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creating adventures with young people in Newbridge, Ireland since 1996
Bruised
22nd November 2012, Killinarden Community Council Centre, Tallaght, Co.Dublin
Bruised was a short film members of Kildare Youth Theatre made with young people from Killinarden Community Council Youth Project in Tallaght, Dublin.
The young people researched and created material about living in a community which was badly affected by suicide - an experience shared both in Tallaght in Co.Dublin and here in Newbridge Co.Kildare. Members of Killinarden Community Council Centre devised scenes alongside us, which we filmed, showing a group of people living in the wake of loss.
17 young actors performed in the film, which was produced by Peter Hussey, Keith Burke and Keith Millar, and recorded by Mo Kadem.
The film was an attempt to raise awareness about the situation in the Killinarden community. The launch was on 22nd November 2012 in Killinarden Community Council Centre.
Theatre Uncut Festival 2012
16th-17th November 2012, Liffey Studio
The Theatre Uncut Festival is a global theatre festival which involves performances of new or devised plays based on the theme of that specific year.
In 2012, Kildare Youth Theatre was the only Irish theatre company to partake in the festival. The 2012 theme was the rise of global dissatisfaction, with austerity, war, and failing economies taking a hold on the world.
To mark the festival, the Preposterous Ensemble performed a selection of new short plays, with small casts, which touch on the above themes. They were In The Beginning by Neil La Bute, Blondie by Hayley Squires, The Break Out by Anders Lustgarten, and Yesterday by Helena Tornero.
View the official Theatre Uncut Twitter page here.
In In The Beginning, a father and son argue about the Occupy movement, revealing generational differences to the politics of protest. Featuring Thomas O'Driscoll and Peter Hussey, who also directed it.
In Blondie, a new leader explains her actions on the eve of her execution. Featuring Jill Bradbury, Ronan Maher, Eoin MacManus and Thompson Michael. Directed by Peter Hussey.
In The Break Out, two young prisoners have the means to escape, but the prospect of freedom is intimidating. Featuring Eliza Kelly and Amy Quille. Directed by Marc Tuffy.
In Yesterday, a policeman's undercover involvement in the Madrid riots has been discovered by his fiancée, with unexpected consequences. Featuring Emmet Faherty and Jen Ryan. Directed by Anthony Davidson.
All profits raised by the two performances were donated to Amnesty International.
Acting For Austerity I Youth Exchange
25th August-5th September 2012, Athens, Greece
Acting For Austerity I served as the first half of an EU Youth In Action funded youth exchange. It involved 12 members of Kildare Youth Theatre, and 12 actors of the Greek Osmosis Theatre Company - all aged between 18-30 - and took place in Athens over a week.
The project explored how the participants could use their acting skills to work, as drama facilitators, with groups of people for developmental, educational and political purposes. It aimed to help them find work in times of brutal European austerity, especially when there is little opportunity for mainstream employment. The project used the participants' experiences of unemployment and living under austerity as themes in the training. Each country was dealing with the financial crisis in a different way, so a core aim was for the young people to develop an understanding of each other's culture when they shared their experiences.
The main goals of the exchange were to:
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be able to co-facilitate a drama session
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understand group dynamics in drama work
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apply their acting skills to help direct small projects with groups
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be able to plan projects that they can develop in the future
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be motivated to find ways in which they can turn their learning into employment opportunities
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appreciate the common situation facing Greek and Irish young people in times of austerity.
At the beginning of the exchange, each country presented a short piece explaining what austerity mean to them. Then, participants were put into groups of mixed nationalities, to explore their feelings towards leaving education and entering into an economy under austerity. Much of the work devised was inspired by the Theatre Of The Oppressed. Participants also had the opportunity for daily reflections, and to spend some time exploring Athens.
The project culminated in a devised piece called Six Pomegranate Seeds which expressed the themes and emotions brought out throughout the week's workshops and was performed around the tombs of Ancient Asini in Greece.
The sequel to this exchange, Acting For Austerity II, can be viewed on our 2013 archive.
With assistance from Léargas.
