My name’s Amy and I work as the Creative Development Officer in our Education and Outreach department. I have been working with our Outreach Officer, Carly, on a creative project for a group of young people who do not usually have the opportunity to attend the theatre.
We worked in partnership with Nacro, a crime reduction charity, to arrange for a group of young people to get involved in theatre, many of whom are homeless and not in formal education, employment or training.
It’s rare that we get to bring groups like this into the Coliseum, but with support from the Big Lottery’s Young People’s Fund, we have been able to offer an access fund to cover the cost of lunch, transport and resources. This is so important. For this type of group, if support isn't available, these aspects can become real barriers to taking part. The support from the Big Lottery and from Nacro staff meant the group could come to the theatre each session to work in our studio space, where professional actors are usually in rehearsal. This made the project feel really special for participants and staff alike.
We began the project with a fun series of creative games and exercises, to help participants relax and get to know each other, before moving on to develop characters and storylines. It’s really important at the start of this type of project for group members to have fun and feel like they are achieving something straight away. They grew in confidence during these first few sessions, learning that they could take part, create, and have fun doing it!
We then started to explore possible themes for the project. The group decided that homelessness was the common topic that united them all and chose to focus on this. They wanted to challenge stereotypes of homelessness through the project, and were given the chance to perform their work as part of the Coliseum Open Day on Saturday 2nd July 2011. This opportunity, although daunting for some members of the group, gave us a positive goal to aim towards and the motivation to produce something that would both entertain and challenge the audience.
With this in mind, participants set about making comedy sketches and writing rap music about their experiences of homelessness. They wanted to challenge negative ideas of homeless people by demonstrating their own creativity and sense of fun. Group members also worked in partnership with Square 1 Recording Studio and Training Academy to create a track to accompany their performance.
Participants had a lot to deal with on the day of the performance at the Coliseum’s Open Day and generally coped really well under pressure. They performed their piece to 60 people, many of whom made the point of congratulating them afterwards. We were so proud of what they achieved, as were Nacro staff. The group went on to enjoy the rest of the Open Day, getting their faces painted and having a go at learning circus skills!
We are so pleased with the impact that this project has had for members of the group. Although it has been very demanding, they have been really engaged and positive about their experiences. Each individual feels that they have developed transferable skills to take away from the project and many have been surprised by how much they’ve enjoyed doing drama! We’ve learned a lot from them as well.
We are now working with participants to develop their CVs and to complete their Bronze Arts Award portfolios, so they can hopefully top off their achievements with a nationally-recognised level 1 qualification at the end of it all.
Here are a few quotes from the participants:
“The production was aimed to relieve the negative stigma attached to youth and homelessness. Even if the audience didn’t understand what we were trying to get across, we all still had fun.”
“I’ve learned that I can take part in things.”
“Thank you so much for putting up with our antics!”
“I would love to do performance art again.”
No comments:
Post a Comment