Through drama, the young people are investigating the nature of identity, and learning to express their findings collaboratively in performance. They are devising, writing, rehearsing and performing stories that dig deep into their own lives, their own cultures, and the lives of people whose identities have been shaped by very different experiences and beliefs.
Connecting through stories
Using drama, folk tales, music, and movement, they are exploring what it is we all share, and what shapes us as individuals. By developing key creative skills - listening, sharing, trusting, and communicating - they are discovering how to reflect dramatically and movingly on themes of loss, dislocation, memory, and love.
Listening to stories
Asking our young people to listen and to hear older members of their communities was deeply rewarding experience for all involved.
Telling stories
The telling of these stories was transformative, not just for the young people or the older folk whose stories are being told but for the wider community, reconnecting generations and recording for posterity something vital that might otherwise have been lost.
Performance Mentor:
Colin Heber-Percy
Dr. Colin Heber-Percy is a priest in the Church of England, and a screenwriter. His credits for TV include Krakatoa: The Last Days, Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire, Casualty1900s, The Preston Passion, and Saving the Titanic. His recent book on film and religious faith, Perfect in Weakness, is out now. He is married with three teenage children and lives in Wiltshire.
'Stories are a communal currency of humanity'
-Tahir Shah in Arabian Nights