Testimonials

Victoria Cartwright, Widening Participation Officer

2engage gave an outstanding performance to a group of year 10 pupils from Salford who visited the University of Chester for a 2 day university taster residential in March 2008. The performance was written especially for the event and focused on the options available to young people in terms of choosing whether to go to university or get a job. The enthusiasm of the performance captured the attention of the audience and it was funny, thought provoking and pitched at just the right level. The pupils were motivated by what they saw and feedback from teachers was fantastic; they would like to invite 2engage into their schools to do some further work with the pupils.

Andrew Seedall, Cheshire County Council Youth Service.

2engage were well priced, of high quality, relevant and relative to our group. In the workshop they managed to move effortlessly through a range of drama techniques, physical theatre, mime, still image, characterisation. Their own performance captured the attention and thoughts of the young people by being issue based yet fun. Their professional approach was second to none and was maintained whilst being dynamic, energetic and informal. Their commitment is demonstrated not only by recognising the power and potential of drama as a tool to educate and communicate, but by being visionary in setting up their own business to provide such important work. I would not hesitate in recommending and using them in the future.

Dr Judith Done, Head of Career Service University of Chester

Dear 2engage, I am writing to thank you for your and your colleague's involvement in Graduate Head Start. This was the first year that the event has been run and it has generated some very positive feedback from both students and other employers and organisations. We really appreciate you giving up your time in order to meet our students. We know from the feedback they found it very useful to meet you.

Jane Loudon, Performing Arts Senior Lecturer, University of Chester

2engage are a young dynamic company who have considerable expertise within the filed of educational drama. There work within this field utilises drama as a methodology for the exploration of issues relevant to schools today. For example the citizenship curriculum which encompasses issues of personal and social responsibilities and widening participation issues of employment, recognising and valuing skills and continuing education.

Annika Munro, Director of Teaching and Learning Drama, Fallibroom High

2engage ran a series of tailor-made workshops for our Arts Week based on the theme of 'The Global Village'. The work that they produced with the Year 10s was exciting, creative, challenging and thought-provoking. Their confidence in the classroom was really refreshing as it allowed us as teachers that rare opportunity to observe our students working in new ways and in different styles. We will definitely be working with 2Engage in the future and would highly recommend them.

Melanie Cutler, Head of Performing Arts, Sandbach School

Sandbach School for Boys is a prestigious school with Arts Status. Our results in Performing Arts are nothing short of exceptional when compared to Cheshire LEA and the National Average for boys. In 2004, 2005 and 2006 (2007 yet to be awarded), The Good Schools Guide presented the department with the award for "Best Independent School for Boys for Performance Studies at A-Level".

In October 2007, 2Engage delivered five innovative and creative practical workshops. They led three workshops with 61 Y10 GCSE Drama students. Each session focussed on the theories of influential dramatic practitioners: Stanislavski, Brecht and Artaud. 2Engage transformed these theorists into three hours of practical activities which engaged, challenged, informed and stimulated our boys. The performances our students Implemented during these workshops showed an acute awareness of the practitioners' theories and were a testament to the creativity, innovative vision and assured teaching style of the company. The plenary session highlighted just how much the boys had absorbed during the session.

Practical work in lessons, since the workshops, has been transformed; our students now have a more developed understanding of the subject, they have more self-confidence, a greater wealth of experience with which to draw from and a real sense of theatrical knowledge.

All of the students thoroughly enjoyed these sessions and gave 2Engage nothing but positive feedback.

Two more workshops were then Implemented and delivered to two sets of Y9 students - one was 60 mixed ability students and the other, a group of 35 Gifted and Talented boys. The company's brief was to produce engaging and enjoyable workshops that focused on performance skills and Berkovian physical theatre techniques. What they delivered was beyond my expectations; their use of creative activities really captured all of our students and absolutely fulfilled the brief.

The consensus after the workshops was one of delight. 2Engage really do live up to their name - they aim to engage all students involved and this is certainly achieved without exception.

I will be using the company again, and again, and again. And I highly recommend that you do the same. Companies like this do not come along very often so 'engage' them while you can.

Christine Fryer, Project Development Co-ordinator Springboard into Science 2006

The celebration Event last Thursday 23rd march 2006 was a huge success. I would like to thank you for all your hard work on the day. Once again your drama brought to life the decisions and pressures that face young people today but it was also uplifting and highly motivating. The students were fully engaged and were captivated by the sheer energy of your performance.

