THEATRE IS… was fortunate to have a well established relationship with Charlie Morley and his company, Throwdown UK which had at its fingertips the UK’s best Hip Hop artists. Having indentified who amongst them were great teachers and perfect role models, we engaged them to deliver the first pilot of IOT in Norfolk. What’s really exciting is that a year after the project started those artists continue to work in Norwich, Great Yarmouth and North Norfolk, often employed by the young people who were initially developed as creative entrepreneurs through it’s our theatre and organisations such as The Garage and Sea Change Arts.

When working with young people I am always learning. It became increasingly apparent that the barrier to creativity was not their lack of enthusiasm but perhaps a lack of understanding from the adults and institutions that surrounded them. Our young professional artists empathised because of course they had overcome a similar struggle. Charlie and I decided to respond to this by creating a new piece of theatre which reflected the experiences of those artists.

During our process of research we became increasingly aware of the connection between our artists’ stories and the work of Sir Ken Robinson. His book ‘The Element’ beautifully articulates the stories of people who against all the odds fought to be in their element, the place where they felt most at home and where life made most sense. Some of the people Ken writes about have gone onto be leading world artists in their field.