The Corner Shop Schools Project – June/July 2008

Led by Foursight Theatre with support from Black Country Touring

In Spring 2008 two Sandwell Schools began research on their local Corner Shops. Lisa Harrison, the education and outreach worker for Foursight Theatre worked with St Philips RC Primary School and Devonshire Junior School on a small-scale version of the larger project.

The children met and worked with a number of the professionals working on the Corner Shop project including Sarah Chubb, Borough Archivist with Sandwell Community History and Archives Service. With Sarah they looked at old photographs of their high streets – Smethwick High Street and Cape Hill – as well as discussing the importance of documenting the present for future generations.

The children also visited local shops, interviewing local shopkeepers and shoppers. They recognised things they’d seen in the old photographs with Sarah and collected unusual things from the shops there now, including a pair of parrot slippers, Polish sweets and Indian fabrics. For many of the children this was the first time they had visited their local shops and they were amazed at their variety and quality and the friendliness of the shopkeepers.

The children then recorded interviews with a number of local shop owners and customers who had been invited in to their school.

In preparation for the performance, Purvin, the Production Designer came into the schools and demonstrated bunraku puppetry, inspiring the children to make some amazing puppets. They then worked with Lisa creating their own stories using their own shadow puppets.

Sound Designer and composer, Heather Wastie, worked with the children, placing extracts of the recorded interviews over music for use in their shows. The final performances took the audience on a journey through a new world created in their schools. A multi layered journey inspired by their local community and its shops, created by the children and the professionals they had worked with throughout the project.

The children were later able to see the final Corner Shop production in West Bromwich and see how the work they had done influenced the project as a whole.