Partners in Rhyme is a children’s theatre and storytelling company that my wife Lucy Curtin and I set up in 2007 to perform in schools and theatres and at festivals and other events. Our first show was Ardwenna the Fair, my rhymed story about an arrogant king and a magical princess.
The company is made up of Lucy as director/actor with myself as writer/actor, plus other performers and musicians – including our son Theo and daughter Tara! – as we need them. Lucy, who also teaches drama and works as a storyteller, trained at Webber Douglas, one of London’s leading drama schools. Most of our performers are professionally trained. Oh, and not everything we do is in rhyme. And to Len Goodman all I can say is – we were here first!
Lucy Curtin: Improvisation workshops
These are based on the work of Keith Johnston as well as techniques Lucy has picked up over the years. She has run them at schools in Exeter and Totnes to help GCSE students with impro techniques to give them a range of resources to aid them with their devising process. This workshop can also be adapted for younger students.
Drama sessions for 12-16 year olds (LAMDA groups)
Lucy runs after-school groups from 4.30–5.45 p.m. The sessions involve games to loosen the imagination and build cooperation within the group; and building up acting and voice techniques. We then work on monologues and duologues from published plays leading towards taking a LAMDA exam. For further details of free taster sessions and pricing, email lucyanncurtin@gmail.com
Lucy also teaches individual/ paired LAMDA examinations and coaches students for drama school auditions.
Drama workshops with EFL students
Partners in Rhyme also runs drama workshops with students of English as a Foreign Language. The sessions consisted of drama games and warm-ups, followed by working on simple scripts. Below you can see us in action performing Singing to the Sun to Russian EFL students, as well as some shots of a group of Spanish students working on scripts.
Here are a few pictures taken during our drama sessions and performances
Performances of Singing to the Sun:
Language in Totnes (language school), Chapel House Studios, Totnes (performance+workshop with English-language students.)
Wood Sisters Winter Storytelling Festival, Dartington (public event.)
Totnes Library (public event.)
Quest UK festival, Newton Abbot (public event.)
Paignton Community Academy (two-day creative/literacy sessions with Year 7.)
Respect Festival, Exeter (public event.)
Other recent Partners in Rhyme shows:
Ardwenna the Fair by Peter Bently.
Cats Ahoy! by Peter Bently.
Will’s Clogs (Lancashire tale).
All performed either as storytelling alone or storytelling plus workshop/creative activities.
Partners in Rhyme is available for school, library, festival and other bookings. For further enquiries about Partners in Rhyme please contact lucyanncurtin@gmail.com
Top: Lucy, alias Alfonso, with super cool pirate cats Amber and Tara before performing Cats Ahoy! at the Palace Theatre, Paignton, as part of the Telling Tales festival.
Left: Our Cats Ahoy! shows at the Winter Storytelling Festival in Dartington and the Quest Festival each lasted about an hour, including the performance of the story followed by a workshop making cat-pirate masks.
