Download Drama and playwriting for young people in the UK

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Premier’s English Literature Scholarship
Drama and playwriting
for young people in the UK
Ned Manning
Newtown High School of the Performing Arts
Sponsored by
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At a recent meeting of Australian playwrights there was a discussion about why the
playwrights present chose to write for the theatre. Their answers were instructive. The
need to have a ‘voice’, to have a means of expression that reflected the writer’s interests
and concerns was universally agreed upon as a fundamental reason to write for the
theatre.
What was really interesting was just how different these voices were, as different as the
collection of writers themselves. Their different voices reflected their sex, their age and
their nationality as much as their particular interests. Not only was content affected by
these factors but so too were form and style. It was agreed that one of the attractions of
writing for the theatre was that the theatre is a broad church, at its best catering for a
wide range of voices.
Finding this voice can be seen as a starting point for the playwright. Realising it, bringing
it to life, involves the playwright in a process of collaboration. For a play is nothing
without the input of a director, performers, designers and finally an audience. It is the
involvement, the active participation, of the latter that creates the unique magic that is
theatre.
Being a contributor to this magic as a playwright is not the preserve of any particular
social grouping. It should take place in every school and community in the country. All
that is needed is imagination and a space to express that imagination. The National
Theatre in London produces a Youth Theatre Program called Shell Connections. This
initiative produces new writing about, and for, young people. It involves nearly 200
schools and young theatre companies across the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The National commissions 10 plays from the hottest writers in the country. Each school
or youth company then chooses one of these plays to perform at their home venue. The
best of these are then showcased regionally at a local theatre company venue. This
festival of Young People’s Theatre culminates in the selection of participants for a weeklong festival at the National’s home on South Bank. Hence young people from all over
the United Kingdom and Ireland have the opportunity to perform in front of wildly
enthusiastic audiences on the main stages of the National Theatre.
Shell Connections involves thousands of young people performing in plays written
specifically for them. It connects the National Theatre with artists and audiences of the
future while introducing young people to the immediacy and power of the theatre. It is
an exciting and far reaching initiative. It is an example of the strong relationship between
theatre companies and communities in the United Kingdom, a relationship that extends
to developing the young person’s voice in the theatre.
The Young Vic was established to introduce young people to the potential of theatre and
to educate them in its practice. While the Young Vic tends to focus on the classics, its
whole raison d’etre is to connect with the community in general and young people in
particular. Theatre is seen as a means of self expression, as a way for young people to let
their imaginations run free and to investigate the world around them. The Young Vic is
surrounded by one of the most disadvantaged areas in Britain. It is an area of cultural and
ethnic diversity.
The Young Vic’s founders were committed to theatre that was inclusive, that was cheap
and affordable, and that would appeal to the community. The style of production is
aimed to include the audiences, to make them feel part of the process. This involved
work that was challenging and, at times, confronting. The idea was to pursue the notion
of theatre as belonging to, and representative of, the people. For young people this
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involves participating in the processes of actually making theatre as much as dealing with
whatever issues and ideas were raised in the particular work.
The Young Vic’s connection with youth and community is systemic. It runs through the
whole company and involves every production mounted at the theatre. At its core is the
belief that young people are quick to recognise phoniness and have an immediate,
unselfconscious response to theatre.
One interesting program run by the Young Vic involves bringing young people into the
theatre to become involved in all aspects of a particular production, not merely as
observers but as participants. This resulted in parallel productions being mounted by the
young people that reflected their individual responses to the production. As these
responses reflected their cultural, ethnic and social backgrounds they often threw new
light on the work being performed. This hands on approach is all about involving young
people in the mechanics of theatre in a practical rather than theoretical way.
An extension of this philosophy is at the core of the Royal Court’s Young Writer’s
Programme. The Royal Court is a theatre established to showcase new writing. It is
committed to encouraging writing from all sections of the community. It promotes work
that is challenging and exciting, work that reflects the ‘problems and possibilities of our
times’. It is also committed to attracting new audiences and young audiences to the
theatre. The Young Writer’s Programme involves playwrights and playwrighting tutors
working with young people from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds. They are
encouraged to find their own distinctive voices and to give expression to them through
writing for the theatre.
The program offers courses for three different age groups, 13 to 16, 17 to 20 and 21 to
25. There is also a program called Connections which is aimed at 16 to 19 year olds who
are unemployed and without any education. In these programs, a playwright works with
the groups over a minimum 10-week period. This means young writers are working with
theatre practitioners who are still actively involved in professional theatre.
The methodology each tutor employs to teaching playwrighting, the nuts and bolts of the
process, is likely to be different for each tutor, for there are as many approaches to the
teaching of playwrighting as there are playwrights. However, there are some general
principles that apply to the courses on offer at the Royal Court. The older groups, the
17- to 25-year-olds, might be asked to read a play weekly and to discuss pertinent matters
arising from the reading, matters of form, content and style. They will look at
characterisation and staging. They will discuss the nature of theatricality and use the plays
they are reading to investigate the world of the theatre.
