EKST’s collaboration with International Performing Plays (May 2025)

East Kent Schools Together, Performing International Plays (PIP), and Foreign Affairs (FA) are excited to announce a collaboration to bring theatre translation workshops to students within the East Kent Schools Together community. With funding from South East Cultural Innovation Forum, PIP is running theatre translation workshops this summer in collaboration with The Archbishop’s School in Canterbury, one of East Kent Schools Together‘s partner schools.

Students will be exploring the Ukrainian children’s play, Litter: Ball, Straw and Shoe by Kateryna Penkova, about the climate crisis and the importance of recycling. Participants will be a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian students as well as students from other backgrounds also including those from the Performing Arts Department at the school. On day one, the students will be translating extracts of the play into English. On day two the students will be presenting the play as a staged reading to the school community – a really exciting opportunity!

The workshops are linked to an impact project based on Margherita Laera‘s research into the translation of international plays and their untapped potential to teach young people the intercultural competencies needed to navigate globalised societies. PIP is a provider of school workshops, learning resources and teacher CPDs designed to encourage more educators to include contemporary plays originally written in languages other than English in the school curriculum, thus increasing the representation of minoritised identities in UK classrooms. PIP workshops are delivered in collaboration with theatre company Foreign Affairs. PIP is funded by Arts Council England, AHRC and the University of Kent.

With huge thanks to all those involved, and East Kent Schools Together looks forward to continued collaboration to develop further opportunities for young people across the partnership with PIP and Foreign Affairs.