Left in the Wake of the Practicalities

 

I've been reflecting a lot over the past week on different platforms for sharing or showcasing the work that I make and the importance of finding the correct platform, not just for the story but also the group who are telling it.

One of the projects I have been working on over the past few months is Saints' Youth Theatre. The group consists of 11 girls aged between 10 and 13, many of whom have very little experience of performing. It has been such a massive privilege to work with these girls over two terms and to witness, and I hope have some part in, their blossoming into more confident young women. Every week I have had the honour of working with these imaginative and creative girls as we have explored the idea of what it might mean to be left in the wake of the world.

One of my MA tutors, John Adams, said often last year that every project is about "what you can do in the time for the money". I can't help but feel as I reflect on this project that my ambitions of what I could do in the time were a little high. Not because the girls were not all talented and enthusiastic collaborators and performers, but because there just was not the time for the scope of the task.

That is not to say that what we achieved was a failure. But I have come to question the platform on which the work the girls had accomplished was shared. In just 42 hours of youth theatre sessions the group journeyed from a title and a collection of pictures of the London 2012 Olympics to a 24 page script that explored what happened when a young girl woke to find herself 100 years out of her time, in a world that looked very different to the world she fell asleep in.

The concept and story that the group constructed was incredibly impressive and their commitment to the story was unlike anything I have witnessed in my six years of leading devising projects with young people. In many ways, this is one of the most successful devising projects that I have ever led. But I have a nagging fear in the back of my mind that the platform on which the girls shared their work did them a disservice.

The performance was to take place in All Saints' Church - a large building that seats around 300-400 people and where anyone speaking from the front uses a microphone. While we expected nowhere near those numbers in the audience, it seemed to me that if the clergy would not speak un-amplified from the front of the church, how could we expect the voice of an 11 year old girl to carry in this cavernous space?

I got so fixed on this dilemma that in my mind the only way forward was to make sure the girls were miked up. In hindsight, this was a huge mistake on my part. I got so caught up in the need for the girls to be heard from the front and making sure that they didn't perform to an audience that, in the size of the church, looked empty. I allowed the scope of the practical "problems" stop me from being creative in finding solutions.

This week, we are running an interactive promenade performance of the Easter story, told through the eyes of Peter, for the local primary school. And with the unexpected late-march cold spell I've again been faced with this question of the most suitable platform. Around half of the performance was planned to be outdoors, but with windchill taking temperatures down to an icy -6 decisions had to be made on whether to re-think some of the locations.

And so our perfectly set hillside of the crucifixion had to be sacrificed for an indoor alternative. It has undoubtedly been the best solution, despite losing some of the aesthetic, because the children are warm enough to be able to concentrate on the story playing out before them and the interaction need not be rushed in order to get back into the warmth.

It has been in the relocation of this scene that I have spotted an alternative solution for last week's youth theatre performance. It had not occurred to me to section off a smaller area of the church for the performance, but standing watching the hillside scene played in front of a black cloth at the back of the church has unveiled the other option that I missed for the Youth Theatre. This smaller, more intimate setting within the church would have allowed the girls to speak without microphones and would have allowed us to keep the audience to friends and family, with the space looking busy without being overwhelming for the girls.

I believe in this setting the girls would have had less to contend with in the sharing of their work. It would have allowed them to relax. They wouldn't have had to deal with hearing their voices amplified for the first time and the feedback from the mics that was the result of not being able to properly tech with the microphones due to the cost of hiring them in. Therein lies a learning point in itself - a proper technical rehearsal is non-negotiable. By John's rule, therefore, microphones couldn't be done for the money as we couldn't afford more than one day hire. If I had caught on to this truth, perhaps I would have dared to find the more creative solution.

But all is not lost. The girls were as high as kites after the performance and the feedback from the parents has been very positive. All I can do now is reflect and learn from the process and use what I have learned to inform my future work. So, to sum up, what have I learned?

• Finding the most appropriate setting for the group is so important. "The best" for a group may not be the all-bells-and-whistles solution, it could be a much more informal sharing of work in a more relaxed atmosphere. The question has to be "which platform will allow this group to most effectively share their work in the most empowering way?"

• Tech is non-negotiable. If lights and sound are being used, both the cast and the operator must have a chance to run it through. If you can't afford to tech then you can't afford to use lights and sound. This feels especially important in a community-setting.

• Always push to find the "other option", even if it is discarded - best to have explored all the options and written them off than to get stuck on only one possibility.