Devising Youth Theatre – why I love it!

 

Well, it’s not exactly the smell of the greasepaint! I often joke that we ought to call what we do at The Mill Youth Theatre, Banbury, Minimillist Theatre – because everything we have is minimal – apart from the young people who throw themselves into it, to the MAX!

It’s theatre almost at its purest. After all, what do you really need but a space in which to perform, some actors and an audience?

We don’t have a budget for set or costumes – these are hard times for the arts. For each performance we get two evenings in The Mill Arts Centre theatre supported by a technician, during which I run tec and dress rehearsals for however many groups I have performing – at present, four. It’s a tight schedule as we can’t start till after school and we have to finish reasonably early because of school the next day, but we manage it. The technicians I’ve worked with have responded with everything from impatience to bemused tolerance – it’s not exactly normal territory – but I’m always extremely grateful to them. When you’ve no set other than a few chairs, a few well-timed sound effects and some suggestive lighting make all the difference. The best was when a particularly gifted teccie created the effect of words written in blood, appearing on the wall! He also got his hands on some money for a flame gobo! Bless that man!

On performance night, there are two shows, one for the under 12s and one for the over 12s, and the place buzzes! The under 12s pour in at 5.45, bringing an assortment of props that they’ve begged, borrowed or made and the sort of energy that only excited children can provide! This term we needed an effigy of Edward Jenner (see photo) which I made with two children and a helpful mum one Saturday morning. The only problem was, where to leave him: I didn’t want to keep him in my car but nor did I want to give some unsuspecting cleaner heart-failure if she came across him! Fortunately, we found a bed for him in the scene dock.

Our Juniors’ show this term was about the history of Banbury, each part devised and performed by a different Junior group, starting with the Siege of Banbury Castle and ending with the visit of the Rolling Stones to the Winter Gardens. I was delighted when one little girl brought along some photos she’d taken on a school trip to a local church; we had a section about the notorious murder of John Kalabergo – and she’d been very excited to find his grave in the churchyard!

The Inters, the 12-14s, created a piece of Forum Theatre called ‘The Right Way’ in which they explored the pressures upon them – exam pressure, parental pressure, pressure to be ‘perfect’, pressure from siblings, from bullies and control freaks. I was thrilled by the maturity of their performance which was hilarious in places but still very challenging, well-observed and thought-provoking. They responded brilliantly to the audience’s interventions, improvising new scenes on the spot. I was immensely proud of them.

Some of the members of The Mill Youth Theatre started when they were as young as five and are now in the Inters. It is an immense privilege to see them grow up and to watch their confidence and skill develop. I love the fact that, because we devise our own material, a child has considerable control over how big a role he or she wants to play. No one is consigned to ‘the chorus’; no one does an apprenticeship as a tree – or just a tree, anyway! We are dependent on physical theatre to a large extent – you have to be, if you have no set – but if you’re a tree in one scene, you might very well be the King of the Apes in another, whether you joined the company this term or you’re a seasoned veteran of our twice-yearly performances. Occasionally we will decide to write a script for a scene where we’re struggling to pull it together but that is exceptional. It means that even children who find reading challenging are at no disadvantage. On the whole, the children create their own scenes, perform them for each other, take on the feedback they’re given by me and their peers and then hone them, week after week, until by performance night, they are almost word perfect. I used to panic mid-term, wondering how we would ever get our raw material polished enough for performance but invariably we do. As one of my sons once said, ‘The Magic will happen.’ And it does, time after time after time.

It is the magic of drama and storytelling mixed with the energy and ideas of young people who, given the responsibility and the opportunity to be creative, will be. On performance night, I’m stuck in a wing with a headset so I can talk to the technician. We have some generous parents positioned in the wings in case of emergency – but the children run the show. They know where their props are and they know what they have to do – and they do it with aplomb and gusto.

I am immensely grateful to Deborah Clarke who employed me in the first place, believing I could do something with the 3 children who were on role at that time. The Mill is still a lovely place to work, full of artistic and friendly people who keep the faith, despite these straitened times.

I love devised youth theatre. I love what the young people do. I would give every child the opportunity to be part of a devising theatre company if I could. I think the social and educational benefits are enormous, quite apart from it being tremendous fun for everyone. It’s learning through play in both senses of the word and it starts with imaginative games as toddlers. God forbid that Ofsted with their worries about ‘school readiness’, start interfering with that!