YTYT meet Gordon - one of my Directing Youth Theatre students from my week at Warwick who generously wrote a blog for us this week
As one of Sarah Osborne’s students on the NODA Summer ‘School Directing for Youth Theatre’ course I have come away enthused about theatre for younger people. If you could look at me I wouldn’t be your ‘typical’ youth advocate, being in my 61st year and ‘long in the tooth’ but I have been involved in theatre literally since before I was born, my mother taking me to my first production whilst in the womb. It has been an experience that has turned from a hobby to an obsession to ultimately my ‘whole life’. Back in the day when I was a teenager many societies used to think of youngsters as someone to ‘fill in’ when a juvenile part was required and if you were lucky enough to be allowed on stage in an adult production it generally was in the back chorus. Thankfully those ‘dark days’ are a distant history and youth is accepted and welcomed for the force it is nowadays. I have been involved in a, local to me, youth society as chairman and treasurer and child protection officer over the last 15 years and have seen many youngsters start as shy children of 7 or 8 with no confidence and over the subsequent years flourish into fine upstanding young men and women brimming with confidence and social skills, many of whom have graduated from Mountview and RADA. I am proud, immensely proud, to call these young people personal friends. Only last week the society produced a production of High School Musical that was directed, MD’d and choreographed solely by youngsters not yet in their 20’s. The principals were played by youngsters of 17 and 18 whom I’ve known for ten years. There was a tear of pride in my eye at the final bows realising these shy un-confident ‘7 year olds’ were now impressing me with their talent and confidence. This is what youth theatre means to me – not simply the finished product (which is important) but the polished, confident and rounded young people it produces.
As one of Sarah Osborne’s students on the NODA Summer ‘School Directing for Youth Theatre’ course I have come away enthused about theatre for younger people. If you could look at me I wouldn’t be your ‘typical’ youth advocate, being in my 61st year and ‘long in the tooth’ but I have been involved in theatre literally since before I was born, my mother taking me to my first production whilst in the womb. It has been an experience that has turned from a hobby to an obsession to ultimately my ‘whole life’. Back in the day when I was a teenager many societies used to think of youngsters as someone to ‘fill in’ when a juvenile part was required and if you were lucky enough to be allowed on stage in an adult production it generally was in the back chorus. Thankfully those ‘dark days’ are a distant history and youth is accepted and welcomed for the force it is nowadays. I have been involved in a, local to me, youth society as chairman and treasurer and child protection officer over the last 15 years and have seen many youngsters start as shy children of 7 or 8 with no confidence and over the subsequent years flourish into fine upstanding young men and women brimming with confidence and social skills, many of whom have graduated from Mountview and RADA. I am proud, immensely proud, to call these young people personal friends. Only last week the society produced a production of High School Musical that was directed, MD’d and choreographed solely by youngsters not yet in their 20’s. The principals were played by youngsters of 17 and 18 whom I’ve known for ten years. There was a tear of pride in my eye at the final bows realising these shy un-confident ‘7 year olds’ were now impressing me with their talent and confidence. This is what youth theatre means to me – not simply the finished product (which is important) but the polished, confident and rounded young people it produces.
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