Trouping through Lockdown
Written by Don MacDonald
Though it’s been a challenging era for all of us, the young people and staff of Troupe are masters of adapting to the times. Since the start of the first lockdown in 2020, we have only had one week where our session hasn’t taken place. We knew how important it was to ensure the young people didn’t become isolated and were able to join in sessions to connect with their friends, take part in activities and have fun. By providing kindly donated laptops, offering internet data or visiting group members at their doorstep for a chat we have ensured that they have all been able to continue to access our project.
Though we have been mainly meeting on Zoom, we were able to run a number of socially distanced in-room sessions at Gosforth Civic Theatre. These included a great Xmas Challenge session night where we played the silliest games involving young people having to balance sweets on their nose or run a relay race to catch as many Wotsits on their head as possible.
Though there have been many restrictions in place, the group have achieved so much. As they were unable to make a play due to the closure of theatres, they embarked on making a film instead.
They consistently engaged in workshops with a variety of professional artists they had recruited to help bring their film to life. Starting off with devising workshops they developed the storyline and participated in the subsequent read through of the draft script with writer – Alistair Wilkinson. They also took part in several music tech sessions with sound designer- Callum Howard using Ableton software to compose a score for the film. They worked with the film’s Director - Toni McElhatton and Assistant Director Poppy Crawshaw, who used a variety of games to help them develop the film’s characters. After the cast for the film was selected, the young people rehearsed at Gosforth Civic Theatre before then going to shoot on location supported by the vision of filmmaker - John Slemensek. The young people loved being able to watch their own private screening of the film on a full size cinema screen at Gosforth Civic Theatre as they ate wads of pizza.
Their metaphorical sci-fi film - ‘The Collection’ premiered as part of Curious Monkey Theatre’s online festival – ‘Care about Care’- a creative platform for those who work in, make decisions about or have experience of the care system. The film was well received with 193 people tuning in to watch it be streamed online. The cast really shone as they were involved in a Q&A after this screening – fielding questions from an audience watching in a post-show webinar.
The young people also took part in the festival’s diverse programme of creative conversations, workshops, performances which they had also helped to design. One Troupe member – Tiff, decided that she wanted to tell her story through spoken word poetry, a form that she hadn’t tried before that she was interested in. As a performance poet myself, I was able to run weekly writing workshops with her, supported by our experienced theatre facilitator – Poppy. She demonstrated a real talent for spoken word, performing her poems about the challenges she has faced as a care leaver and young mother at different points across Care about Care’s four day programme.
2021 has seen the start of our new project focused on developing three 360 films that will enable viewers to use VR headset technology to see the world through the lives of young people in care, social workers and carers. We have run a number of workshops and advisory group sessions with all the people involved in this process.
Scriptwriter – Paddy Campbell has attended workshops with Troupe and young people from Care Councils in North and South Tyneside. By capturing their insights, we hope to make some hard hitting and informative films that truly reflect the lives of those living and working in care. We do this so as to hopefully influence those who make decisions about the care system to help them develop empathy with those that their decisions affect.
We continue to meet weekly on Wednesday evenings, providing a friendly safe space for young people with (aged 14-21) with experience of care to come together to be creative. If you, or if you know someone interested in being involved – want to make theatre and film or play some drama games- please get in touch with me, Don MacDonald- Troupe Project Coordinator: don@curiousmonkeytheatre.com