Pretzel on Pause: Reflections on the Pretzel Process

By: Jo Lee*

This blog is part of a series documenting the progress of the Pretzel Theatre Collective, a project within the Incubator for Creative Impact.

Since our last blog in March, the practical element of the Pretzel process has been on pause. As each country went into lockdown it was not possible for rehearsals and reflections to continue. 

However, the Pretzel Pioneers have been grateful for the chance to reflect upon the work so far and present our proof of concept at two exciting conferences. 

We have been delighted to present at Arts Education Week WAAE (World Alliance for Arts Education) on 28th May 2020 and at AATE (American Alliance of Theatre Education) on 24th July 2020. These presentations enabled us to come together virtually, juggling time-zones between USA, Canada, UK, UAE, China and New Zealand, involving some very late nights and early mornings as well as extensive checks to ensure we were all online at the correct times. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to re-establish connections formed in Frankfurt and re-energize each other through the presentation that traced our Pretzel process. These included:

  1. Pretzel Theatre’s formation in Frankfurt at the WAAE conference

  1. The UNESCO Seoul Agenda that underpins our aims and ethos (see image)

  2. The connections that were made between the different countries as we explored pupil expectations and preconceptions about different areas of the world

  3. The variety and diversity of working environments – from EAL students to British International School pupils; from Youth Theatre programmes to class-based teaching; from performances in high-tech auditoriums to black box studios to classrooms. We proved that quality creativity and theatre can span the world with different facilities, cultures and languages. 

  4. The advantage and success of offering opportunities for ownership, listening and responding ‘to resolve the social and cultural challenges facing today’s world’ (Goal 3 of the UNESCO Seoul Agenda). 

When reflecting upon Pretzel Act 1, from the Cranleigh Abu Dhabi perspective, I was able to acknowledge how fortunate my pupils are to be able to have Pretzel as a Gifted & Talented provision, offered as an extra beyond classroom teaching and school productions. The students who formed the Abu Dhabi Pretzelers were IGCSE Drama students, Drama and Performing Arts scholars and Drama enthusiasts who had been in numerous school productions. The buzz that came from bringing these pupils together was an exciting one. They considered themselves an elite group. Representing the school and the region to peers around the world was an inspiring prospect and a challenge willingly undertaken. 

The devising process was a fruitful one, using soundscapes, space, physicality and gesture to communicate an opening scene around their chosen theme of ‘well-being concerns’. Creating our piece to send was enjoyable, receiving the responding piece from New Zealand was mesmerizing. The Hawkes Bay Youth Theatre Pretzel pupils had looked carefully at the final image created in our tableau and had picked out key characters to explore and give voice to. A soundscape, that had been a catalyst to depict overwhelming pressure, had been reversed. The New Zealand pupils used the same dramatic structure whilst selecting more positive language. Their performance prompted discussion, reflection and analysis. It was this depth of thinking and response that was wonderful to see. We were just ready to start creating our performative reply when lock down hit. In the presentation, Juliet Cottrell described her New Zealand group eagerly awaiting a response from Abu Dhabi. It never came as we were by then in lock down and remote learning made collaborative performances impossible. 

New Zealand students responding to Abu Dhabi students.

Even though this Pretzel Pause caused frustration, the proof of concept had been established. Our Pretzel pupils were fully engaged within the process, enjoyed sharing their work but were intrigued by the interpretation sparked by their performances. The listening and responding skills were fundamental to the value of our process. The opportunity to react and respond to peers from across the world has been an invaluable experience.  For the Pretzel pupils, it has uniquely carried a weight of responsibility, empathy and care for their international counterparts.  In these unprecedented times, this maturity was especially appreciated by the Pretzel Pioneers. 

This process entirely actioned the goals of the UNESCO Seoul Agenda and our presentations were a wonderful opportunity to share our work on a wider scale. Especially fruitful was the WAAE presentation where members of the Abu Dhabi Pretzel group were able to join the discussion and share their experience with practitioners from across the world.  The contributions included comments such as Anna’s “I really enjoyed Pretzel Theatre because I loved that we got to learn about other places and combine the unique ideas of others with our own”.

Even though we are currently on pause, the foundation has been set and we hugely look forward to being part of Pretzel Act 2. 

*Jo Lee

Jo Lee is Director of Performing Arts at Cranleigh Abu Dhabi.  She was the founding Head of Drama when the school opened 6 years ago and was the school’s director of the award winning “Water in the Desert” Opera project, staged at NYUAD. Jo completed a Masters in Drama in Education at Trinity College, Dublin and specialized in supporting non-drama-specialists incorporating Drama into their teaching pedagogy. This led to her producing the first entirely Arabic spoken play by a British International School in the UAE, following the journey of Moroccan explorer, Ibn Battuta. Jo was nominated for the GESS ‘Innovative Teacher Award’ for her work with Drama and Arabic. Jo proudly presented about this topic at the World Alliance for Arts Education in Frankfurt in November 2019. It was at this conference that she became a co-founder of Pretzel Theatre, which sees pupils collaborate across the world from the UAE to Canada, New Zealand, China and UK.