For those who follow my
career, you might come to the conclusion I have an affinity for youth theatre. You would be wrong.
I love youth theatre.
The fact is, I owe a lot
to youth theatre and I don’t want to blither on about why youth theatre
matters. Just check out my poem. See
you in 7 minutes 17 seconds.
Watched it? Back?
Cool.
This year, I have made it
a personal challenge to see as much Youth Theatre as I possibly can. I work for the National Association of Youth
Theatres, as well as being a freelance workshop facilitator and play-wright.
I work with the Lawrence
Batley Youth Theatre in Huddersfield each week, the older group are brilliantly
sparky when it comes to unpacking texts and creating brilliant comedy moments
from the 1960s absurd plays we’re exploring.
The younger group are looking at Shakespeare and they work so well as an
ensemble, at times I assume they’re all psychic. That must be it.
I saw loads of great shows
at the Regional Youth Theatre Festival, but Nottingham Playhouse’s Frankenstein really stood not just as a
piece of ensemble work tighter than steel bolts building images like a grand
canvas, but it was also hauntingly atmospheric which left me gripped for the
full edited 20ish mins of the dark tale. I led a workshop at RYTF in the East Midlands, and it is an amazing event, sheer beauty of young people coming together to share work, take part in workshops. Here is a video of them charging onto stage this year to dance!
Check out other RYTFs across the country here: http://www.nayt.org.uk/events
Wakefield’s Yew Tree Youth
Theatre delivered a well-paced version of the NT Connections script The Wardrobe which forces the young casts
to throw everything into miniature snippet scenes. But they rose to that challenge, and the production
was cunningly set in the round for the voyeuristic audience to peer into the history
of this wardrobe steeped in memories.
I caught both The West
Yorkshire Playhouse Youth Theatre & Stephen Joseph Theatre Youth Theatre’s productions
of Pronoun, a fantastic script by Evan Placey about a transgender teenager. Their main character of Dean is making the transition
from female to male. Scarborough’s Dean
was a right lad, the sort of bloke you’d love to share some tinnies armed with
sharp swagger and sarcasm, making his speeches bold and resolute. Leeds’ Dean was pained and scrawny, unsure
what to do with his hands and looking like life keeps handing him blow after
blow. Proof of the diversity of youth theatre
scripts and performances.
I went on a demo against
the Lib Dem conference in York. It was
the most inoffensive, ineffective protest I’ve ever been on. Thankfully, afterwards, I went to York
Theatre Royal to see their 5-8s perform two plays about the plight of the dying
bees through fun ensemble, great costumes, gags, puns and wicked dancing. They were deliciously more relevant to modern
issues than a load of Unions silently marching A to B. “Hey cuz/what’s the buzz?”
I also spent the weekend
seeing York Theatre Royal’s 14-16s adaptations of Macbeth, The Tempest and Julius Caesar. Macbeth
was everything the Scottish play should be: intense, visceral and gloriously
gory, but with added scenes by the inventive Porter(s) and the creepiest
witches EVER. The Tempest is my fav Shakespeare play and the cast created a
magical island full of sounds and a breezy charm only an Ariel ensemble can
provide. Finally, Julius Caesar’s cast managed to untangle their path through plot
and intrigue, playing with their own take on power struggles and powerful
struggle.
And finally, I went to see
Harrogate Theatre’s Youth Theatre perform Hang
On Just A Minute. You see dear
reader…I wrote it! The show was a
commission for their 15-17s, and was about 4 characters celebrating and acting
out the strange wishes of their sadly deceased friend. A collection of four short plays which all
interconnect where characters, events and locations are referenced to encourage
audiences to sit through and see the whole picture of a world of workplaces, authority
figures and friendship all played out with traditional theatre farce. The cast threw themselves into the characters
and sold themselves to the overarching theme of friendship.
When I wrote Hang
On Just A Minute, I wrote inspired by workshops with the cast, and chatting
with them too. I wanted it to be a play about friendship, either old firm
bonds or making new acquaintances. Moments when you help a stranger, or
reignite old relationships. Because it’s safe, special places like Youth
Theatre sessions that we must always strive towards in the world of arts, as
well as outside in our hospitals, homes workplaces and parks.
So, yeah. My year of seeing As Much Youth Theatre As
Possible is still ongoing and I hope to catch Stage65’s Bedlam at Salisbury Playhouse in May and hopefully Derby Theatre’s Chrysalides and Bolton Octagon’s Youth
Theatre Twelfth Night if the dates
work out for me.
My next challenge is to
adapt A Midsummer Night’s Dream for
7-11s, again for Harrogate Youth Theatre.
Watch out for some blogs about that experience!
