How many teenagers are more likely to make the trip to an opera theatre than to their local cinema? In the midst of the film award season, twelve students from two schools took part in Play the Critic, run by Mousetrap Theatre Projects.
The scheme has been run for fifteen years by Linda Turner, Head of Creative Learning at Mousetrap. While the project was started to help A Level Theatre Studies students who have to write a review of a live theatre production for one of their coursework modules, the programme has branched out to music students, as Mousetrap has recently begun collaborating with English National Opera, who are keen for more young people to review opera.
Earlier this month, students from Woodford County High School and William Morris Sixth Form Academy were given the chance to watch an opera (Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance) and spend a day with leading theatre and music critics who helped them work on their critiquing skills. One of the critics who took part in the masterclass was Alexandra Coghlan, who said, “This is the second year that I've taken part in the Play the Critic project, and I was struck once again by the intelligence and insight of the students. Their instinctive reactions into the show were very diverse, and it was wonderful to see the rhetoric with which they expressed their opinions being honed as the day went on. Projects like Play the Critic make me hopeful that reports of the death of both opera and mainstream criticism have been greatly exaggerated.”
The masterclass was very interactive, and through debating, writing, and even tweeting about the opera they saw, the students were pushed to express evidence-supported opinions and improve their writing skills. Grace Mo said, “Even though I’m not a big fan of opera, I really enjoyed this opportunity. It helped me analyse the smallest details of a performance, which usually go unnoticed by the audience.”
After watching another opera, a choice between Verdi’s Rigoletto and Ryan Wigglesworth’s brand new adaptation of The Winter’s Tale, the students must write their own review. The best reviews from each school will be chosen by Alexandra Coghlan, who will take the winning writers to another opera premiere.
Zaynab Ahmed, Woodford County High School
