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What Are Youth Theatres For?Dateline: 27th October, 2002Occasionally things happen which force you to challenge assumptions which are part and parcel of your life. It's a painful process but a necessary one: we all need to take a fresh look at what we're doing from time to time. Last week I went to a performance by a youth theatre group. It wasn't a local group - it came from Kent - so I suppose it was easier to look at what was happening dispassionately than if if had been local or - even more difficlt - if it had been a group I know. It was a show about Londonderry and Bloody Sunday, looking at it from the point of view of the people of the Bogside and condemning the British army, the RUC and, both implicity and explicitly, supporting the actions of the IRA at the time. That is a perfectly legitimate thing for theatre to do. After all, people have the right to express their opinions, even though I (and many others) may not agree with them. But I was left wondering why this particular group had chosen to do this particular piece. I work with kids all the time, and, although they are capable of tremendous empathy for others' suffering, it is much more likely to be for people elsewhere in the world rather than dissident groups in the United Kingdom. I find it hard to believe that this particular topic was chosen by the group themselves: I think it far more likely that it was given to them by their YT leaders. They did their leaders proud in terms of the commitment they made to the show. It was full of energy, really high octane stuff, and every single one must have been absolutely exhausted at the end of every performance. Unfortunately, however, I understood less than 50% of what was being said and it was so noisy that I felt I was being browbeaten into submission. I didn't understand because the diction was awful: they made a valiant effort to get the accent right but words were gabbled to such an extent that it was frequently unintelligible. I came away with the impression of some very effective stage picures, lots of loud noise, lots of rushing about and little else. Where were the performance skills that could have made the piece effective? They simply weren't there. Hence my question: what is youth theatre for? Is it to teach performance skills? Is it to allow young people to express themselves? If it is either of these, then this particular piece failed. That in itself is not particularly important: it is, after all, only one production out of the many hundreds of YT shows which are produced every year. But it forced me to think: when I am working with kids, just what am I try to achieve? If I don't know, or if I'm not sure, then should I be working with them at all? Could I not be doing more damage than good? Am I using them to propagate my word view? Am I imposing my ideas of what theatre or even society should be on them? Am I giving them what they want, or what I think they should want? I need to think out my approach, challenge my assumptions. And I'd like to think that others in the field are doing the same. Just what is youth theatre for? Articles Indices:
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