Theatre with Young People

I direct, teach and facilitate theatre performances, projects and one-off sessions in a variety of contexts, including: schools, universities, theatres, and within communities. I work with youth theatres, school children, young mums, young carers, and young people in danger of being excluded from school.
 
I specialise in making site and context specific experimental theatre and often make work that draws on participants’ own expertise, experiences and stories.
I’m interested in theatre’s potential to develop an individual’s creativity and confidence and I place a strong emphasis on process. I work hard to find appropriate forms of theatre and also fitting contexts for sharing work. I place an emphasis on making people feel safe and empowered in performance – and ensure that I draw on existing skills and experiences of the group so that participants own what they create.
 
Recent Projects

(I THINK) I LOVE YOU (November 2011)


A part-choreographed, part-improvised performance made with teenagers about being in and out of love. It takes place all around the audience who are seated as if they are in the club / party.  
 
 

BOOK LABYRINTH: A site-specific immersive performance made with an ensemble of 14-18 year olds for World Book Day
 
 
Made especially for The Egg Children’s Theatre in association with Bath Literature Festival, for World Book day 2011, this atmospheric performance scaled the balconies, stairways and hidden corners of the auditorium, bringing cherished literary moments alive.  Book Labyrinth is an immersive piece of theatre for a family audience, made by an ensemble of young people for the Theatre Royal’s Family Theatre Festival. 

An archive of people's favourite children's books accompanied the piece: 

Archive for egg(1) by oliverjowen Photo Credits: Nick Spratling and Suzette Gibbs

WESTON-SUPER-NIGHTMARE: Slingshot Games: a site-specific cross-town chase game made with teenagers and a large creative team and designed for up to 100 other teenagers to participate in. 

 

Photo Credit: Carl Newland

ONE-ON-ONE PERFORMANCE OF MACBETH for The Shakespeare Festival, Theatre Royal Bath

We created a performance for one family at a time - using both extracts from the original text and improvised performance to create an interactive piece.  This gave us the chance to playfully re-imagine the possibilities of what you can do with Shakespeare and the opportunity to create an installed immersive performance taking place within beautiful tents that we made with the backstage team.  Photo Credit: Nick Spratling

COTHAM SCHOOL SUMMER SCHOOL: Developing a Play from Materials

 

We started this project by experimenting and creating worlds out of materials and then developed a story around the worlds.  I wanted the project to be very child-led and saw my role as to find a form that could both hold and develop their ideas whilst allowing them as much freedom and space for imagination and experimentation as possible.

CUE BRISTOL 16 YRS +

Cue Bristol Performance Image

 

This piece was developed with the group through improvisation and play – they were interested in creating a comedy that they felt other young people could relate to. My role was to shape their ideas, challenge them but ultimately be led by what they wanted to do and to find ways to support them in achieving the highest quality realization of their ideas possible.

Since 2002 I have worked with: Arnolfini, Creative Partnerships, Cue Bristol and Theatre Royal Bath amongst others.