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
BARRY
HENDERON, DIRECTOR, ROYAL CONSERVATOIRE OF SCOTLAND, PERFORMING WHAT ARE THEY
LIKE BY LUCINDA COXIN
What was the inspiration for
this performance?
As this was the first year of the
new RCS Company it felt like an opportunity to engage with NT Connections and
offer the new company something challenging to work towards. The selection
of the play (What Are They Like, by
Lucinda Coxon) was a decision based on the makeup of the group and the
challenge for young people to portray parents on stage and tell the
stories in the play with a youthful energy. As an ensemble the group found the
text itself very inspiring and decided that the approach to making it
should involve play, physical performance and exciting storytelling.
How did you go about gathering the
team for it?
At RCS we have a fantastic range of degree
students who are always looking for ways to engage with the emerging
performance community and to collaborate on exciting projects. The Short
Courses department is always looking for ways to engage with different
departments and provide students with opportunities to develop their skills and
enhance their practice. Robbie Gordon, our co-director, is a final year
Contemporary Performance Practice student and emerging director. We asked him
to be involved in this project because of his performance background and both
he and I have a similar way of working which involves applying
devising principles to work with young people. Similarly, our LX
Designer, Daniel, is a current Production Technology Management student and
Conor, our Costume Designer, is a 6th year short courses student who
is interested in pursuing this as a career and was offered the opportunity to
come on board to put his skills into practice.
Many of the young people in our company are a
mix of students from our weekly drama classes and some who have come on board
just for this practical performance experience. They travel far and wide to
come along to our sessions and have been a fantastic ensemble to work with.
How did you become interested in
making performance?
I trained briefly in
acting and then after some consideration I decided to take a more contemporary
route and studied on the CPP course at RCS. This gave me the interest in
creating new work which seeks to challenge and is always new. I have since
directed for 10 years applying my own interest in devising and
creating new work with a great number of young people. The devising process
allows young people to be instinctive and honest in the theatre they make and
ignites a level of freedom in them within performance, which I love. I then use
this freedom to create work which sometimes (not
always) uses existing texts and provides a way to present them
in entirely original ways.
Was your process typical of the
way that you make a performance?
The process involved a lot of
physical work and devised based playing in the space. I worked with a limited
number of objects/costumes and sounds which would be put into the space for the
cast to play with and hopefully find interesting moments of
performance. Through a process of creating choreographies based on the text we
would improvise the text/sound/objects and most importantly the
energy and creativity of the cast. After a few rehearsals, I reviewed
some of the material made and as an ensemble we began to shape the show
from there. The text allows for real visual storytelling to take place and so
the combination of playing and text allowed me and Robbie to pull together all
of those elements to create the piece.
What do you hope that the audience
will experience?
I hope they will experience a
really engaging mediation of parenthood and a performance which keeps them
engaged throughout. It is a show which doesn't settle for too long on
any one idea and keeps moving and changing, which I hope makes the piece feel
exciting. I also hope anyone watching, either parent or child will
find a connection with the stories being told.
What strategies did you consider
towards shaping this audience experience?
I ensured throughout the
devising process that the show remained as constantly energetic and stimulating
show. The show is text heavy and I felt strongly that I had to support the text
with images and physical performance which would keep the ball in the air
throughout the show. I worked with each cast member to ensure the delivery of
the stories and the portrayal of the characters was truthful and also that
the lighter side of the stories was remaining present. The script has a
lot of comedy writing and I wanted to make sure that was delivered to its
full.
Do you see your work within any
particular tradition?
I think this piece sits well
within the tradition of devising physical and visual work with young people. It
brings together my devising and creating contemporary work
discipline also with script work.
RACHAEL
ESDALE, PRODUCER LYCEUM YOUTH THEATRE, PERFORMING ECLIPSE BY SIMON ARMITAGE
What was the inspiration for this
performance?
As the Lyceum Youth Theatre has
been taking part in Connections for many years I was keen to select a script
which stepped outside our usual style. Eclipse offers us beautiful poetic lines
about an event, told in flashback, which unravels throughout the performance.
It makes the audience make a decision which we have to facilitate. All of these
factors give our young people a chance to take control of their creative
journey and final product.
How did you go about gathering the
team for it?
Our cast auditioned to take part
in Eclipse. Each person was cast into a certain role which allowed us to
explore their skill set, develop their strengths and increase their performance
knowledge.
Kirsty Rennie, the Assistant
Director, is an LYT Intern and Paul Rodger is our Production Manager who has
worked on Connections with LYT since time began. Having a mixed team of new to
this industry and years of experience has created a crucible of artistic input
from which this show was created.
How did you become interested in
making performance?
I initially trained as a
performer, and quickly realised I could not fore-go my own creative ideas for
that of another. I had spent years in Youth Theatre and knew the value of
inclusive performance opportunities offered to young people, and I feel
passionately about drama being an chance to develop as a performer, and as an
individual. I trained as an Assistant Director with Perth Youth Theatre before
moving into the Youth Theatre sector. I have recently become the Producer of
LYT which has allowed me to Direct but also build opportunities and projects
for young people.
Was your process typical of the
way that you make a performance?
The ambiguity of Eclipse allowed
for us to debate the storyline and timeline of the characters and what their
relationships, background, and future would be shaped liked. We spent time
working out our individual opinions on each character and then worked out how
best to portray these different outcomes. As each character is double cast,
(one set on the beach and another, 7 years their senior, in a police station),
we had to develop character traits and reactions which would span across both
performers to show a clear link, whilst also showing a clear age difference.
This lead to experimentation and constant development of the production as a
whole until we arrived at a place which every performer agreed their character
was established. Once we had the tools in place to tell the story, we tackled
the abnormal nature of the poetry, which the script picks up and drops
throughout, in order to clearly tell the story.
What do you hope that the audience
will experience?
I hope the audience will
experience a production which they are pulled into. I hope there is a character
which each person can see a little bit of themselves in. I hope it leaves
the audience feeling like they know exactly what happened, until they discuss
it with the person sitting next to them.
What strategies did you consider
towards shaping this audience experience?
Whilst exploring the text we each
decided on what we thought happened and who/what we thought Lucy Lime is/was.
We debated and, sometimes, argued our own points. In the end we had to agree to
disagree. To carry this feeling of ambiguity and certainty into our audience,
each person is performing towards their own outcome, what they believe their
character did or didn’t do and how they would then interact with the other
characters on stage.
Do you see your work within any
particular tradition?
I would like to think my work
gives young people a voice, an opportunity to share their passion and knowledge
on stage and leaves them with something to be proud of. To achieve this I think
my tradition is to change my traditions to find the best way to work with each
group and each piece I take on.
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