"History is a mighty drama, enacted upon the theatre of time...” Thomas CarlyleI have spent a good part of the weekend uploading archive photographs to our Facebook and Flickr profiles. Not because I don’t get out much - although I don’t, but because it is important to be reminded of the bigger picture and to see where the youth theatre has come from, metaphorically and literally. The youth theatre isn’t the same now as it was in 1973 - we’re in a different building, and the young people in the photographs are not young people any more. And a steady stream of young people come and make the youth theatre their own. But how can any of what we do now have happened without what went before?
I have only managed to upload a selection of photographs from 10 discs - there’s at least a further 100 to explore (and tons of photos on our server too.) There’s such a lot of history! In uploading photographs, you start to get the feeling that you are part of something much bigger than yourself. This is of course, on one level, obvious. Each day doesn’t spring completely detached from the one that went before rather grows organically. Yet the response has been phenomenal. People have been leaving messages all day about this memory, or that memory, naming this person or that person or joking about costume, or asking for photographs from other things. You realise then that the shows, and the projects, and the participation in the youth theatre is special. It matters to people. You realise that the work we do is often a very intense experience for young people, asking them, as we do to step outside of their comfort zones, to take risks and to step up to the plate. You realise that you offer young people a place to learn to be themselves, supported by their peers and in absolute safety.
In a recent conversation about bullying with one of our older participants, I was thrilled to hear him say that he knew that no one was ever going to bully him here at the youth theatre, that he’d always known that and that everyone else knew that too. “You’re allowed to be who you are,” he said, “That’s why we want to be here.” It’s this sense of belonging amongst other things that people recall so fondly when they see pictures of themselves in ‘The tales of the snot monster’ or ‘Harold and Maude’ circa 1993.
It’s a curious thing too that when you look at the pictures - the youth and the enthusiasm of youth is trapped in time. The sense of possibility is evident wherever you look. Then you realise that the picture is from 1979 (and that Anthony Preston is wearing a polo neck jumper) and that he’s not 18 any more. He’s a good bit older than that.
It’s at that point that you start to remember that the youth theatre was fully established in 1973, almost forty years ago. By my calculations that is 38 years ago. As anyone who knows me well will know maths is not my strong point but even I can calculate that this is an awful lot of shows, a serious number of projects, and a colossal number of workshops that have taken place since then. And who knows how many countless young people have passed through our doors in all that time? And how many of their parents have volunteered to support us?
I started thinking then. Where are they now? Amazingly, some people are still involved - Stephen Cook, Pauline Ray, Alicia Foley and Moira Preston are on our board. The Garth Jones and Ian Galbraith are there too, for example parents who came to offer support and who’ve stayed long after their children have moved on. And then there are others, like Philip Hindle who still play an active role, as director and workshop leader. Still others, like Anthony Preston who support us from a distance. But the rest? I would love to hear from people who came 40, 30, 20, 10 years ago. I’d love to hear about what the youth theatre meant to them. I’d love to hear what they are doing now and what difference, if any, BYT made to their lives.
I realised that within these archives is more than our history. There’s our future too. The youth theatre, like all arts organisations, needs its supporters, its believers and here within these pictures are those who can play that role. This can be active or low key, pro-active or subtle, but just writing a comment on Facebook allows us to demonstrate support - it shows those trusts and other organisations who back us financially the evidence that what we do matters.
It’s more than that too. Parents bring their children to the youth theatre, and like local schools, those children grow up, and then eventually bring their children too. It’s that kind of place. The people in these photos support our shows, share their love of the old place and join up the dots for us. I think we could do better at helping people get back in touch, stay involved or simply join our database and mailing lists. This doesn’t mean volunteering and being saddled with manning the tuck shop every Monday night until the end of time (although some people like Moira and Pauline are still there, selling sweets week after week - and they love it and we love it that they do!) But ex-participants and their parents could simply join our social network sites - Facebook and twitter and flickr and You Tube - to name but four, or simply come along and see a show. In the next year we will be increasingly hosting professional companies and their work, as well as continuing to develop our own productions, films, original work and sharing events.
Things are not the same as they used to be. They are not the same as they were in 1973 or indeed in more recent history - for more reasons than there’s time to write here. (Think of policies and safeguarding for one!) Nor should we simply think of history as something that just teaches us lessons - to limit the use of history to lessons is, in my view, to miss the point. As Henry Kissenger said, history ‘teaches by analogy, not by maxims.’ In that way history sets us free. It allows us to seek out the similarities in what went before - and celebrate these - without having to see what happened before as the only way to do things. History isn’t a blueprint.
And what are the similarities? Well, from a quick survey of the archive and people’s responses to it and our own young people too - youth theatre is about enjoyment, having a laugh, participation, working together to a common aim, striving for (and sometimes failing!) to reach a goal, overcoming nerves, developing confidence, developing self-discipline, sometimes getting off with someone you fancy, being creative, having ideas, and so on... and so on... and this is common at whatever time in history youth theatre is taking place... then as now youth theatre is an intangible good.
