One of it’s our theatre’s favourite artists Rowdy has recently formed a new crew ‘The Element’ and will shortly be joining us for a whole new set of roadshows and workshops for the popular THEATRE IS… programme it’s our theatre: Thurrock. Here’s what she has say…

”I’m inspired to teach young adults who by society might be branded as “difficult”. I think it is really, really important to make young people aware of their talents and potential. I think it’s brilliant when you can get the confidence to dance and you might not have thought you could before. I love seeing how THEATRE IS… encourages young people to really come out themselves! Young people are encouraged to totally come up with their own original work and our entrepreneurial workshops really show young people how you can make a living out of the business. I know it can be difficult for some kids and we do push them to be the best they possibly can, no matter if they choose to become performers or not! All the kids call me ‘The General’ and I do expect the best from young people!”

Q&A with Rowdy!

Q1. Firstly what are your Performance Skills?  Dancer

Q2. How long have you been professional? 9 years

 Q3. What training have you had? Dance school, master workshops, and self-taught

Q4. What inspired you to do what you do? Dancers on TV, my first dance teacher and films.

 Q5. How did you start working with IOT artist / what project are you working on? I got to know Charlie blue though Throwdown and he asked me to join the project. I am a workshop leader on IOT projects and will be working in Thurrock again!

 Q6. Favourite trick/move? Tour je tais knee drop.

 Q7. What are your goals? To be successful in my dance career and travel within my job

 Q8. What’s the worst job you’ve done? Taught a dance class in a tool shed.

 Q9. Who are your heroes?  People who inspire others and are humble.

 Q10. Do you have any other hobbies or pastimes? I Snowboard & rollerskate!

Q11. How often do you train and for how long?  4-5 times a week. 2-3 hours.

Q12. What’s your favourite music? Funk soul and hip hop

Q13. Tell us a secret about yourself? I love flea market shopping.

Yami ‘Rowdy’ Lofvenberg is an it’s our theatre artist currently working with THEATRE IS… in Thurrock.  Aged 13-19 and live in Thurrock? Wanna get into the Hip Hop Arts  and work with great artists like Rowdy? Visit the THEATRE IS… it’s our theatre website here to find out more!

Take Off Festival 2010

TAKEOFF FESTIVAL is the annual sector-development festival for those working in the field of theatre for young audiences. We caught up with artist Kathryn Holt who participated in this years festival for her take on Darlington in 2010.

 ”I found the Departure Lounge really great as a space encouraging the development of an idea. I really appreciated the feedback I received at a crucial time when an idea is in its first stage… when you can benefit so much.

Two of the Departure Lounge sessions were on held on devising for pre-school sessions and stressed the importance of engaging with potential audience and not being too set in a particular way or idea. In fact it was interesting in light of what Stuart Mullins was saying at Take Off Festival with the Scottish model educational vs an English model: a more arts based imperative vs an educational slant. For me-  coming at it from an educational slant and now entering work for young audiences with my non educational focus I find it find it interesting to wear a different hat.

Take Off Festival provided a great opportunity for me to gather my thoughts for my next project with a nursery school for pre- school youngsters in Luton. This is part of my Creative Partnerships project and I will be looking at narrative, story telling spectacle and experience. So much excellent work for youngsters uses the tools of visual, spectacle and sensory experience of course and as part of this I am very interested in unpicking the access of narrative for young people. This had fed from some of the work I have been doing as part of the devising process for Oily Cart’s production Drum.  I currently run pre-school story telling sessions for nursery age youngsters and babies often come. They are fascinated in the story but it is always hard to unpick exactly what captures their attention. My research is around finding more on this particular facination.

The Darlington impending closure was of course very much on all our minds at this years festival with the removal of its funding and we all asked how is this work going to continue?  Lyn Gardner with her most recent blog continually keeps citing how research investment in early arts is extremely beneficial and a much needed investment for young learners that can save money down the line. There is so much substantiated research that really proves how effective arts for early years youngsters is.”

