We applied and were accepted onto the workshops. They were really fun and unusual as we had never experienced these art forms before. After the week of after school workshops, we were auditioned and a number of us were picked to take part in a project called Ten Years From Now (10YFN), where we devised our own piece of hip hop theatre which contained Theatre, Hip Hop Dance, Graffiti, DJ-ing and live music. 10YFN was about the Norfolk coast, and how the government has chosen to abandon the sea defences - meaning that a large percentage of North Norfolk coast will now be taken by the sea. We toured 10YFN to Sheringham Little Theatre, Big Youth Theatre Festival in Epping, The Garage in Norwich, Fresh Festival in Colchester, Sea Change Festival in Great Yarmouth and the YPPT International Seminar in Liverpool and a number of other venues across the east of England.

After this we had the opportunity to learn how to put on our own events, being taught every fortnight on different key areas of events planning, all leading up to our first event on the 28th March 2009.

Since the workshops, each of us have practised what we learnt, and over the period of a year have progressed to a high level in our skills. Throughout the year each of us have also performed outside of IOT related events, be it Charity events, busking or general shows which have all helped us develop as artists. None of this would have happened without the Little Theatre and THEATRE IS bringing IOT to North Norfolk!

We are now a team of five, each of us with allocated roles and responsibilities, under the name Encore. Now beatboxing, spoken word, rap, hip hop dance, live music and extraordinary performances from Norfolk come together under one roof for a show to remember, providing a fun and safe night out for young people, and opportunities for people to get on stage and develop their skills. We are now employing the Hip Hop artists from Throwdown, funny how things turn out after just one year…