I'm embarking on a period of cross-blogging for a variety of reasons. I have to use my wordpress account right now for a digital literacies internship I'm doing up at the University of Exeter. (It's a great opportunity to meet other researchers who are interested in digital communication, so no complaining at all! Very excited!)
However, the project blog is hosted on Wordpress, which creates a bit of a conundrum for me. Do I phase out this blog? (I heart that I can use video on blogspot, whereas Wordpress are cheap and make you pay for the privilege.) Or do I try to cross-post in both blogs and hope that it doesn't drive me mad?
No perfect solutions, but for now I'm keeping both active.
For a post about the current DYT work, see my wordpress site.
And there's this montage video too, just for kicks.
The Devon Youth Theatre 2012 season is about to commence... my heart is aflutter with all the creative possibilities! Please note that the Exeter session on 21st January is all booked up already, but there are still a few spaces at Newton Abbot (14th Jan) and Ottery St Mary (28th Jan). If you're interested, head on over to the DAISI website and download the application form. It's free...
Here's a link to a video which was made during last year's season, which involved over 100 young people from across Devon during the outreach phase, and provided a professional theatre experience at the Northcott Theatre for our 25 company members and technicians.
On Our Terms was hugely successful, and our performance at Devon County Council involved 9 public sector employees who joined in with good humour and will to dialogue with the young people involved in the project.
But that said,
I find myself disappointed by the lack of a council presence at any of the youth centre performances, despite repeated personal invitations from our booking manager, various youth service representatives, and the recommendation of those who attended the County Council site-specific performance.
It was discouraging to develop a piece which aims to open up dialogue around issues that matter, and have very few councillors bother to attend.
Two weeks of touring the interactive show On Our Terms have just finished for the Vital Spaces Company, and it has been an amazing (and eye-opening) tour.
The highlights for me include:
*Getting a chance to watch the company grow and develop with new artistic talent... the combination of secondary students with first year and second year undergraduates was dynamic, and created a really special community to create work within. At times (unstoppably) giggly, at times tired and stressed, we've really laughed a lot over the last month. It's been a joyful rehearsal space every day.
*Touring around some of Devon's youth centres. Our visits to The Station in Ottery St Mary and The Phoenix Youth Centre in Wonford were inspiring. Both the honesty of the young people and the quality of youth work on offer were outstanding. It made me really appreciate how important these spaces are. Our evening at the Phoenix Youth club was finished with bowls of chips, dancing, and games of pool. It was a special evening.
*Our longest day - Wednesday the 8th of June - where we delivered five performances. Watching the company work through it, and the ways that the facilitation developed and grew throughout the day was very rewarding. The tiny little meetings between performances, where the facilitators triage and problem-solve little issues around phrasing and question-order. This is the magic of the craft for me - responsiveness to the needs of each group and site. This is praxis.
*Looking at the long-term Vital Spaces team, watching how their facilitation skills have grown and deepened to a professional standard, and talking with them about their journey over the last two years... from our first film workshops in Torquay to this touring show, and what an amazing series of projects we've worked on together. I'm humbled and inspired by how much time and energy they pour into this project. It couldn't exist without them.
*Watching secondary students really step up - both as performers within the physical theatre pieces, and as facilitators. At times it was hard to tell who was a university student and who was still at school... their maturity, focus, and commitment were a pleasure to watch.
*Our session at the Coaver Club, where I was reminded that many public sector employees are thoughtful, warm, giving, and hard-working public servants, who don't get enough credit for the good work they do.
*Silly little things that make a project sing - Piers always entering Image of Power to cuddle or hug someone. Emma Rose saying that she is happy when she can 'reach the shelf.' Rosalie being unable to do the maze without laughing. Managing to fit the table into my car. How happy you can make a group with caramel digestive biscuits. Having a youth worker shake your hand and mean it when they say 'come back again'. These are the things that really matter.
I spent the weekend down at the Torquay seafront, with the Graffiti Workshop team and some arts development officers from Torbay Council. I'd been asked to come down and document a graffiti workshop that was being run with local young people, and the images below show some of the magic of the day.
However, as the Monday rolled round, and the project garnered the usual community outrage that seems to follow any participatory arts work in the area, I find myself feeling frustrated and a little bit defeated by the resistance such a wholly good-and-healthy event can raise.
I suppose that's part of the aim of public art - this unique and tasty blend of participation and dialogue, which shakes up a community in all kinds of ways.
Just having been down at the Palm Court Hotel for those two days, and watching the professionals lead the sessions, I can say unequivocably that these kinds of projects are essential.
As Mischa Eligoloff eloquently put it, 'It's our young people claiming back the site.' May there be more of it.
As part of the development of On Our Terms, the Vital Spaces Company's current touring piece, we're attempting to document what the devising process looks like.
The PhD research which drives this work is attempting to examine and interrogate how artistic decisions and dialogue impact the process... here is a tiny window into the development of the work, and a chance to see how it develops.
Watching this back, I was struck by how much of being a quality member of a collaborative company has to do with listening and saying yes. A lot. It seems to me that whilst artistic leadership is key, the actual people who make the process work are the ones who understand how to work to someone else's vision fluidly, immediately, and responsively.
This ongoing 3-year research project looks at how young people perform a sense of identity both in theatrical venues and in their daily lives. Using progressive devised theatre strategies, it explores means of expanding these identities and the various kinds of literacies necessary to express them.
Interested? For more information, contact Project Coordinator, Erin Walcon at ewalcon(at)gmail.com.
A drama educator with over a decade of international experience, Erin specializes in work with youth aged 11-20. Her research looks at how the arts can be used to celebrate identity and place, and to create dialogue between people in community.
