About 'MELVA' - the play:
'MELVA' tells the story of a 10-year-old girl whose struggles with anxiety, or 'worrits' as she knows them, keep her from leaving the house.

Her Grandpa has grown so worried about her that he fakes his own disappearance in the hope that it will compel Melva to leave the house and overcome her ‘bad worrits’.

​What follows is a funny and poignant adventure for them both, where each learn how their ‘worrits’ affect them and new ways to tackle them separately and together.​​

About 'MELVA' - the project:
Thanks to strategic level funding from Arts Council England, this production has now been developed into a touring theatre package for schools, in partnership with our friends at Children North East:
​

• Printed lesson plans and online project resources for KS2 classroom use
• 80min theatre performance and accompanying post-show workshops featuring characters from the play
• One day practical wellbeing and resilience CPD training workshop for mental health leads / SENDcos

---

**This package is currently unavailable due to Covid-19 restrictions**

Mortal Fools intend to resume offering this live creative intervention touring programme to schools as soon as social distancing measures allow, and the risk posed is deemed to be manageable. 

In the meantime, we have a developed a digital package which is available for schools to register their interest in now.

​"I learned that being afraid of something doesn't mean you can't do it"

“It was very funny and made me understand more about anxiety”

- pupils, melva tour autumn 2019

What it's like to have MELVA in your school:

Hear Headteacher, Jacqueline Mowat, talk about her experience of having the MELVA project in her school, Hareside Primary School:

"Melva is simply the best drama intervention I have ever seen [...] the rewards are instant and long-lasting"
​

HEADTEACHER, PARTICIPATING SCHOOL

We piloted the live package in Autumn 2019 and Spring 2020.

MELVA 2019-20: THE HIGHLIGHTS...

• We performed MELVA 28 times
• We delivered 89 post-show workshops
• We delivered 12 hours of Teacher CPD focusing on wellbeing and resilience
• We visited 21 schools across the North-East of England
• A further 12 schools came to see us at Gosforth Civic Theatre
• We worked with 2,800 children to help them better understand, recognise, and control their worrits.
  

---