St John’s supports Open House for Schools at the Oxford Playhouse
The pilot project Open House for Schools was launched by The Oxford Playhouse in response to the nationwide decline in primary-aged children’s attendance at live theatre events and the scarcity of affordable creative learning opportunities for schools. Recognising the importance of early years creative arts education, St John’s partnered with the Playhouse in 2024 to fund a series of drama initiatives for local children aged 5–11 under the Open House for Schools banner.
Open House Tickets – eliminating barriers to theatre attendance
With support from St John’s, the Playhouse provided free tickets and covered the travel costs for 350 children to watch Coming to England, David Wood OBE’s stage adaptation of Floella Benjamin’s award-winning novel. College funding also enabled a further 686 children from culturally underserved areas of Oxfordshire to attend performances of Sleeping Beauty during the 2024/25 pantomime season. A further 71 KS1 children were also given the opportunity to watch Hurry Up Father Christmas at the Burton Taylor Studio. As teachers reported, these free performances gave students an invaluable introduction to professional theatre, enriching their own creative writing as they prepared scripts to be performed on the Playhouse stage as part of the Primary Playmaker scheme.
Cinderella at the Oxford Playhouse
Primary Playmaker – improving literacy, confidence and social skills through drama
As part of the Open House for Schools project, St John’s also lent support to the Playhouse’s flagship creative education initiative, Primary Playmaker. Since it was established in 2015 by John Retallack and Renata Allen, Primary Playmaker has worked with over 400 children per year across 12 Oxfordshire schools, supporting the literacy development of Year 5 and 6 pupils (aged 9–11) through workshops focused on drama, theatre craft and creative writing. These workshops encourage children to play games improvise, practice and perform in front of one another, building their confidence as young playwrights. With the support of theatre professionals, each child has the opportunity to write their own script and perform it in front of their peers. This year, St John's supported the delivery of 40 workshops across 4 schools, with 140 scripts being produced. Having already attended Cinderella and Coming to England at the Playhouse through the Open House Tickets scheme, many of the children arrived at their workshops with a clear and imaginative sense of stagecraft and world-building. So much was evident at the Primary Playmaker Showcase on 18 March 2025.
Primary Playmaker Showcast at the Oxford Playhouse. Photo credit: Geraint Lewis
Primary Playmaker Showcase 2025
The annual Showcase is the culmination of the Primary Playmaker programme, with selected scripts from each participating school being brought to life by professional theatre-makers on the main stage of the Playhouse. Students from all participating schools are invited to enjoy the plays created by their friends and peers.
Representatives from St John’s College, including Dr Sandra Campbell, Fellow for Access and Outreach, and Ms Denise Cripps, Director of Communications and Engagement, were delighted to attend the 2025 Showcase, which featured ten imaginative plays on the theme of ‘Journeys’. (The full programme for the 2025 Showcase is available here.) From Egypt to the Amazon Rainforest, through portals in time and space, these plays emphasised the importance of friendship and teamwork – whether between classmates, or even between frogs, unicorns and dinosaurs…
St John’s staff particularly enjoyed watching the play ‘Journey’ by Daria, a pupil at Bayards Hill Primary School, the College’s partner school in Barton, East Oxford. Throughout the year, student ambassadors from St John’s have supported literacy sessions at Bayards Hill and helped out in the school’s library. (Read more about our partnership with Bayards Hill here.) In Daria’s brilliant play, two sisters, Nina and Ava, use a crayon to draw a portal door which takes them back through British history in a quest to rescue their parents.
It was evident to everyone who attended the Showcase how much the children had enjoyed the Primary Playmaker initiative. Their creativity and imagination were writ large on the Playhouse stage and they deserve to be very proud of all their hard work.
Congratulations to all involved!