Dragons Over London Scheme of Work
(ages 11-12)
Overview
Dragons Over London is a six-week practical devising unit that explores a city under siege using physical theatre, frozen pictures, mime and media forms. Students devise news-style scenes, develop music-led sequences and record work for evaluation. The unit is deliberately adaptable to different local settings (for example New York or Rome) and focuses on ensemble storytelling, media response and choreographing action for both stage and camera.
What Students Will Learn
Across the unit students learn to represent story and motivation through physical theatre and mime, create tableaux and news-style sequences, use music to structure movement, and plan and record short filmed scenes for evaluation. They practise interview formats to explore perspective and scrutinise media response while developing ensemble timing, character choices and practical rehearsal-to-performance skills.
Week 1: The Newspaper Office
This lesson focuses on creating the breaking media story of the year in a newsroom context. Students enact named activities ‘The Printing Press’, ‘The Sighting’ and ‘The Newsroom’ to devise news-style scenes.
Week 2: TV News
This lesson enacts the terror of the moment using frozen pictures to capture dramatic moments. The story then develops through TV interviews to explore perspective and reaction.
Resources IncludeMusicNews StingWeek 3: The Dragon’s Capture
Students focus on using music effectively to support dramatic action, specifically during a capture sequence. The class choreographs a chase where music shapes pace, mood and transitions.
Resources IncludeMusicChaseWeek 4: The Slayer
After the warm-up exercise ‘The Dragon Battle’ the class searches for a suitable slayer and devises a climactic scene. The main practical task is creating the scene ‘Rising to the Challenge’.
Week 5: Chasing the Dragon
This evaluation lesson has students perform the chase sequence using handheld shots and camera movement. The group activity ‘Film Crews’ structures filming of the sequence and supports peer critique.
Week 6: Interview with a Dragon
Students use physical theatre to represent the dragon and investigate its motivation through practical exploration. The session concentrates on physical character work to reveal inner intent.
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