Busy, busy, busy

I thought I would drop in (I know it has literally been months!)  to say we are so busy it is impossible to keep writing a blog post!

Sorry.

MUST DO BETTER x 100

Do I have to stay after school to write that?

Well, I'm here anyway.  Beavering away and trying, as is everyone here, to keep developing and growing BYT to enable young people to fulfil their potential with us.  We know we are fast becoming a key cornerstone in the culture offer of Burnley and East Lancashire... but it's always good to know what people think...

So, if you don't yet come to BYT - why not?

And if you want to come and don't why not?

And if you don't know who and what we are give us a ring and find out.  Or text us.  Or tweet us.  Or contact us on Facebook

This is the case if you are interested in the performing arts or not.  This is the case if you are interested in the arts or not.

Right. That's all for now.  Off again.

Mandy

Enough

This is probably a bad day to do this but writing a new blog post is on my list of things to do and it has been months sooooo do you ever have one of those days when you think what's it all about and when the hole in the wall where you've been hitting your head just gets bigger?  And bigger? Where it doesn't seem to make as much sense as it once did?

This isn't a picture of me of course.  My desk is never this tidy.  My desk has never been this tidy.  My desk wasn't this tidy when it was brand new.  But it absolutely sums up how I am feeling today and just how hard it is to concentrate day after day on what amounts to quite mundane tasks when what matters is creating great work for young people and children, yeah? Or creating opportunities for aforementioned great work. Isn't it?

I'm not dissing the report writing or the fundraising or the writing of objectives or plans or even the need for any of these things.  I accept that accountability is necessary and I accept that we need to justify our very existence in terms of all of this but it does sometimes seem to log jam... A full-on endless round of new things with imminent deadlines. Here's me.

The trouble with this office, if trouble there is, is that it's an open office.  We welcome people - especially young people - into it.  And they speak to us and ask us stuff and like to be involved and have their say and be included in the heart of what is being reported.  That's the problem, if there is one, because all of that stuff matters way more than all the reporting and paper work that eats time that makes it all possible.  Sheesh, it's one long round of juggling, balancing, thinking, circularness isn't it?  It's a wheel within a wheel, never ending or beginning on a half ... 

This calls for a song: 

I'm wondering if you've worked it out yet?   What all this is actually about?  I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking, 'It's Friday.  She's just trying to wind down the hours tile the weekend.' You think I'm 'avoiding' work - using the excuse of a blog for a little wander around the internet.  

Oh yes, I forgot.  Working Sunday.  

I'm supporting Walking into the Distance.  A new piece of work by Kailey McGowan which is on a week Friday (a week today) and supported by the Arrow Group's devised piece, Paloma's world.  For details, ring 01282 427767.  And aside from being evidence that young people really are making their own theatre and being facilitated to do that, it's also a fundraiser. We are taking a group of our older young people to Edinburgh in the summer - and we need a big fat pot of money for it.  (Any one seen one idly lying around? No?  You surprise me!)

Am I complaining?  A bit, yes.  Do I think it is a force for good all this youth theatre malarky?  I do, yes.  I absolutely do, yes.  Why else do you think I'm sitting here with the rising tide of paper threatening to engulf me and suffocate me and rob me of my very last breath?  Because youth theatre is an absolute force for good.  It is. Even if the Artistic Director is sometimes a bit fed up and a bit overwhelmed by the demands...

Right - off now.  If you don't see me for a bit come armed with a shovel.  :) 

On youth theatre and On Burnley

I am feeling torn. I think it's because six months or so after becoming Artistic Director full time for Burnley Youth Theatre the reality of the day to day has kicked in.  And because I'm in a bad mood anyway.  Why? Because this year has been tough and fraught for all kinds of reasons and you know, I'm not made of stone.  And because life it hard some times.  Life is just plain tricky.

Don't be fooled. I'm not down on the job - it's a great job.  What could be better than working with young people and enabling them to take their first full steps on the road to becoming life long theatre lovers, or facilitating their creativity, being part of an activity that improves young people's overall attainment and so on? Believe me I am not fed up of being the Artistic Director - I haven't even started yet. I'm just certain that it's a bigger job than I thought.  Just certain that there are some obstacles that need to be overcome.

