Get-Togethers
Blog by Kai Sanderson
GET-TOGETHERS are day-long gatherings for youth theatre leaders, participants and freelancers to connect, share practice and help finalise our strategy for the future of youth theatre. This blog was written by Kai, aged 16, a Youth Theatre Participant that attended the Get-Together in Liverpool, about their experience of the day.
Intro:
There are copious amounts of youth theatres across the United Kingdom: some completely voluntary, relying heavily on donations, and some which are quite well funded. However, there is a common denominator that could be built on between these youth theatres; and that is connection and collaboration between these youth theatres.
An active solution:
‘Youth Theatre Together’ was an event that took place on Tuesday 30th June that I had the pleasure of attending. It had a wide range of ages - being 16-60 as an age range (I know right.. wow) and also had a wide range of youth theatre representatives from all over the place!
It started by us all doing some ice breaking activities, to get comfortable with each other - as a-lot of us had never met before - which then followed by Leanne (the person who was the workshop leader) making it clear to us that everyone’s experience matters - however, listening to the younger people like myself first (which I found very empowering). And Leanne also made it very clear that it was a non-judgmental space as well - which I also found to create a more relaxed atmosphere amongst me and the other people attending this workshop.
After this, we then went into a fun exercise-which consisted of the people at the workshop getting into groups of their youth theatres and doing two freeze frames to represent their youth theatres; which each group then presented to the rest of the group and explained what it meant (which I saw improve lots of peoples confidence for being around this new group of people). My youth theatre group is “20 Stories High” - based in Toxteth, Liverpool. Our pose was us all holding a microphone and pretending to rap (as our youth theatre is hip hop based)- which everyone LOVED!!
After this, we then discussed the future of youth theatre - and it was made clear to the young people that WE are the future and youth theatres should have the facilities to help us develop our creative arts and open career paths for these arts.
Then we went on to discuss the boundaries that may occur for young people who may want to get involved in Youth theatre - but can’t yet because of some potential factors. Instead of just talking about this, Leanne had us take a more creative approach to it: we created a character (which we drew ourselves) , and then labelled some good things about this character (e.g. they are creative) - however, also labelled some things that may hold a person back from joining a youth theatre (e.g. how they dress makes them feel as if they wouldn’t fit in, their confidence etc). We then introduced these characters to the room and talked about them.
After a break, we then were put into groups where we introduced these characters to each other and had a task of finding solutions to breaking these boundaries - which we then presented to the rest of the room.
We then had lunch, which we then after coming back together, played some games introduced by some of the youth theatres (my favourite was this pointing game where you had to pretend to be a cheese grater as an action - I know right, random). Then we got into groups with our characters again and did a “what if?” activity: this is where we imagined our character had joined a youth theatre and what we would include in an ideal programme for what would most support their development as an artist and also how they could be supported as a person. After A-LOT of these, we then picked a few that benefited our characters the most (one of mine was a uniform getting introduced-because then people won’t feel insecure about the way they’re dressed). This was done in perspective of a local scale (what could be implemented locally to match these “what ifs”). However, we then discussed what could be done to make this more applicable on a national scale (one of my ideas was a national uniform to be introduced across all “youth theatre together” ppts).
The section that then followed was my personal FAVOURITE! In this section we were put into randomly allocated groups (aside my group-which was all the young people) and we were then tasked with creating a pitch for an event which could promote and make people feel inclined to join a youth theatre group. My group came up with the idea of putting together a street party-with guests from the acting scene and live music as well.
We then closed the workshop with a pair discussion of what we liked most about this workshop and what we would like to happen in the future for youth theatre for young people. This I found very empowering as well, as I found that my pair had such similar views to me and this was great.
Overall I found this workshop so helpful, the people that were at the youth theatre together session were so lovely and it was a pleasure to have some sophisticated conversations with them - without feeling as if I was being looked down upon because I was younger. A common denominator that I found between me and my peers was a lack of opportunities to perform - as we had found that the only opportunities we had been provided with to showcase our arts was in a theatrical situation. This therefore made us come to the conclusion that we would like more opportunities to perform / get involved in professional events like tv sets, theatre productions, and music shows. But this session made me and my peers feel so empowered to voice these desires and find strategies for them to be implemented in future-and we felt so heard.
Conclusion:
If you’ve made it this far in the blog, give yourself a pat on the back… you’re nearly at the end. If you take anything from this blog, read this conclusion! Actions speak louder than words!
In conclusion, this session made me feel so empowered and more willing to voice my opinion. These Youth Theatre Together sessions improved my confidence to talk by such a substantial amount and I would urge young people like myself to get involved in youth theatre. I also would love for young people like myself to also push for more opportunities to perform as well, as it can be such a turning point for some young artists and can help provide them with the recognition they deserve.
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