Issue 5: Engaging young people who do not want to be engaged in theatre “I aint doing drama – its gash!”

Convener: Chris

Participants: Chris and Felix


Summary of discussion

Using TBAI’s anarchic and fun work ethos and style, young people will be able to see that theatre is something that can be made up of things they enjoy and that they don’t relate to theatre as they perceive it.

We realised quite quickly that TBAI would provide something that is not like other workshops and that this fact would be paramount to it being worthwhile for the company and the participants.

The question of if in one day a worthwhile impact can be made. We established that if perceptions are changed then the day has been worthwhile. Also if this workshop was followed by a show by TBAI to demonstrate that theatre does include these elements that have been enjoyed in the workshop. This may also increase fan base from a wide variety of backgrounds

In terms of how to engage the people, the idea of finding interests and linking them back through theatre showing that theatre can be something that directly applies to the young people and what they are going through in their lives. This could be in the format of improvisation around themes surrounding the young people or using games to find out about the young people and using the information to help devise work.

The ultimate question was what TBAI get out of engaging these young people. The workshops may lead to a long standing relationship between the young people and/or the organisations that represent the young people. However, this may not be the case in which the question regarding the validity of engaging comes into play for both the young people and the company.