RE:LOCATION 2012 Youth Exchange
Mid August 2012, Stavanger, Norway
The RE:LOCATION 2012 International Youth Exchange project was conceived in 2010 and designed to celebrate excellence in European youth theatre through exchange, collaboration and performance. Through a wide partnership - spearheaded by Rogaland Theatre of Stavanger - engaging leading youth theatre organisations representing Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland (Kildare Youth Theatre), Norway and Scotland over 40 young people and 15 professional artists descended upon Stavanger, Norway over the Summer of 2012 to embark on a life changing youth theatre performance project.
Highlighting the strong relationships formed between Youth Theatres of varying EU nations, RE:LOCATION set the challenging task to 6 participating youth theatre of devising a large site-specific piece of theatre in a short time frame, to be performed in the large Bjergstedparken park.
As soon as the participants arrived, they met their fellow young actors for the first time and learned of the projects unique accommodation - a docked boat.
Through workshops of mixed nationalities, strong friendships were formed at the project culminated in an equally strong performance in front of a public crowd.
Click below to see some images taken during the RE:LOCATION exchange:
The Irish Team
RE:LOCATION 2012
Rehearsals at Bjergstedparken
The Irish Team
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Click below to view the Official RE:LOCATION Documentary:
National Festival of Youth Theatre Scotland 2012
19th-23rd July 2012, Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland
The National Festival of Youth Theatre Scotland (NFYT), is a yearly youth theatre festival which groups theatres from across Europe and even the USA, to work, devise, and perform alongside one another in Scotland.
Kildare Youth Theatre has participated in the Festival every year since its inception. Every year, participants camp at a local private campsite in Fife, where different theatre companies befriend each other and mingle over shared meals and evening events.
During the day, participants travel to Glenrothes Hall, a shopping centre with a fully fledged theatre space. Workshops take place in empty shop premises across the centre, with workshop themes - lead by the facilitators from the participating companies - varying from Clowning to Stage Combat and everything in between.
Each night, a different theatre company performs a play specially devised (back home) for the Festival. For the 2012 season, a young Generator ensemble devised and performed a new play titled Shining Stars. It featured Kildare Youth Theatre members aged between 14-17 and was directed by Keith Millar and Christopher Clarke.
Globalfest 2012
9th-14th July 2012, Mayfield Arts Centre, Newbury House, Cork City, Co.Cork
PARTICIPANTS:
Facilitating Artist: Keith Burke, Sophia Cadogan
Young Actors: Dylan Aspell, Corey McNamara, Chloe Mackey, Sinead Mackey, Karl Botfield, Colin Tyrell.
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Globalfest was a yearly organised theatre festival set in Cork City. The week-long festival involved approximately 70 young people making art and performances which culminated in a public performance at Bishop Lucey Park in Cork city centre on 14th July.
GLOBALFEST 2012 Youth Arts Festival brought together a range of events and projects by and for young people. It included a series of creative workshops, a seminar, interactive activities, gigs, exhibitions and a main event which took place on July 14th. The festival created a space for creative expression and development of creative skills and personal skills. It also reflected
the role of creativity in our lives and the importance it plays in shaping positive changes in our world.
The theme of the 2012 festival was 'imagine.' What sort of future do young people wish for themselves, their communities and the world? How can creativity and imagination help shape this future? What sort of values will help create the future that young people want to see?
The project answered these questions through a series of visual mediums, such as; Theatre, Dance, Music and Rap, Animation, Street Performances, Creative Writing, and Social Media.
All expenses - except for the train - was covered by the festival. 2012 marked the second year Kildare Youth Theatre participated in Globalfest.
Element: Youth People's Dance Project
4th-8th July, 2012
Element was a unique workshop series in our Liffey Studio from September 2011 until July 2012, which used dance as a medium to being together local young people from all backgrounds.
Consisting of 44 workshops, 2 and half hours each in length over a period of 11 months, a young set of teenagers were brought through dancing, from the absolute basics, to a fully-fledged live dance performance.
The intention was to perform in vacant shops across the town of Newbridge, performing live pieces sporadically across the town. A number of
workshops were led by specially trained dance choreographers such as Donking Rongaville. The Element dance project concluded with a public dance performance featuring all the participants on the Friday 8th July. Th workshops were led by Treenie Curran and Celine McAuliffe amongst other special guests.