Judith Gilmour, Assistant Head Teacher (Community Development) Neston High

I have now received feedback from the Dutch students and they all enjoyed the workshop very much. We will certainly want to use you again next year! Thanks

Heather Brennan, Tours Organiser, Chester City Council

2Engage have worked with us for the past couple of years providing a series of fun performances as part of our annual Halloween Event. The team came along with a very professional attitude and were extremely flexible, working brilliantly to our requirements. 2Engage provided added interest and humour suitable for all ages and the event was a huge success, enjoyed by everyone involved.

I'm sure we will be working with them again in the future.

Ms B Rose, Director of Physical and Cultural Education, Pensby High School for Boys

I am writing to thank you for your efforts delivering the stage combat workshops last week. It was a huge success among staff and pupils alike. The content was fun and interesting and your enthusiastic and fast-paced delivery actively engaged all the pupils from start to finish. The pupils from both sessions gave a great deal of positive feedback following the workshops and one pupil stated that " It was the best lesson I have ever had" Reviews don't come much better than that.

Dave Morris, Director of Arts and Culture, Oxted School Surrey

2engage delivered a two-hour workshop at Oxted School to year 10 and year 11 drama students respectively. The workshops were extremely well pitched, fast paced, challenging yet fun and developed the students skills in physical characterisation through a series of highly enjoyable exercises. The company also performed their entertaining though provoking and thought provoking show communication on both occasions. The audience frequent laughter during the show and animated conversation afterwards was clear evidence of the productions great success! I would recommend this high-energy exciting young company to any school looking for a positive and physical drama experience for their students.

Mike Jenkinson, Director of Student Development Services, University of Chester

2engage came highly recommend to me from the Drama Department at Chester University. 2engage provide us with a range of different drama sessions from team building to drama workshops through to using drama to demonstrate disability and the effects on communication. In each session the students involved were given the opportunity to explore serious issues and learn more about each other. 2engage handled the students very professionally everybody commented on how they worked. I whole heartedly recommend 2edngage and will defiantly be using them again.

Mr Psiridis, Head of Drama, Wellsway School Bristol

2engage were extremely professional in their approach. Fun, focused and flexible. They were willing to adapt their ideas to suit our needs. Their physical, high-energy performance captured the imagination of our year 10 students and their own workshops enabled all pupils to experiment with their acting styles. An enthusiastic company with a love of theatre.

Louisa Dennett, Head of Drama, Ellesmere Port Catholic High

On behalf of the students from yesterday can I just say a very big thank you! You were very inspiring to them; they have been buzzing today which is great to see!

Barry Whitney, Head of Pupil Support Primary, Leeds

2engage came to the pupil support unit for a whole day. They worked with long term and dual registration children with equal success. Children found the task challenging and fun and they covered a vital area of the literacy curriculum in drama. The children they worked with often-displayed challenging behaviour, this was not an issue during the activities. During the classes, the children were motivated and enthusiastic and afterwards expressed their views in a positive and constructive way. All who were involved were quickly engaged and took part fully. The work was aimed at children of all ability levels and was cross curricular linked to the history QCA study unit, the Aztecs. The children learned various aspects of Aztec life through drama and learned facts and dates through the exercises. They were also encouraged to offer ideas and thoughts on the activities. The day was a positive and pleasant one with both the drama teachers and children gaining a positive outcome.

Mandy Hatfield, Drama Co-ordinator, The Hammond School

2Engage Theatre Company came to the Hammond School to take part in a "Green Careers Day". They, in conjunction with Connexions, took part in a presentation to the students, which demonstrated through role-play the kinds of employment opportunities found in the "Green" sector.

2Engage also presented their performance "What a Wonderful World". This was a highly effective piece of physical theatre that addressed the issues of climate change and the environment. It was funny, informative and certainly grabbed the student's attention.

It was obvious from the subsequent discussions that the students found this piece to be thought provoking and stimulating and led to lots of questions being asked and answered.

Kevin Boyle, Head teacher, Oakland's Special School

On Thursday 10th January 2engage Drama group came into school to do a performance on the environment followed by a workshop for Year 9 (and later the Year 7s and 8s joined in to) about frustration. A huge thank you goes to Ed, Marcus and Phil for all their hard work.