These are universal matters all playwrights must deal with and having practicing
playwrights as tutors means there is a high level of appreciation of the difficulties which
arise when writing for the stage. Whatever shape they make take, writing exercises will be
given out as a means of introducing the writers to writing for theatre, getting started
exercises, perhaps in which the writers write a scene with one character in one location
and with one motivation. The writers might be asked to articulate what they want from
the course. What they want (as writers) at the end of a week, the end of a year, the end of
a lifetime! Another tutor might ask the writers to talk about themselves, to discuss what
excites them or frustrates them. These are examples of the many varied approaches to
beginning the process.
With the younger groups, the 13- to 16-year-olds, there might be more emphasis on
playing drama games and developing scenes out of those games. They might record a
conversation and use this as a starting point for a scene. They might be given two
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characters in a location with different motivations and be asked to write a scene from
that. The tutors might be younger too.
The Connections Programme provides scribes so that writers with literacy problems are
still able to express themselves. Having been given a few fundamental signposts for
theatre writing, the writer dictates the dialogue to a scribe. A tutor guides this process
ensuring the writer’s voice is heard. Schools and further education and university
programs run by the Royal Court follow a similar model, with practicing artists acting as
tutors and working with the teachers and students. A teacher of 13 to 16 year olds might
be paired with a playwright and a director who will then guide the class through writing
exercises and workshopping.
There are long-term projects in place which culminate in presentations of the students’
work by professional actors and directors. There are also in service programs for teachers
on directing new writing and teaching playwrighting.
The Soho Writer’s Theatre is committed to developing and producing new playwrighting.
Soho Young Writers is the youth arm of the company. Soho Young Writers is open to
playwrights aged between 15 and 25 and consists of a number of stages. At the end of
each stage playwrights are chosen to move on to a more advanced level, thus providing
some continuity for aspiring playwrights to develop their craft. As at the Royal Court,
practicing playwrights run the courses and, while the teaching methodology may differ
from tutor to tutor, certain principles still apply. Central to this is the involvement of
professional artists on all levels of the creative process. This means there is a working
relationship between the profession and teaching institutions and community groups.
This interaction is encouraged and there is no sense that ‘education programs’ exist in
isolation or are regarded as any way inferior to Main Stage work.
Similarly there is a commitment to areas of social disadvantage, to use playwrighting as a
means of engaging these communities in the world of the theatre. In Hackney, for
instance, this involved a project looking at the area’s history. It brought together people
of all ages who had lived in the area and who had witnessed first-hand the changing
social demographic. Questions such as: who settled the area 400 years ago, why did
people move into the area at different periods of history, how multiculturalism took
shape, were posited.
A playwright and director conducted workshops, then created a show which was
performed at the Soho Writer’s Theatre. This is part of Soho’s Community Based
Outreach Programme, which is essentially a collaboration with a particular community.
Other programs have involved young carers, youth workers and women’s groups. Black
History Month brings together old and young to swap stories. This year the focus was on
comparing being a young African American in 2004 and being a young African American
in 1954 with a piece of theatre being created from the ensuing workshops.
Sohos’s Taster Workshops are six-hour introductory workshops open to anyone 15 years
and older. Again run by a practicing artist, these workshops culminate in the participants
writing a scene in a day. The scenes are character driven and engage the participants in
the basic principles of writing for the theatre. From these workshops 15 writers are then
chosen to participate in a longer, 10-week program.
The 10-week courses involve a more detailed examination of playwrighting through
workshops and writing exercises. Each course is run by a practicing playwright who
meets the group weekly for two-hour sessions. The goal is to create a 20-minute piece for
the stage. At the end of the course each participant has a one-to-one session with the
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tutor to discuss their work. Some of the pieces are given a reading by professional actors
at the theatre.
From three 10-week courses, 16 budding playwrights are chosen to develop a full-length
play with the assistance of a professional dramaturg in the Core Group. Over a seven to
eight month period the playwrights might meet the dramaturg individually on five
occasions. At the first they might discuss ideas, then develop the ideas, then perhaps look
at early material before the first and second drafts are completed. The whole group might
meet monthly to discuss ideas, observe readings of work by professional writers or see a
show. The idea is to stimulate young writers to explore the art of playwrighting. At the
end of the Core Group’s course the plays are given rehearsed readings and sometimes are
even produced at the Soho Writers Theatre.
Soho’s Schools Programmes involve primary as well as secondary schools. Ten primary
schools are given playwrighting workshops with 20 students from each senior class
involved. From the 200 completed plays, 24 are chosen to be worked on by a director,
actors and a designer for a week. The culmination of this is a Festival of Plays held at the
Soho Writers Theatre. The plays are reviewed, given some publicity and viewed by
extremely appreciative audiences. All of these programs are aimed to spread and create
access to the theatre through playwrighting.
At the Traverse in Scotland, similar programs are in place to encourage young writers.
Traverse’s schools-based program, Class Acts, involves four months of workshops,
development and rehearsed readings. It uses playwrights who are already commissioned
by Traverse to act as tutors. There is the same one-to-one mentoring as at Soho, with the
tutor attached to a particular school for the duration of the project. Teachers observe the
tutor-led workshops, which take place for one to two hours once a week. Plays are
limited to four characters and run for about 10 minutes.
