Another Thursday Night at Youth Theatre

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You walk into the rehearsal room, fresh from an earlier youth theatre session, and become aware of all the different dynamics within it.   Each person has brought such a definite energy into the room.  You look at your plan and realise the games and warm up you’d planned aren’t going to cut it tonight.  As you start to revise your plan dramatically you deal with the date clashes of one young person and the queries and questions of a couple more. You look at your plan again and wonder if you’re going to be able to achieve what you hoped to get done on the current project in the current climate.  You chair the traditional best and worst discussion laughing and catching your breath, with this set of committed and vibrant young people, as they share their experiences of the week be they happy, humiliating or heartbreaking.  You run the set of games you have eventually decided upon where each announcement of what is next is greeted by a third of the room with cheers, a third groans and the other third indifference and by this time a little bit of you is wondering how the session can possibly be a success…

Twenty minutes later, you look at this group of young people and they take your breath away as they work utterly absorbed in the moment.  A hundred percent of their energy, focus and inspiration is fuelling the creation and development of a brand new character.  It’s something magical to witness, their day to day concerns slip away and a time is found out of time.  A time where they can experience a life that is other, a reality that has no connection to their own, a place that is brand new and make it their own.

As you are packing up your things your mind is alight with all the possibilities that could come from the results of their creativity and you wonder how you had ever doubted them.  You return home to a message from one of them saying how much they had enjoyed the session, which is the final touch to a great evening.  You also realise you’re in the lucky and rewarding position that means this inspiring and fulfilling journey was just another Thursday night at Youth Theatre…

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