Theatre Absolute has a dynamic history of working with young people.
Education and access are crucial to the company, and first and foremost we place an importance on the stimulation of young people’s imaginations, and never the end result. Although excellence is always strived for, the priority of any work is to establish a working environment that is safe, exploratory, revelatory and fun!
With each new production a workshop programme is devised to ride in tandem with the production whilst on tour. It will offer both an insight into the method and approach the company takes to its work, and practical oppportunities for participants to find common creative ground both with each other, and with the company.
A typical workshop, usually held at the theatre venue, will be available to between 15 to 20 young people and lasts approximately 2 hours. The workshops are led by Theatre Absolute’s artistic director and writer, Chris O’Connell, with support from the actors in each production.
We were engaged by Creative Partnerships, Coventry, to work in a Pupil Referral Unit, called Centre 4. The plan was to work with year 10 students who were all excluded from mainstream education, and to encourage them to take part in sessions based around scenes from our award winning play Car, mainly to develop their confidence and self esteem as well as pick up skills in literacy and engage in an activity for a long period of time.
It was agreed we would work off site, and after starting with a huge group of eleven mad for it roustabouts at the first two sessions, over the ensuing weeks we established a core group of six who turned up ready and enthusiastic for work every Wednesday morning at a sports centre on the outskirts of Coventry. We played games - we did the usual stuff, but quickly realised that what was interesting to the six students, three girls, three boys, was the play, and the characters and the language within it.
We started to rehearse the opening scene, no words, only music and movement, and before we knew it we were rehearsing the second and third scenes, and the students were reading it out loud. This, we were told by the teachers assisting us, was an enormous step forward - for the students to read not only aloud, but in front of each other was unheard of. The spirit of the project was positive and affirming and, as we'd hoped, relationships were built and when it ended with a one off performance by the students a week before Christmas, to their fellow students, and teachers and parents, we were all gutted that it had come to an end.
This work was incredible, we hope as much for the students as much as for us, and we continued the relationships through into rehearsals for Hang Lenny Pope this February and March, where they came in to watch how we worked in a theatre context and how many of the skills they learnt during the project time, were transferrable: confidence, concentration, patience and understanding of not only one's own needs, but others.
City College and Theatre Absolute first made useful links with each other in October 2005, as we built up to the premiere of cloud:burst, and were hosted by the college in the studio space first for a technical week, to put the show together, and then as a preview space in which we tried out the play for the first time.
Following on from this, we created The Works, a hands on mentoring and 'apprenticeship' project for six students on the college's B-Tec theatre arts course. It was simple. They were to follow the making of Hang Lenny Pope, from workshop through to first night. They were able to witness the development of work on an independent theatre level and be present for all production meetings, production week, premiere, and some of the rehearsals. Crucially, a key part of the relationship was about their response to the play, and they created a ten minute response to Hang Lenny Pope, tapping into what they felt were its major themes and emotions.
Taking the latest production, Hang Lenny Pope, as the starting point, Chris O’Connell worked with actors from the company to explore major components at the heart of Theatre Absolute’s work. The participants were challenged to get to grips with the creation of an imaginative framework, with character, language, story, and soundscape. Often these components begin as the smallest of ideas, so how can they be worked up, and how do they become the spine around which Theatre Absolute makes its most exciting work?
All workshops were FREE to participants who booked to see performances of Hang Lenny Pope.
Post show discussions: writer Chris O’Connell and cast members were available for post show discussions.
NOTE: This type of workshop is offered with all of the company's core productions. It may be adapted and developed to suit the needs of the production it accompanies, but the words above give a flavour of what is offered.