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Interviews
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A very happy, if rather weary man Philip Fisher interviews Graham Whitlock - Artistic Director of Dreamarts Graham Whitlock is currently a very happy, if rather weary man. Each year, the youth theatre charity, Dreamarts, puts on an annual show and the 2003 production, Battle of the Fairy Tales, opens next week. Things are rather easier for him this year than they have been in the past. Two years ago, when he was rehearsing 1001 Arabian Nights, a show which reached its pinnacle with a production in the Linbury Studio at the Royal Opera House, he had a full-time job working with top 20 firm of chartered accountants, Chantrey Vellacott DFK. Life had improved as he was rehearsing Romeo 'n Juliet in 2002, as he was only working there part-time. As a result of his own efforts to obtain funding for the organisation, Dreamarts can now afford to employ him as its first full-time artistic director. As a man who wholeheartedly throws himself into everything that he does in the field of Youth Theatre, he looks as tired this year as he has the previous two. However, while acknowledging the assistance that his former employers gave him, the freedom to work full-time on the project clearly helps a great deal. He therefore has the highest hopes for the success of his new rhythm and blues, hip-hop and soul musical, Battle of the Fairy Tales, which advertises itself as "Cinderella versus Snow White versus Sleeping Beauty competing for the hand of the handsome prince" One of the pleasures of a Dreamarts show is that not only are all of the actors young people but nearly all of the other people involved with the project are also members of the company. This means that the writing and choreography as well as the music all come about from ideas proposed by the incredibly talented young people aged 6-26 that the charity attracts. Already graduates are at drama school and working professionally in the music industry. This is a fine tribute to the work originally initiated by the late Liz York who spent something like 40 years working in this field. Her baton has now been carried forward by Graham who originally joined a predecessor grouping, Pimlico Youth Arts, when he was 15 and has remained involved in their projects ever since. Liz York was many years ahead of her time with her vision of youth theatre. As Graham says, "She realised that it was a major force in the community that can help to keep children off the streets. It is all about developing skills, not just putting on shows. She saw them as a key part of social regeneration long before any government did ". It is also a great fillip to the charity that her daughter, Vicky George, is now a trustee keenly helping to carry on her mother's work. After completing his degree in international history and politics at Leeds University where he spent the majority of his time involved in drama with an active group included members of the very successful Unlimited who have already won two Fringe Firsts in Edinburgh, Graham was keen to develop as a director. Graham realised at an early age that while he enjoyed acting, there were others who are far more talented than he is. His real strength lay in organising and directing rather than appearing on stage. He does, however, admit that "when I was younger, I always used to give myself all of the best parts". He is much more mature now that he has reached his late twenties and realises that some of the teenagers who star in his productions can act in a way that he could never even aspire to. As the artistic director, he throws himself into everything that he does and this is far more than just directing plays. He is the major fundraiser for the charity having achieved tremendous success in this area, raising income from little more than £1,000 in 1999 to close to £250,000 today. It is still something of a hand-to-mouth existence as nearly all funding from Westminster City Council and other bodies is for individual projects. The charity is soon to get far more serious about developing its commercial sponsorship opportunities and is hoping to team up with several major local businesses over the next few months. Another area is to recruit staff and he now has a team of seven including part-timers. His last major role is in helping to develop the charity and during 2002, an exciting new venture called Abbey Arts started in the south of Westminster. This is a complementary group that provides education through artistic endeavour to children and youth in a relatively deprived part of London. Apart from all of that, auditioning and training youngsters is his pride and joy. Dreamarts now has two major projects a year, the annual musical and a Musical In Education programme, which Graham is currently developing. This takes groups of 10 to 15 youngsters who develop an issue-based piece. This might be on a subject such as teen pregnancy or suicide. The show will last an hour and will be presented in a youth clubs. It will then allow youngsters in the audience a chance to participate and debate the subject. Graham has always loved musicals and believes that they still have a great deal of mileage left in them even with younger audiences. He believes that "the (non-operatic) musical as a concept is only about 60 years old and still as much developing to do. The key is to start appealing to younger people. We need to have some hip-hop musicals that will appeal to a much younger audience". 75% of people who come to see his own shows will be under 18. He is really excited at the prospect of seeing The Bombitty of Errors when it reaches London, as he believes that this will be the first true musical for the hip-hop generation. Graham sees himself continuing in youth theatre for the next few years but does not rule out the opportunity to get involved in adult productions as a director in future. One thing that seems more certain is that is unlikely to return to the world of accounting having tasted the heady joys of the artistic life. He gets to see a reasonable amount of theatre in between rehearsals and his favourite play in London in 2002 was undoubtedly the Globe production of Twelfth Night starring its own artistic director, Mark Rylance. Dreamarts is a very worthwhile charity that does good things in the inner-city. It has the added benefit of putting on tremendous productions. If you want to try them out for yourself, Battle of the Fairy Tales is playing every evening between the 22nd and 25th January 2003 at the Cockpit Theatre, Gateforth Street near Marylebone Station. For further information, you can call 020 7266 7031.
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