Tuesday 14 June 2016

Connecting Dramaturgy I: Vikki Wilson and Debs Hahn @ Lyceum 2016

     

Connections is the National Theatre’s annual festival of new plays for youth theatres and schools. The 2014 Connections cycle involved:

10 Writers
230 Youth Theatre Companies
5,000 Young People
684 Performances
26 Partner Theatres
25,000 Audience Members

Connections gives young people experience of professional theatre-making. Their experience mirrors that of a company producing a new play in any theatre in the country. They create marketing campaigns, design sets and costumes, operate lighting and sound boards, stage-manage their performances. In 2013, each company had the experience of performing in a leading regional theatre, at one of the Connections festivals around the country.

Connections aims to:

inspire 13-19 year olds with high-quality new playwriting
give companies the knowledge, skills and confidence to bring the plays to life
involve a wide range of young companies, giving additional support where needed
encourage young people to get involved in all aspects of theatre making
Join us for NT Connections 2015 at The Lyceum.

VIKKI WILSON, ASSOCIATE DRAMA ARTIST, THE LYCEUM YOUTH THEATRE, PERFORMING CELEBRATING CONNECTIONS (DEVISED) – LYT DISCOVER, CRAIGROYSTON CAST

What was the inspiration for this performance?
We were given the theme of ‘celebration‘, and so started thinking about the various milestones and events in life we enjoy – from the trivial to the poignant. Then we had the idea of ranking these and our show concept developed from there.

How did you become interested in making performance?
I joined a youth theatre at a very young age and discovered the wonders of performance. As I became older, I started seeing real value in creating my own work as drama became not only an outlet for me socially but also forced me to think about my role within wider society.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
Certainly – but in some ways it was much quicker – the young people were very keen to ‘build’ as quickly as possible and so worked at an alarmingly fast rate!

What do you hope that the audience will experience?
Moments of joy, sadness and nostalgia.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
Once we came up with our framing devise (a countdown) the rest fell into place – we were conscious that we had to manipulate certain events in order to vary the pictures and content on stage.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
A lot of my work has verbatim influences and this is the case for our Connections performance. Many of the moments and stories the audience see on stage have been informed by the cast’s experiences.


DEBS HAHN, WHALE DRAMA ARTIST,  LYCEUM YOUTH THEATRE, PERFORMING CELEBRATING CONNECTIONS (DEVISED)_– LYT DISCOVER, WHALE CAST 
What was the inspiration for this performance?

The meeting point between the ideas of the group and my ideas. The young people have a lot of thoughts about they place they are in at the moment, and I, as a (kind of!) grown up have my own ideas from a different perspective. I think it's really interesting when they introduce me to their ideas, and hopefully they will be interested in hearing mine too!

How did you become interested in making performance?
Again I think it's all about sharing ideas, and performance is a great way for people to do that. And making something together as a group, which you get to share with other people, who clap at the end is pretty exciting! I'm a pretty active person, so I like to do as well as think - making performance is kind of like "doing" the ideas.

 Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
This is only a short piece - if we had longer I would spend more time exploring ideas and trying things out which may not end up in the performance. In a shorter piece I would aim to create a structure which allows everyone a voice and a moment. 

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

Young people's voices on stage. 

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