Magic from Myth Coding Workshops
AOD Actors of Dionysus ran a series of drama and digital workshops in collaboration with coding experts Coder Dojo Brighton and with sponsorship in kind provided by the charity Raspberry Pi Foundation. These FREE workshops were for young people aged 6-16 in Whitehawk, Portslade and Brighton and prioritised SEND participants.
These 3 full day practical workshops (10am – 4pm) consisted of a 2 and half hour drama workshop exploring exciting characters from ancient and local myth and an afternoon workshop where participants (Ninjas!) worked with Coder Dojo mentors to learn how to code using the programming language Scratch. Workshops were a lot of fun, inclusive and aimed to inspire both an interest in myth and coding and how the two can combine to create a digital story!
The workshops took place on the following dates and venues:
23rd Nov 2024 at The Crew Club, 26 Coolham Drive, Whitehawk, BN2 5QW
7th Dec 2024 at Blast Theory, 20 Wellington Road, Portslade, BN2 3AA
1st Feb 2025 at Community Base, 113 Queen’s Road, Brighton, BN1 3XG
and there will be a Show & Tell opportunity on Sat 5th July – for friends and family at Platf9rm in Hove.
This project was part funded by the UK government and Brighton and Hove City Council through the Shared Prosperity Fund and also by Chalk Cliff Trust, but further funding is being sought from other sources to expand the project, including writing to trusts and foundations and corporate sponsors. This was a pilot project and our aim is to expand the project to other regions beyond Sussex. AOD Actors of Dionysus is keen to hear from anyone who is interested in supporting this dynamic digital project.
Here are some images from the 3 workshops:
Comments from participants and parents includes:
It was incredible to get a whole day of activities like that, with drama, storytelling and discussions and moving it onto the computers – it was quite unique, carer
I loved the performance and creating the videogame, Roman
The project was SEND supportive because of the facilitators tolerance, openness and engagement skills. Mixing of the pace and breaks and snacks, carer
Fantastic, jaw dropping, mind bending, Mink
It’s the best, Dylan
He loves Greek and Roman myths so it was right up his street, carer
The ND aspect was completely vital. I wouldn’t take them out to a workshop otherwise. I have two ND kids and one loves Greek myth and the other loves making computer games. They were completely engrossed and so well supported too, carer
I really enjoyed this because it was really imaginative and interactive and I love coding as it gets the brain working, Lorcan
It’s got all the autism buzzwords in one go – you’ve got the ancient myths, he loves Percy Jackson and mythology, you’ve got magic, you’ve got coding, you’ve got theatre – it was a perfect combination, carer
2 of my favourite bits were the coding and when you did the performance of the Minotaur. I really liked that, Dylan
Henry loved the storytelling / performance. His favourite one was the one with the Knucker monster and the giant cream pie, carer
Amazing – educational – fun, Ada & Lily
Fun – eye-opening – intriguing – educational. My child enjoyed the coding the most, carer
I enjoyed learning, and listening about the different myths, Iona
I really like Atalanta because I made Atalanta and the wild boar go on a date, Dolores
Frank took inspiration from the myths but went off in the direction of a frog god based game. Dolores made a surreal and comedic animation based on Atalanta, carer
Here’s a pic from our taster session of our Magic from Myth coding workshops which took place on 9th Nov 2024 at Platf9rm at Hove Town Hall. We used this initial workshop and feedback thereafter to inform the project’s development.
For further information please contact Tamsin on info@actorsofdionysus.com