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A teacher and surfer has shared the inspiration behind her beach and sun safety play which has recently been seen by hundreds of primary school children in an island tour.
Written by playwright Sophie Martin, the educational performance was developed in collaboration with the Jersey Coastguard and funded by ArtHouse Jersey.
Musical Theatre graduate Sophie, who is also an actor and secondary school English and Drama teacher, said that she wanted to educate children about beach safety while combining her love for theatre, the sea, and education...
"The play is about two young people who want to adventure to the beach without adults after school.
"One of them seems to be in the know about some aspects of beach and sun safety and the other is quite naive.
"A helpful lifeguard appears and ends up educating them both on the key aspects of staying safe in the sun and at the beach in a memorable and engaging way."
"I did a degree in Musical Theatre and love to surf. During term time I am a teacher and in the holidays I surf coach at St Ouens at Laneez.
"I wanted to create something that combined my love of theatre, the sea and education and this project allowed me to do this."
"I am a local Jersey girl who was born here so that’s my first reason. Secondly, the play is all about staying safe by the sea, and what better place to deliver this message than… by the sea!
Pictured: Sophie Martin said she wanted to promote beach safety through a play that combines her passions for theatre, the sea, and education.
"I think it is crucial for children to be aware and take responsibility for themselves when going to the beach with friends. What I have realised is the children know lots now. In some cases, it’s the adults who, surprisingly, don’t seem to know much!"
"When it comes to roles behind the scenes, I wrote, produced, performed in and directed the play. Myself and Beki Stanier split the role of the lifeguard. For the first week Beki played the Australian, Baywatch-inspired character.
"Then pin the second week of touring it was my turn to tread the boards. Jamie-Lee Douglas played the role of “Jamie”, a girl who is petrified of sharks and a know it all, who ironically… doesn’t know it all.
"Her character was keen to venture to the beach without the help of the lifeguard.
"Finally, Jake Osborne played the role of “Sam” a highly energetic student with a huge fear of getting stuck in a rip current, and ending up in… Guernsey.
"We also had Sam Batho, our awesome tech man who jumped in on the interactive workshops at the end of the performances as well to help answer questions and run the activities.
"Expert coastguards, Nathan Elms and Ford Ramsden attended some of the shows as the children found it exciting and beneficial to see a 'real coastguard'.
"These guys really have the knowledge to really hone in on details in the question and answer session at the end.
"To make the whole thing happen, I was also funded by ArtsHouse Jersey, Jersey Coastguards and Laneez Surf School in order to pay for set, wages and rehearsal space."
"During Covid I knew that I wanted to write a play to your primary schools but I just didn’t know where to begin in regard to who it would benefit most.
"Luckily, I worked with a lot of professionals at the time who were also parents, so asked for their advice on what age they might let their child go to the beach by themselves.
"I also had parents on Facebook fill out a Google form to really get a gist of what age they were allowing their children to go to the beach with friends and no adults.
"Initially, the play was written for year 5 and 6 to enjoy, but we did end up having year 2 and upwards.
"The messages in the play are relevant to all whether or not they are venturing on their own to the beach or not. The performance turned out to be suitable for all primary ages!"
"Luckily, I don’t have any dramatic stories of being stuck out at sea and needing to call the coastguard.
"I do however, love an Ozzie accent so this heavily inspired the character of the lifeguard.
"It also inspired the bay watch slow motion run at the start of the play. When else will I get this opportunity?
"It’s got to be done! Being a surf coach and a teacher has also helped with inspiring the play as I think I’m slowly working out the best ways to get children learning in a fun and engaging way."
"Hopefully I don’t jinx it by saying this but the whole thing was pretty smooth sailing.
"This was the case especially when it came to putting the play on its feet.
"Working with professionals who were willing to trust and allow me to turn a PowerPoint into performance was awesome.
"Having trained actors also does wonders for the rehearsal process. We were able to explore a variety of character choices and staging with no hassle. It turned out to be me who was rubbish at remembering my lines. Quite ironic, especially when you’ve written them.
Pictured: Written by Sophie Martin, the play educates children on the importance of beach and sea safety.
"What I would say has been a challenge has been convincing people to give me money!
"The process of filling out tiresome and complicated application forms and asking people to believe in something you have no evidence will be worthwhile has been difficult.
"Hopefully, now that it has been successful and we have received lots of positive feedback it will be easier to convince my future sponsors in the next project.
"I am really grateful to those that have sponsored me this time around and I know it has totally been worth it."
"I love this question, because, unless you do theatre, you have no idea of the mental, emotional and physical impact it can have on a person.
"I thought from day one that it would just be a fun way of turning the usual coastguard 'chat' into something a lot more engaging and memorable.
"And, it did do that, (which I am super stoked about) but it also did more than that.
"At our final show, we really went for it as actors as we were really comfortable with what we were doing so we took more risks.
"We were bigger, louder and definitely sillier!
"The play is funny, you’d be surprised what a cheeky fart joke does to a room full of primary children… or maybe you wouldn’t…
"There was one particular boy I was watching, he was laughing so much that he had put his little glasses on his head to wipe his tears of laughter.
"Every time I retell the story I get emotional, because I think… actually, the point was to teach them some key aspects of staying safe at the beach, but it was also about having a good time and about retaining the information.
"For some children, that really might have been the first time they had really laughed that day or that week. A lot of the children we performed for had not seen a show before either, one of them said “It was the best show” that he had “ever seen” however,I was humbled when it was caveated with, “and I’ve only ever seen two shows”. I’m secretly hoping the other one was a west end performance!
"To summarise, it definitely had an equal emotional and educational impact which I wasn’t expecting at all."
"I work at Le Rocquier School and all 160+ year 7’s were able to watch our first performance of the play to an audience.
"They watched it with a “year 6 hat on” and wrote reviews at the end, which was really helpful for me as a playwrite.
"It was ace to see what the kids actually wanted out of it.
"The things I thought they would be concerned about didn’t bother them at all. They did think we should have been longer, had a massive set and more eccentric costumes however. Maybe next time…
"Overall, of all the primary schools that were able to facilitate us in their spaces and timetables we toured to 20 over 2 weeks. Aiming to target year 4 and upwards. Schools that could facilitate more children in the hall also added year 2 and 3 to the mix.
"It was an epic experience and I will 100% be doing it again. Watch this space!"
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