Anglia Ruskin Community Theatre
As an ARU Drama student, you'll get the chance to work with community organisations in your second year as part of our Community Theatre module and through a range of other performance opportunities throughout your degree.
Every year, if you're taking our BA (Hons) Drama, BA (Hons) Drama and Film, or BA (Hons) Drama and English Literature, you'll be able to create and deliver top quality theatre projects working with, for and alongside local community groups, driven by a belief in social justice and arts for all. You'll have the chance to devise and perform original pieces of work that respond to local community concerns, or work as an assistant director, producer or member of the technical crew.
Many of the projects involve external partners through the ARU live briefs programme and all of them aim to prepare you for work in the fields of applied theatre, teaching, charity, the health and therapies sector, and the creative industries in general.
Current and past Community Theatre partnerships at ARU include:
Shakespeare Taster Days
Performances and workshops on Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and other set texts, to support GCSE and A-Level English in local secondary schools.
The Magic Seed
An outdoor, site-specific performance for families about how to support nature and create positive responses to climate change, for the 10th birthday celebrations of Clay Farm Community Garden Group, Trumpington.
Pantomime!
Students from ARU Drama, Acting and Musical Theatre perform annually in a full-scale pantomime at the Mumford Theatre, in collaboration with Gazelle Theatre, North Cambridge Community Partnership and North Cambridge Academy.
Beowulf, Florence and Mary’s Teddy Bear Hospital, The Jewel of Power, Whatever Next, Bea and the Space Dragon
Theatre in Education at Great Abington Primary School: Outdoor promenade performances, workshops and performances that enrich the KS1 and KS2 curriculum on themes as diverse as health and wellbeing, the Vikings, outer space and the Romans.
Haverhill Halloween Trail - Collaboration with Oblique Arts
Students from our Drama and Acting degrees performed in this spooky outdoor spectacular – Alice in Wonderland as you’ve never seen it before.
Through the Pages – year long co-creation project with Cambourne Community College
Third year Drama students worked closely with Year 9 drama pupils to create an original work including some of their favourite book characters.
Wanderers: California 1936 to Calais 2021 at Cambourne Community College
TIE performance of a newly devised piece exploring historical and contemporary instances of migration inspired by learning on the GCSE English curriculum.
Reminiscence Theatre project
Our second project with School Court Sheltered Housing Unit saw students create an original musical piece based on residents’ memories of growing up in the '40s and '50s including the debut of ARU’s Showstoppers Musical Theatre Choir.
An Inspector Calls Theatre-in-Education project – North Cambs Academy
An interactive performance of Priestley’s An Inspector Calls for GCSE students, bringing Priestley's text to life, and offering glimpses of the play’s unseen heroine and the social conditions that lead to her tragic suicide.
Memories from School Court
Reminiscence theatre project in partnership with elderly residents from School Court Sheltered Housing Unit.
Innovations in Assessment for Drama, Performing Arts and Musical Theatre
Applied Puppetry and Forum Theatre project for a national symposium, in partnership with Middlesex University Theatre Arts students and Lecturer, Charlotte Thompson.
Michael Recycles
Theatre in Education Primary School Tour in partnership with East Cambridgeshire District Council and Matthew Townshend Productions. You can read more about this project in Laura Mackie's blog.
