On the 4th September 2014 A group of our Year 10 Performing Arts students were invited to participate in the project’s 15^th annual open workshop.  This particular event consisted of a mini Japanese drum workshop and a 15 minute performance, including the drum master Motoichi Yuzawa, with 19 students from the Department of Performing Arts, Katayanagi Institute, Tokyo University of Technology.  Following the drum workshop we used drama pre-texts to create physical theatre based on an ancient Japanese tale.  The project uses drama pre-texts to draw on Japanese and UK drama traditions in order to generate shared understandings about the world and the role of drama in it.  Our students worked alongside the Katayanagi students to gain insights into Japanese culture, Japanese theatre traditions and language, Applied Drama and dramatized narrative.  The workshop was run by Professor Allan Owens (UK) and Naomi Green (UK/JAPAN), authors of “Applied Drama: Communication Through Pre-texts, 2010, Tokyo: Toshobunka”.  Our students thoroughly enjoyed the experience and have learnt techniques and developed skills that they will now apply to their continuing study of Performing Arts here at Blacon High School.  It was a pleasure to work alongside Professor Allan Owens and Naomi Green, who presented an exciting and invigorating learning experience for the students from Tokyo and from Chester.  We look forward to working collaboratively with the University again.