Firstly, let it be said I am blessed with an amazing team. Lovely people who work above and beyond the call of duty. They all, everyone, work above and beyond their alloted hours.  They contribute ideas, thoughts, insights, passion, energy and above all enthusiasm into making the place work.  That isn't what's at issue.

Secondly, let me tell you we are supported by ACE, BBC and LCC and we're very grateful for that.

Thirdly, let me tell you we are in the National Portfolio and we are naturally pleased about that too. We are very excited about what this might mean for us...

But this is a period of change for the arts, and I know that how we've done things since I've been at the helm is very different to how we're going to have to do them in the future to survive - and, dare I say it, grow?
And this is the root cause of my general bad mood.

Well, sort of.

Two things are really exercising me a lot.  And here they are:

One is that sometimes - and I really do not have a chip on my shoulder about this - sometimes I sense that people glaze over when they hear the word 'youth' in our title - as if, whilst there is an acknowledgement of the work's value, it's not like 'professional' theatre, or it's not like, you know, real artists who are beavering away, you know it's just a bunch of young people; as though we are in the National Portfolio to make the numbers up. And I am talking about people out of the arts as well as people in the arts.  WE are not - definitely NOT - just about young people having fun, we are not just a diversion (although these things are important).  We are about enabling young people to particpate in high quality arts activity, an absolutely vital foundation for ensuring that in the future there are young people who want to participate as audience, as artists and that their enthusiasm for creating art is channelled AND that they are given the opportunity to learn. We are about extending our offer to every corner, class and youth club across the region. What we offer is something that is uniquely focused on young people - it's not a sideline.  It's not something that is competing for space in a busy theatre building (although our building is very busy!) - it is a new theatre space that prioritises the work of young people.  Young people in Burnley, and beyond.  Young people in East Lancashire, and if our ambitions are fulfilled young people from across Lancashire and beyond.  We are not about subsuming all other youth theatre activity either, but about saying, 'Look - we have something unique here - a place for young people to come and work with us in partnership and BE prioritised.'  Burnley Youth Theatre is a purpose built space for young people.  And also let me say that youth theatre is not just a stepping stone for professionals to cut their teeth - but an entity that prioritises the emergence of young people as theatre practitioners, as theatre creators and theatre makers, that nurtures young people's hopes and ambitions in the arts - and the point is that the workers' role is to facilitate and prioritise that work.

And Two - The other thing that is exercising me is the fact that dozens of assumptions are made when you say the word Burnley.  Over many years of working here I have grown to love Burnley and its people, a population emphatically not apologetic about where they live, let me tell you.  A place emphatically on the up... don't believe me?  Come and look.

Burnley Youth Theatre
So, I have asked myself, 'What's in a name?'  I know that many of the people attached to the organisation and with good reason, are very much committed to maintaining and sustaining the strong identity attached to our name... but ... if we aspire to being a youth theatre for young people around the county or across the North West do we need to be named by our location?  Yes? Or no?  If we are charged by the arts council in building the youth theatre as a live venue for touring theatre and as a venue for other youth theatres to deliver work - is Burnley Youth Theatre the right name?  Is it inviting or is it off putting?  I do know that when people do bother to come and take a look at the youth theatre building they are very impressed by it.  Sometimes they look slightly aghast and say, "Is this a youth theatre?" as if such a building is completely outside of their experience of what a youth theatre should be like, as if we've only the right to exist in a hut somewhere instead of a purpose built and state of the art theatre, and sometimes they just can't quite believe that the building, a beautiful cedar clad place in a clearing, in a forest, is actually a youth theatre.  For young people, yes.  For young people to be prioritised, yes.  A place that focuses on young people and their emergence as young actors...

Not sure what the purpose of this blog was now... just a rift on Burnley... and Youth... and Theatre... and just a steer on how ambitious we are... Okay?  Sorry, there's that crossness  creeping in again. We're great?  Alright?

TRAPPED - AUDITIONS - Tuesday @ 1st November, 2011

Bring your little brothers and little sisters!  Bring your grandchildren and children - this is a new piece for children in school years 2,3,4,5 and 6 - 5:30pm - 6:30pm at BYT...   Give us a bell if you need to know more 01282 427767

Trapped - a new play for our Junior Children - auditions TUESDAY

On Tuesday at 5.00pm we have an audition for a new play TRAPPED.  This is a play about a young boy trapped inside a computer game. There's loads of characters for children in year 2,3,4,5 and 6. Come along!  See you there. 

