Matt Fenton says forget about outreach programmes – young actors and theatre companies are making astounding work and they’re finally getting mainstream attention.
There’s something exciting happening in British theatre. Innovative shows made with and by young people, for the most part in their teens, are receiving mainstream attention. Companies such as the Liverpool-based 20 Stories High, Bradford’s Common Wealth, Islington Community Theatre and our own Manchester-based Contact Young Company are performing at high-profile venues and festivals, and getting widespread public acclaim and, importantly, serious critical coverage which discusses the work as intended: as art.
Young people-led work is as valid an artistic proposition for audiences as the work presented on any main stage across the country. Why would audiences not want to hear about the issues and realities facing young people, and the new understandings of society, technology, race, sexuality and politics they are forging? Anyone interested in the future of theatre should witness the merging and reinvention of artforms and technologies with which young people are entirely comfortable... Keep reading on the Guardian
There’s something exciting happening in British theatre. Innovative shows made with and by young people, for the most part in their teens, are receiving mainstream attention. Companies such as the Liverpool-based 20 Stories High, Bradford’s Common Wealth, Islington Community Theatre and our own Manchester-based Contact Young Company are performing at high-profile venues and festivals, and getting widespread public acclaim and, importantly, serious critical coverage which discusses the work as intended: as art.
Young people-led work is as valid an artistic proposition for audiences as the work presented on any main stage across the country. Why would audiences not want to hear about the issues and realities facing young people, and the new understandings of society, technology, race, sexuality and politics they are forging? Anyone interested in the future of theatre should witness the merging and reinvention of artforms and technologies with which young people are entirely comfortable... Keep reading on the Guardian