the themes of the podcast episodes.
Before lockdown, Made by Mortals’ focus was to bring interactive theatre to schools, so that primary school children could benefit from high quality cultural activities, as well as intergenerational and reciprocal benefits of children connecting with older people in their communities. After lockdown began, they created their interactive podcast – Armchair Adventures and changed their physical workshops to online sessions.
Andy Smith, composer and artistic director at Made by Mortals, says that video technology has been integral to their ability to deliver theatre workshops and cultivate important intergenerational connections since the pandemic began. This must continue until ‘real-life’ theatre sessions and performances can begin in schools again.
He explained, “It’s absolutely vital that we continue to deliver cultural and arts activities to primary school children because the benefits are just as important as the literacy and maths work they do.
“Although we would all prefer real-life connections, while this isn’t possible, video and internet technology has allowed us to continue our interactive music-theatre work for school children at a time when they have had no other access to cultural activities.”
Paul Hine, theatre-maker and director at Made by Mortals, added, “As a society, we have all suffered from enforced isolation over the past year, and our music theatre work for children helps find a collective sense of belonging.
“The power of Armchair Adventures is in its collaboration and the unlimited restorative power of people coming together to sing, dance and use their imagination. It’s been amazing to see hundreds of smiling faces join us on our online theatre events.”
Made by Mortals is based in Greater Manchester and works with communities that do not usually engage with the arts, in order to give them opportunities for mental and physical health benefits from theatre, music and singing.
The CIC organisation used to take their interactive music theatre productions, created by their community theatre group of over-65s, into schools across the North West before lockdown. They focused on providing high quality music theatre experiences for children, bringing in professional actors, musicians, scriptwriters and composers to work alongside their community theatre groups.
At a time when travelling and meeting other people has been limited, the Armchair Adventures podcast has taken young listeners on a magical treetop journey; a superhero adventure; a trip to see the Northern lights; a seaside adventure and a showbiz adventure, all through the power of music, drama and imagination.
The headteacher of St Peter’s CofE Primary School in Ashton-under-Lyne said: “My Year 4s absolutely loved this workshop – they’ve even planned their own Armchair Adventure this afternoon.”
Made by Mortals is grateful to National Lottery players and the Government for supporting them with funding to carry on their activities with communities in the North West. They applied for emergency funding for the project in 2020, which enabled them to commission professional orchestral musicians, actors, scriptwriters and a podcast engineer.
