Don’t quote Shakespeare to me!

“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.”

Well in the case of the theatre based projects for Fast Forward it is:

“Three times

unto to the breach,

dear friends,

three times”

As that’s how many new projects Fast Forward are delivering over the next 7 months using theatre to raise the awareness and improve decision-making on and around risk-taking behaviour with young people in Scotland. These three projects will reach and engage over 10,000 young people in over 80 schools and over 300 youth workers and volunteers across length and breadth of Scotland in a variety of different ways:

I‘m Kai, the arts-based project director here at Fast Forward, and I’ve been working with Youthlink on the No Knives Better Lives national school theatre campaign .

This new approach uses theatre to raise awareness of the risks and consequences of carrying a knife, and we are about to start a schools theatre tour.

 

The play “Balisong” (the name of a butterfly knife) is a new play that has been written by Jenifer Adam, it will be directed Steve Small of Strange Town Company and will be performed by three young actors who have assisted in the development of ideas in the production which is part of a peer theatre approach (for more info on what peer theatre is follow the link below to a previous blog).

The play will engage S2’s in the awareness, active citizenship, responsibility and importance of doing something if you know of a friend, classmate or peer are carrying a knife or bladed weapon. The intention of the piece is to empower individuals to stand up and speak out for what is right so that they can help save a life and improve the community in which they live. This tour starts in September and performs in over 60 secondary schools across Scotland, and will finish at the end of November.

The second project has been funded by the Scottish Government’s NVYOSF (Nation Voluntary Youth Organisation Support fund), and will train 6 volunteers in a variety of youth work and theatre practitioners’ techniques. The intention is to enable the volunteers to devise and create a new toolkit that shows how to use theatre to address risk-taking behaviour. The volunteers will then use this toolkit to deliver 16 national workshops in which volunteers and youth workers will be in turn upskilled with games, exercises and the theory of using theatre in a youth work context. This project has already started and it will end in March 2018.

The third project has been funded by Young Start and follows on from the successful “FastForward and Play” project (run in 2015-2016) – it has been imaginatively named “FastForward and Play 2”! This project will partner with 3 Young Theatre companies across Scotland, and Fast Forward will upskill their young members on a variety of risk taking behaviours such as alcohol, drugs, gambling, smoking. Then each group will work with a professional writer and director to devise and develop their own new piece of issue-based theatre on a risk-taking behaviour affecting their locality. Each of these 3 new pieces of theatre will then go on a short tour within the locality of the each Youth Theatre group, with performances in schools and youth work organisations. The project will culminate in a showcase event in March 2018, where all these 3 pieces will be seen side by side. The details of the 3 companies across Scotland are still being finalised and will be announced soon, so watch this space!

These projects give a ringing endorsement to using theatre as a way of engaging with young people that is relatable, high quality, funny, engaging. I think that theatre is and should be for everyone. It can be a powerful and effective tool to speak directly to young people in the language they understand and covers themes and issues that are current and important to them it. Indeed, theatre by its nature poses questions, gives an avenue for expression and an opportunity to engage in exploring many important and difficult question in our society.

More on my views on how theatre is and can be used in a previous blog.

If you would like more information on the ongoing projects or any future projects please contact Kai@fastforward.org.uk.