Education

Book an online playwrighting or audio writing workshop for your class.

All the areas covered in our Workshops section can be adapted for any age group, and to fit any time slot. 

Whether a one-off or a series, Applied Stories can support your students with accessible, fun writing exercises to get imaginations flowing, or to polish existing ideas for assessed performance. 

Our Artistic Director Fin Kennedy has 20 years experience working in schools, and is the founder of Bitesize Playwrighting, a remote schools playwrighting course and competition in partnership with Blooomsbury's Drama Online.

Please get in touch to discuss your requirements and receive a quote.

Commission an audio Fairy Trail for your school! A full class project which can accommodate up to 20 children.

In an initial workshop, the class are shown an existing fairy which has moved into their school - a door in the skirting board has appeared overnight, with some tiny personal items left outside. A QR code next to the door links to an audio file of a 90-second speech by the fairy.

Children are then invited to play with a selection of new fairy doors and fairy furniture, and asked to create a new fairy of their very own, to keep the existing one company. 

Applied Stories will help each child create their own 90-second speech for  their fairy, then audio record it themselves. Before long, 20 unique Fairies will come into existence!

All the finished doors, furniture and QR codes will be arranged as a walkable Fairy Trail, either indoors along the school corridors, or outside in the school’s grounds, or a local park. 

A launch day will invite parents, siblings and other schoolchildren to experience the trail like a treasure hunt, with prizes if they find all 20 fairies.

Passing the Baton is a unique audio walk welcoming Year 7s to their new secondary school, with all content created by the current Year 10s. 

After agreeing a walking route orienting younger students to the school's main areas, Applied Stories works with Year 10s to co-create quirky, funny and informative audio stories to accompany each stop on the route.

The older students are involved from concept to delivery, performing and editing the tales and picking up key technical skills along the way.

The walk itself can live on indefinitely, passing on school traditions, folkore and tall tales, welcoming successive cohorts of Year 7s for many years to come.

We can also work with Years 9-13 to create a bespoke walking tour of the school's local area for friends, families and general audiences. 

For larger schools or multi-academy trusts, we can offer a 1-2 day per week company residency to undertake several projects at once, accompanied by curriculum support and after-school classes.

Applied Stories can design a process and come up with a concept for your specific group - inspired by their ideas.

Recent examples include Sheppey Shadows, a 55-minute audio drama made with two primary schools and a youth theatre on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, and featuring young people performing alongside professional actors.

Ideas were generated in a series of weekly workshops, then scripted by our Artistic Director Fin Kennedy, who also recorded and edited the piece.

Listen to Sheppey Shadows in full for free here.

Bitesize Playwrighting is an online scheme of work for Years 7-13, featuring a series of 5-minute videos unpacking the building blocks of playwrighting and supporting students to create their own short script for two characters. 

The first iteration was sponsored by Methuen, and resulted in a free downloadable eBook of new short plays by young people, to inspire their peers.

The videos are free to access, though for a fuller experience Applied Stories Artistic Director is available for online support and feedback sessions for students working their way through them and writing their own plays. 

You can book one support and feedback session, or a series, or commission some written feedback on their plays for your students from the playwright behind the initiative, Fin Kennedy.

Drop us a line to enquire about rates and availability for a live support session.

You may also be interested in our other Workshops, all of which can be adapted to suit different age groups.

For Universities, Applied Stories can offer lectures, workshops or full modules in:

• Writing for Radio/Audio
• Geolocation walking tour technology
• Introduction to Playwrighting
• Working with Communities
• Working in Schools
• Creative Research

All sessions are delivered by our Artistic Director Fin Kennedy, previously a regular visiting tutor at Goldsmiths and Central Saint Martins.

We can also work with students and staff to create bespoke walking tours of campuses and surrounding areas.

Alternatively, we can help your University found its own unique drama podcast, bringing in professional writers to work alongside students, such as Decolonising History for SOAS.