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
Dramaturgy database, Lyceum, the national theatre, Connections 2016,
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.
KIRSTY
RENNIE, LYT INTERN, LYCEUM YOUTH THETARE, PERFORMING CELEBRATING CONNECTIONS (DEVISED) – LYT DISCOVER, VENCHIE
GROUP
What
was the inspiration for this performance?
The inspiration for my performance came from the
theme of Celebration. All of the Discover tutors were set this theme from our
Producer but then it was up to us how we wanted to use this stimulus to shape
our performance. I decided that for Venchie’s performance we would hold a
birthday party, with a twist. The group are really funny and I knew they would
want to do something light hearted to show off their comical natures.
How
did you go about gathering the team for it?
I have a cast of 10, and they are regular attendees
at the Venchie drama club. However, originally we started off with 8 female
members, but managed to recruit 2 male members who were interested in drama and
went to the same school as some of the other members.
How
did you become interested in making performance?
I have always had a passion for theatre and
recently graduated from Queen Margaret University with my degree in Drama and
Performance. When I was younger I was involved in school productions and was a
member of a local youth theatre for 3 years. As I grew older I began to prefer
the facilitation side of theatre, especially when working with young people.
Therefore at university I pursued this further and did as much community
related work with young people as I could.
Was
your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
It was typical in the sense that I always do a big
brain storming session with the young people to generate ideas and then we
narrow it down to our favourite idea, which happened to be the birthday party.
I then created the basic outline of the show from some of their improvisation
work, but gave them control over the character traits – we have decided to base
our characters on different personalities which I thought was a brilliant idea
from the young people.
I play around with some of their ideas for a few
sessions, and then begin to structure the performance more and rehearse.
What
do you hope that the audience will experience?
I hope the audience will have a good time with the
performance and enjoy the party. I want them to laugh with us and hopefully
relate to some of the characters, because some of the scenarios have definitely
happened to people before!
What
strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
The main strategy I considered was that I wanted to
keep the scenarios as realistic as possible so that the audience could relate
to some of the characters.
Do
you see your work within any particular tradition?
I don’t see this particular performance working
within any particular tradition, but normally I do follow the Brechtian
tradition of breaking the fourth wall to engage the audience in my
performances.
LINDA GRANT, DIRECTOR, INDELIBILE ARTS YOUTH
THEATRE, PERFORMING THE MUSICIANS BY PATRICK MARBER
What was the inspiration for
this performance?
Written by
Patrick Marber for Connections - The play is about a High School Orchestra who
travel to Russia to play a concert as part of a festival. Unfortunately due to
an “incident” their instruments are impounded by customs and they must
decide what to do next. Luckily with the help from a Russian cleaner,
with a penchant for rock music, all is not lost… Patrick Marber at the
Directors workshop in London said he wanted to write a fun play that could work
in any area of Britain, could be performed by a large ensemble and
celebrated music and life.
How did you go about gathering the
team for it?
We started
our Youth Theatre in East Lothian 3 years ago, so that our Primary School
students could continue drama classes throughout their teens. From eight
students we grew to three groups with over 60 members. This is the second year
our senior groups have been involved in Connections. The rest of the year we
are involved in devised and site pieces so it’s interesting for us to use a
script and perform in a more formal setting once a year.
How did you become interested in
making performance?
I was always interested in drama and
was myself a member of a Youth Theatre when i was growing up. After studying
history at Glasgow I travelled extensively and spent 2 years in Japan teaching
English at a Japanese High School where I used drama techniques to bring my
English classes to life. On my return I spent five years trying out different
career paths and hold down a “proper job” only to finally realise
that teaching drama to young people was where I felt most happy. After gaining
10 years experience working with various different theatre schools I
set up a Theatre Arts Company, The Drama Mill and Indelible Arts Youth Theatre
in East Lothian. We are in our fourth year now and I am delighted to say
we have around 500 children attending our after school workshops.
Was your process typical of the way
that you make a performance?
As we
generally devise pieces this was not a typical way for us to work as we had a
script from the beginning. Generally we create site specific or site responsive
pieces showcasing different fantastic location in East Lothian. However, we did
incorporate some of our devising techniques to build the characters of our
musicians in our ensemble and had fun devising the movement and arranging the
final song.
What do you hope that the audience
will experience?
It is a
really fun and life affirming piece of theatre that should leave the audience
feeling entertained and uplifted.
What strategies did you consider
towards shaping this audience experience?
As we have
a company of young actors we chose a play that we felt our participants and
their friends could relate too. We also performed locally I e in
North Berwick so it would be easier for friends and family to attend and within
the context of the play we utilised music and lighting to shape the
audience experience.
Do you see your work within any particular
tradition?
We try to
vary our style as much as possible to give our young participants as
many different experiences within “theatre’ as possible.
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