Read Lyn Gardner’s recent blog on the damage of the Arts Cuts will have on Darlington  here

Kathryn Holt, Nov 2010.

Kathryn Holt is freelance artist based in the south-east of England. In 2008 Kathryn was one of 6 artists participating in the Apple Cart Project with  THEATRE IS…

Visit her website here for more on Kathryn’s work.

Now is the time to celebrate the incredible achievements of those who have made theatre for young audiences a jewel in the crown of British theatre. The legacy of increased investment has meant we have a new Unicorn Theatre, a canon of groundbreaking work for early years audiences, the best theatre-makers in the country producing anything from Fevered Sleep’s Brilliant to the National Theatre’s War Horse. That’s the legacy but what of the future?

I courted the opinions of some of the leading artists who make theatre for and with young people – I asked them what they cherish from the last decade and how they might want to develop a bright new future? I did this because last May I paid my first visit to the Imaginate Festival of performing arts for children and young people in Edinburgh and was overwhelmed not just by the quality of the work but the cohesiveness of the Scottish theatre making community. Imaginate constantly juxtaposes Scotland’s theatre with the rest of the world’s. I observed this process with admiration and a touch of envy. This is not just the case in Scotland. Look at the Tweetakt Festival in Utrecht or the innovative and groundbreaking work of Kopergietery in Belgium, and you’ll see a sense of shared purpose and leadership in continental Europe which I don’t think exists in England. There is well-meaning activity such as the creation of the National Campaign for the Arts’ recent drama and theatre manifesto for children and young people, or the tireless work of Steve Ball and the Theatre for Young Audiences steering group. But what we need is a national entity which would provide the strategic leadership and focus necessary to make theatre for young audiences in England consistently world class.

In contrasting English work with our Scottish counterparts, Tony Graham, the inspired leader of the Unicorn, reflects that companies from Scotland face towards continental Europe and borrow from international experience. The brilliant Sarah Argent from Theatre Iolo reflects that a sizable Scottish contingent has developed from a theatrical, rather than an educational premise. The Scottish companies have emerged from vocational drama training and regard themselves primarily as artists. In England and Wales, by comparison, the emphasis has been on education.

What is most important – theatre for young audiences in an educational or instrumental context, or theatre which excites and inspires the next generation of theatre makers? Of course, theatre in an educational context is important. But, as Roger Lang, the former Independent Theatre Council’s young peoples theatre coordinator says “We should not define children and young people purely in terms of education. We don’t do that for adult audiences, so why do it for children and young people?” Of course the two areas of work do not need to live in opposition, but I would argue we need to focus on the quality of the art and its potential to inspire young people – not just on the educational outcomes.It’s an old argument and, let’s be honest, we will always have arguments because we care so much. But it’s an argument that has already been superseded by a new one. The fundamental change is the role our young audiences play in the creation of new work.

Baba Israel, the new artistic director of Contact, would like to see a sector where organisations value the input of young people and perceive them as collaborators and consultants, not simply beneficiaries or participants. I agree. Every day I become aware of a new initiative which sees the authentic voice of the young placed at the centre of an organisation. Theatre Hullabaloo’s new formalised strategy of ‘child-centredness’ is one just example. In 2006, I was asked by Arts Council England to create a new regional strategic organisation, Theatre Is…. The brief was to engage young people in regenerating communities, develop new and innovative work for young audiences, and encourage the best regional and national artists to make work for children. In taking this on, the fundamental difference I wanted to make was a new kind of respect for the culture of the young. So my world is now one of hip hop, digital arts and circus. Every day I learn from a new generation of theatre makers as to what their theatre is. The arts council’s willingness to have an open and creative conversation about a bright new future in these uncertain times is refreshing. So this is my contribution to that conversation:

I want a new non-building based national hub for theatre for young audiences. The hub would create an international festival which brings together young people and the leading artists from around the world. In the development of talent, it would coordinate the outcomes of the various initiatives now taking place in higher education, drama schools and regeneration. This approach would bring to England what the Scottish and our colleagues across the Channel already do so well. It would produce that sense of confidence and cohesiveness which England currently lacks. The model is not hard to find.