Initially the tutor visits the school and conducts workshops. Then a director from
Traverse and four actors visit the school and work on the partially developed scripts with
the young playwrights. Their input is practical, involving discussion, readings,
improvisation and question and answer sessions. A month later the plays are sent to
Traverse where a team of actors and directors prepare them for rehearsals. Then the
team of actors, directors and designers visit the school and conduct rehearsals in the
schools. Finally, the plays are rehearsed and performed at Traverse on their Main Stage.
It is clear that theatre companies in the United Kingdom have a commitment to young
people that goes way beyond cursory education programs. There is no distinction
between work for and with young people and the companys’ main stage productions.
There is a commitment to develop new writing and to encourage young people to
become involved in the theatre. There is a commitment to involving local communities
in the life of the company and to search beyond the walls of the theatre for new
audiences and for inspiration. Most significantly, theatre professionals are actively
involved in this at every level. The companies open their doors to young people by
staging festivals and offering cheap tickets and even, at the Young Vic, ice creams!
It has always been intriguing to consider how the theatre might create the same energy as
a rock concert. At the National, the Royal Court, the Soho Writer’s Theatre, Traverse
and the Young Vic this is achieved by creating theatre that is for and by the same
audiences that jump up and down for the latest pop sensation. And this was exactly what
happened during the curtain call for Moonfleece at the National. It is what happens when
Traverse present the plays that have grown out of their schools’ playwrighting programs
or when primary students present their plays at Soho.
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When a group of Aboriginal primary school kids, the Wilcannia Mob, performed their
unique form of rap music at the Sydney Opera House they captured the audiences’
hearts. What impact might a play written and performed by a group of Koori kids from
Wilcannia have at the same venue? What might be achieved if there were a bunch of kids
from Cabramatta performing their play at a festival of young writers? Or kids from
Bankstown? Or anywhere in NSW?
There are a number of things that need to be addressed if we are to realise the enormous
potential that theatre can offer for young people in this State. Although drama is taught
in NSW and there is a Scriptwritng Option in the HSC, there is no avenue for the
teaching of playwrighting, either in schools or in the community. There are playwrighting
courses, but these are not targeted specifically at young people. There are playwrighting
competitions such as Page to Stage and the Sydney Theatre Company’s Young
Playwright’s Award, but these function at the wrong end of the process. They select
completed plays and give them readings or performances.
Although there are a million ways to teach playwrighting and, as stated earlier, each
playwright/tutor has a particular voice and a particular approach to realising that voice, it
should be possible to create a methodology for the teaching of playwrighting that has
universal appeal. Constrained as we are by geographical and economic considerations, a
textbook on the teaching of playwrighting might serve to introduce young people to
writing for the theatre in the way that tutors do in the United Kingdom. A textbook that
served as a resource for teachers and offered the kind of step-by-step approach
championed by companies like Traverse and Soho might enable young people in this
State to discover their theatrical voices. This would obviously be advantageous in both
the study of drama and of English but, perhaps as importantly, would introduce young
people in outlying as well as urban areas to the possibilities of self expression offered by
writing and performing for the theatre.
For this to have a real impact it would be necessary to involve theatre companies and
theatre professionals in the process. Teachers need to be in serviced in the basics of
teaching playwrighting and given the necessary backup when required. Using the
programs and festivals conducted in the United Kingdom as a model it would be
possible to conduct similar such programs in New South Wales. A festival of
playwrighting for young people in New South Wales could involve each school being
invited to participate in the festival. A textbook on the teaching of playwrighting could
be made available to schools and community groups to kick start the process. Plays could
be limited to 10 minutes for primary schools and 30 minutes for high schools.
A group of practising playwrights, directors and actors could form a ‘flying squad’ to
conduct workshops in each region. This group could function much like the Bell
Shakespeare’s Schools Touring Company. Following workshops and maybe even
feedback from a team of readers, each region could then hold its own festival. These
would be held at regional theatre companies like Hothouse in Albury or at local arts
centres. In the days when there was regional theatre in New South Wales they could have
been held at Hunter Valley, Theatre South, the New England Theatre Company, The
RPG and so on. Who knows, a festival of this kind might revitalise some of these
companies. The point is there are theatrical spaces in the regions that could host regional
playwrighting festivals.
Following these regional festivals, a major theatre like the Sydney Theatre Company or
the Opera House could host a festival showcasing the best work from the regions. The
response would be overwhelming and would not only bring new writing and new
performers to the stage but would also open up the possibilities of the theatre to a whole
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new audience. A festival of this nature could be sponsored by a major company, which
would, of course, get incredible exposure from such a partnership. Young people’s voices
are heard spasmodically through different forms of music. There is a whole body of
artistic expression out there that remains untapped. A generation of young people could
well be writing and performing their own work on our stages. The inclusive potential of
playwrighting means that young people of all socioeconomic and racial backgrounds
could discover a means of self expression, a theatrical voice, that is currently unknown to
them. The experience of investigating playwrighting for young people in the United
Kingdom shows that it is possible to find and give expression to these voices.