Project overview
Pythagoras’ Toolkit features a cheeky modern-day puppet Pythagoras (with her bag of tools) challenging eight virtuoso classical musicians and a conductor to help her carry out musical experiments. Created by director and theatre maker Rachel Warr (Dotted Line Theatre) in collaboration with Southampton composer and conductor Benjamin Oliver, it is a playful, wordless show for family audiences which has been performed in Montreal (Canada) and Southampton (UK).
You can watch the live performance below, and download the score here.
Pythagoras’ Workshops Toolkit: An Education Resource
The Pythagoras’ Workshops Toolkit has been designed for educators and practitioners. The resource offers ways to explore music, specifically graphic scores and conducting, through music, sound-making, drawing and puppetry. It has been developed by Rachel Warr, Benjamin Oliver and Chi Ying Lam.
The toolkit draws on ideas, and includes clips, from the theatre show Pythagoras’ Toolkit, but it is not necessary to have seen the performance to engage with the activities. It is has been developed for participants aged 7-11 (Key Stage 2), although can be adapted for younger or older learners. It can be used at a range of scales, from one-off workshops to 6-week teaching blocks.
The Pythagoras’ Workshops Toolkit consists of a PDF that outlines a wide range of activities, linking to related 31 project tutorial videos hosted on YouTube and sheet music resources. The toolkit is openly licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Sign up to download the PDF via the following form. Please contact Benjamin Oliver with any questions.
Funders and Support
The ‘Pythagoras’ Toolkit: UK Premiere & Digital Workshop Toolkit Development project’ has been supported by the University of Southampton’s AHRC Impact Acceleration Account, University of Southampton Impact Fund, University of Southampton Department of Music, and was delivered in partnership with Turner Sims.
Pythagoras’ Toolkit was commissioned by Ensemble Paramirabo in 2019, with support from the Canada Council for the Arts. The work received further funding from Arts Council England and the University of Southampton Faculty of Arts and Humanities Strategic Research Fund. Performances in Montreal (2023 and 2024) were staged in collaboration with partners including Le Vivier, Bach Before Bedtime, Festival de Casteliers and l’École Montréalaise pour tous.