Hub, strategy, consortium – whatever we call it – at its heart would be our ambition, shared across the sector, to create a relationship with young audiences that ensures we are creating work which inspires the next generation of theatre makers.

Without them, I fear a return to a bygone age where theatre was for the few and not the many. We all want, after all, great art for everybody.

Stuart Mullins, Creative Director THEATRE IS… September 2010

 Read Jake Orr’s response at A Younger Theatre                                          Follow us on Twitter @theatreis

Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Stuart Mullins, THEATRE IS… Creative Director  gives his thoughts on Edinburgh Fringe Festival Highlights.

From award winning Ontroerendgoed’s Teenage Riot, a show decisively not for teenagers to the surreal and brilliant production of the The Terrible Infants read on for Stuart’s reflections…

Dance Dr Dance

Dr Peter Lovett runs the Psychology of Dance Lab at the University of Herts. The charismatic Dr, who is an ex pro dancer, takes dry old academic study and turns it into a funky fun interactive show. He animates, illustrates and describes three experiments looking at the emotions evoked by both watching dance and actually dancing. He also looks at how the aging process changes how we dance hormonally.

Teenage Riot

This is undoubtedly the talking point of the Fringe Festival. People either love it or hate. It is both frustrating and exhilarating in the rawness of its young subjects. It is not for a teenage audience, is quite obviously an attack by teenagers, at times making the audience feel culpable in the misunderstanding of youth. It’s from Belgium and in many ways is almost beyond British comprehension.

Read the Guardian blog Review here

Our Share of Tomorrow by regional company, Real Circumstance. A powerful piece of writing in Dan Shearer’s first play; a young woman dies and she goes back to the place of her conception to find her real father. Moving, well acted with Jot Turner proving to be something very different.

Roam

Tom Dales latest urban contemporary dance piece. With music by Sion and Shackleton, the piece looks at how meaning can happen when you just allow yourself to leave the door without a plan and just roam… Beautiful fluid dancing with Tom’s signatory choreographic style.

Barbershopera  Rob Castell’s extraordinary troupe of singers and comedy actors satirises the end of the world in Apocalypse? No! Great energy and wonderful humour, Barbershopera is a company going places and we’re very proud Robbie C, for us the star of the show. Rob Castell is an It’s Our Theatre Artist. Find out more here.

Pas Perdus  This French circus piece is a delight for the whole family. Traditional French clown meets highly skilled acro and juggling. Wooden blocks, live music and comedy combine as this troupe of four French circus artists entertain for an hour. The Company are keen to tour the UK.

Operation Greenfield Little Bulb are establishing a reputation for creating work which strongly connects with a young adult audience. Live music, comedy and storytelling combine to create an extraordinary evening which has gained really good crits.

The Terrible Infants Les Enfants Terrible are establishing a strong reputation for creating theatre which engages children and adults alike. Very much in that European Commedia style, the work is a rich mix of live music, larger than life acting and superb visuals.

Wolf Kath Burlinson’s immersive, interactive, promenade piece is a must. It’s physical, visceral and very stimulating. Taking the lives of wolves it mixes the mythical with the mystical incorporating the realities of the life of a current day wolf in the 21^st century.

Bunny Nabakov join forces with the very talented Jack Thorne, he of Skins fame, to see life through the eyes of a local Luton girl. It’s a short but dynamic monologue which has to come to Luton so that it can provoke, intimidate and challenge perceptions of Luton as one of Britain’s lost towns.

www.nabokov-online.com/

Stuart Mullins, Edinburgh 2010

Rowdy in Epiphany

‘Rowdy’ in Epiphany, Cambridge Junction

June 2010 (Lina Orsino Liquid Photography)

For more Epiphany production images please visit www.itsourtheatre.com