Scenes Through the Century was run for a week in August 2007 with a group of young people from North Plymouth Playschemes.
Each day the group explored a different decade using the arts. On Monday they focussed on the 1930’s and learn't dances from the era, such as 'Bumps-A-Daisy, 'The Hokey Kokey' and 'The Floral Dance', which they performed in the garden at Saltram House in traditional costume.
Tuesday was Evacuee day. Again the group got to dress up in 1940’s clothes, this time to experience life as an evacuee leaving Plymouth at the beginning of the war. The group went on a steam train to the country for the day and were encouraged to role-play evacuees, and to think about how they might have felt and behaved if they had been evacuated.
On Wednesday it was the 1950’s. With lashings of ginger beer and a mystery to be solved, we focused on fun pastimes and children’s adventures on a picnic day out at Mothercombe Beach. Assisted by the stories of Enid Blyton we relived the times Famous Five style! The group also got to do a treasure hunt.
Each day we took lots of photographs and film footage - which we edited and aged top resemble the media of that era. The project also won an award at TRhe Motion Plymouth Film Festival for the film 'Evacuation' made during this week.
Amanda Buckley from Fireapple Films led the week’s activities. The week ended with a fun fashion show focusing on the 1980’s, an era not to be missed!
