A Potpourri of Starting Points

The last few months I have been running a lot of online training courses for teachers and also running some face to face training for teachers new to the IB. There is one amazing resource that I am going to share with you this month and it is all the starting points that teachers have identified could be used in their courses for devising practice or suggested to the students to be used for their final Collaborative Project.

In the guide on page 70 there is the definition of a starting point which is ‘The starting point provides the inspiration for the collaborative creation of the piece of theatre. It gives a focus to the initial stages of practical exploration.’

It then goes on to list the types of starting points that must be used:

• Event
• Idea, issue, question, theme
• Image or photograph
• Non-dramatic text
• Object
• Person
• Piece of music
• Site
• Street art, graphic novel or comic strip

From their starting points the students need to ‘the areas of interest that yield the most material and enthusiasm‘ (ibid) which is why in your course you need to try out as many different starting points as you can so the students can discover what really gets their creative juices flowing.

Below are the starting points my teachers came up with, I hope that you have fun playing around with the ideas they spark.

Event  

• Burning of the library of Alexandria
• Graduation
• An earthquake
• The Blackout of 2003

Idea/Issue/Theme

• Colonialism
• Gun violence
• Overcoming obstacles
• Indigenous rights
• Canada’s natural resources
• Tension Between English and French Canada
• Forgotten widows of Vrindavan: https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/forgotten-widows-of-vrindavan/article19574277.ece

Non-Dramatic Text

• Carol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘Education For Leisure’: http://emilyspoetryblog.com/2013/10/16/education-for-leisure-by-carol-ann-duffy/
• ‘Still I Rise’ / ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ by Maya Angelou
• ‘I am Malala’ by Malala Yousafzai

Object

• A hammer
• A flower
• A key
• An empty suitcase
• A mirror

Piece of Music 

• ‘The Carnival Is Over’, by Dead Can Dance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPDLJ1UU2Uk
• ‘March of the Wolfmasters’, Janelle Monae. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XvpQbOtzIU
• ‘Preface’, FKA Twigs.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOlAd5bG_Zk
• ‘Who wants to live forever’, Queen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jtpf8N5IDE
• ‘Where have all the flowers gone’,  Joan Baez. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSE03QVnXg0

Site/Location

• Swimming pool
• A park bench
• A country lane
• The Bosphorus
• Borough Market
• Tangier port

Comic/Graphic Novel/Street Art

• Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhA0GVi_N4E
• Image: https://globalnews.ca/news/2816652/the-woman-in-the-dress-black-lives-matter-protest-photo-hailed-as-iconic/
• The woman in the dress. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/media/96257568-132.html
• A section from the famous comics ‘Wanpisu’: https://img00.deviantart.net/2142/i/2011/173/f/c/wan_pisu_by_video320-d3jok13.jpg
• Banksy’s street art, ‘Girl with red balloon’: https://guyhepner.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Girl-with-a-Balloon-by-Banksy1.jpg

Person

Ching Shih: A former prostitute turned pirate queen who commanded a gigantic horde of pirates.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-chinese-female-pirate-who-commanded-80000-outlaws

Admiral Keumalahayati: A sixteenth century admiral in the navy of the Aceh Sultanate, which ruled the modern area of Sumatra, Indonesia. (The first female admiral in the modern world.)