Teachers' CPD: Process to Performance 17 Oct 2026
A one-day practical workshop for primary-level teachers exploring how to take your class from process drama to performance.
During this workshop, we will explore how to lead your class through a 3–4 session process drama experience, and how to use the key moments from the process to collaboratively devise a performance to share with an audience.
The performance will be created with and for your class, allowing children to contribute their ideas and creativity. It can be tailored to your group, with the right number of roles and characters, making the whole experience personal, creative and meaningful for the children.
We will explore drama techniques including:
- Whole-group and small-group improvisation
- Still images and carousel scenes
- Sound, percussion and movement
- Character development and collaborative devising
The story we explore will draw on myths and stories connected to winter and the winter solstice, with themes of celebration, community and unity.
You will leave with a practical, creative process that you can bring back to your classroom and use to create your own process-to-performance journey with your pupils.
Suitable for Teachers of classes from 1st to 6th class
Curricular Links
Using themes drawn from SPHE, English and other subjects, participants will explore a variety of imaginative approaches to integrated curriculum delivery. Teachers of all levels of experience will be able to fully engage in this day of professional development
About Joanna Parkes...
Joanna became the second recipient of the John Coolahan Early Years Artist in Residency at The Ark in 2019. She has been working in the field of Creative Arts Education as a Drama Facilitator for many years, in many diverse contexts. Her practice uses participative process drama methods, underpinned by her belief that drama provides people of all ages - from toddlers to 90 year olds - with wonderful opportunities to investigate the world, and their role within it, through play and imagination.
Joanna also completed a Masters in Early Childhood Education which specifically examined the role drama can play in supporting children’s holistic personal development, reinforcing her belief in the profound, transformative power of drama and early engagement with the arts.