Element: Young People's Dance Project
Element: Young People's Dance Project
Rehearsal session
Element: Young People's Dance Project
Group photo
Element: Young People's Dance Project
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'Exchange 2012'
2nd-7th July 2012, Macrobert Arts Centre, Sterling, Scotland
With 2012 being the sixth year running, the National Theatre of Scotland’s vibrant 'Exchange' programme brings together groups of young theatre-makers (aged 16 to 25 years old) from across Scotland and beyond, to create and perform new and exciting pieces of theatre with the help and support of a professional creative team.
'Exchange' is a platform for communication and creativity for young theatre makers, with the aim;
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to facilitate a national and international exchange between young theatre-makers
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to open up opportunities to view international work
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to devise and produce new work by, and for, young people
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to share young people’s performance skills and experiences
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to stimulate new ideas and provide support to help these ideas become a reality
Excerpt from the 2012 Information Booklet
Consisting of 6 Scottish theatre companies, and 2 international theatre companies, 'Exchange' involved daily workshops where all young actors could get an opportunity to leanr now theatre skills and to improve on existing ones. These workshops involved groups from both Scotland and the international companies, and were lead by the facilitators of these companies.
Participating theatre companies also arrived with a devised performance. For the 2012 year, Kildare Youth Theatre was specially chosen to perform The Leaving (see below).
The Leaving
7th July 2012, Macrobert Arts Centre, Sterling, Scotland | 21st September 2012, Liffey Studio
The Leaving was a play written Tom Swift, with assistance from Kildare Youth Theatre, about alcohol, debs, pressures to conform, and what the future holds after school. It was selected for and invited to the 'Exchange' 2012 Festival.
Meeting once a week for 5 months, a cast of 13 young people worked with writer Tom Swift and director Peter Hussey to create material about the reality of living in Newbridge in 2012. The workshop material began to focus on significant transitional moments in the lives of young people, particular those occasions that marked moving from teenager to adulthood. The cast noted that all events such as Debs, the Leaving Cert, Results Night, and College Freshers’ Week are characterised by excessive alcohol consumption, and so a play about drinking began to take shape.
The Leaving is about a group of friends who have committed a crime during the 'last' summer of their teenage years, before college, before jobs, before adulthood. It is a summer fuelled by drink and excess, when they have to leave their childhood behind and confront the future as adults.
Read more into the play, such as a cast list, the devising process, and the staging, here.
NT Connections 2012: 'Journey to X'
16th March 2012, Moat Theatre Naas, Co. Kildare | 15th April 2012, Liffey Studio | 20th April 2012, The Grand Opera House, Belfast
A group of friends have formed a new band. Now all they have to do is raise the money to get to London to audition for one of the world's biggest talent contests. They have to sneak out of school, try to book flights without anyone knowing, and sneak away for the day.
Costumes, songs and fundraising techniques may divide opinion but one girl has a far more important choice to make. Their journey for fame and fortune is really a journey for something far less glamorous for her. She is pregnant and believes her only solution is to terminate the pregnancy. Her close friends in the band come together to help her, suggesting they merge their audition trip with a clinical appointment. None of them tells an adult - they try to make all the arrangements themselves without anyone finding out.
Where do 15 year olds get the money? How do they book flights when no one owns a credit card? How are they going to fake their age and identity? How do they understand what is happening?
In a culture of instant fame and talent-show 'stories', the importance of life and friendship comes to the fore. Journey to X is a tale about friendship, a journey and the risks that teenagers take when plunged into an adult world.
Written by Nancy Harris, Directed by Peter Hussey and performed by members of the Generator & Preposterous ensembles.
Journey To X was performed as part of the 2012 National Theatre's Connection Festival. Kildare Youth Theatre has performed over thirty Connections plays since its inception.
The Connections Festival every year, enlists theatre writers to write specific pieces of theatre for young performers from theatre companies across the UK & Ireland. Participating theatre companies can choose from upwards of 12 plays to perform.
Each theatre company generally performs in a local theatre, (Moat Theatre Naas), and will then participate in the nearest Connections-led theatre weekend (Belfast) where all performances will be judged by Connections officials. The best performance of each play is then chosen to be performed in the National Theatre of London.
Kildare Youth Theatre was the only Irish theatre to perform Journey To X and were therefore resposible for its Irish premiere - potent considering the plays targeting of Irish abortion law.
Watch a trailer of our Journey To X performance below, made by a young filmmaker and member of Kildare Youth Theatre
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