A resources pack for Drama Teachers with lesson plans for teachers using Race to Been: Graham the World’s Fastest Blind Runner by Mark Wheeller.
This scheme of work was a favourite of Mark’s students from when he was teaching and an exemplar by Edexcel for their GCSE examination. It includes:
- A novel way of introducing the rich content of Race to be Seen and its main themes to the class.
- Games to explore being blind.
- A hot seating exercise to get under the skin of the characters.
- Staging different moments in Race to be Seen – with a unique twist as the final session (which students love).
- Exploring the role of narrators in verbatim theatre.
- Staging ‘impossible scenes’ – in this instance the race scenes.
Tracy Dorrington (Drama Matters) has further developed this scheme to deal with the battle of social distancing which makes the play all the more accessible regardless of circumstances.
Race to be Seen tells the life story of Graham Salmon MBE who, as a baby, had his eyes removed due to an incurable eye cancer but went on to become a world champion athlete. Graham was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as The World’s Fastest Blind Runner in 1976 (100m in 11.4 seconds). He went on to play golf and hit a famous “hole in one” in The Blind Open Golf Championship.
“Graham Salmon is the most inspiring athlete I have met; I say this without a moment’s hesitation even though I have enjoyed the rare privilege of sharing the company of Muhammad Ali, Stanley Matthews, Gary Sobers, Martina Navratilova, Nadia Comaneci, Pele, Arnold Palmer and countless others in the course of my job.” Robert Philip Daily Telegraph.
The range of the main roles will challenge actors… particularly the role of Graham. His story is inspiring and captivates KS 4 (and beyond) students.