People, we are a Building. People, we are an organisation. People, we are a youth theatre.

Making not Watching and the art of generosity. A cautionary tale...

We want to develop a youth theatre where all young people have the opportunity to create theatre as well as the opportunity to watch it.  As part of our successful NPO bid we have been asked to develop BYT as a receiving theatre.  This means that as well as offering young people the opportunity to participate, we are also looking for young people (and their families) to become an audience.  It has occurred to me - slowly as I am actually quite dim some times - that these are not necessarily the same thing. Young people who want to perform are not necessarily the same as young people who want to watch theatre...

Some years ago - well back in the beginning of time when I had escaped teaching and was living the life of the artist starving in the garret and actually having a good laugh getting reviews in The Independent,

 'Comic duo, Say So, sweating profusely under the lights,...'

if that counts -  I began to realise that as funny as we were (well, as funny as Carmen Walton, my comedy partner was) we were not going to be the next French and Saunders because all of the people who came to our shows (with the honourable exception of the poor bloke we dragged off Newton Street into the Frog and Bucket - imagine his startled face as we began our 'hilarious' routine) harboured the desire to be who we were, and to make their own work. All of them were, like ourselves, interested in what other people were doing, and occasionally even bought their wares but all of them, like ourselves, were actually more interested in making our own work.  We sold 500 books and thought we were someone.  We were someone - just not quite who we imagined ourselves to be.  We were on radio one with Mark and Lard.  We were regulars on local radio, finding new and inventive ways to steal our BBC passes as we left... I had 20 at one point. We sat in the green room with The Two Fat Ladies (and YES you could tell the difference.)  We laughed when we saw the soft shoes of a famous news reader... and in the end we just came to an end, in the way of all things.

We also shamed ourselves on a number of occasions during performances - we were bad for each other in that sense.  I famously fell over in Mid Pennines offices - I was out of control! I regularly corpsed (a problem that plagues me to this day) and on at least one occasion I regret being less than generous watching a poet who was using an orange in her set to symbolise a planet whilst wearing ski boots - this seemed inextricably hilarious at the time and we were barking with laughter and had to be removed from the room. We knew we were out of order, and we behaved badly.  What goes around comes around.

This was in the days before You Tube.  This was when you had to go out to hear what was going on in the world, and where the audience was largely tolerant because soon enough they would be up there delivering their own work.

It is a very different landscape now but I still have this sneaking suspicion that the urge to create your own work is at least equal to the urge to watch other people's. I wonder how often any of us really take time to watch and consider the work of those who are around us?  Yes, I visit the theatre regularly, and yes I read books, but which predominates - watching or making?  Perhaps it is different for different people? I don’t know the answers to these questions, I am merely posing them.  How do I encourage our young people to come and see work here, even if it is not quite to their taste?

At the youth theatre, we are developing a policy of positively encouraging the young people to watch other work. This is underpinned by the belief that you do not necessarily develop your theatre skills in the isolation of the rehearsal room.  Our notions of what constitutes theatre - what it is and what it can be - is shaped by what we see as well as what we experience.   Burnley is NOT a cultural oasis but many theatre companies don't necessarily seek us out as a venue even though we are the perfect size to house new and interesting work, and even though we are working towards doing just that. We want to offer our young people the opportunity to see work that might otherwise go unseen, to challenge what they understand as theatre and encourage them to take risks with their own work.  Nothing amazing was ever produced in a comfort zone. This does not just mean watching live theatre - both within our own space and on trips to other buildings - this term we have hosted Contact Theatre, M6 Theatre, and in a couple of weeks, we’ll be showing Red Riding Hood by Horse and Bamboo but directing young people to clips on You Tube or other websites where work is uploaded and demands attention and why we will be going to the Edinburgh festival again too.  Yes, sometimes work may be strange and unsettling, or perhaps not fully realised but to make theatre is to engage with a process of developing the best way of saying what needs to be said even if it falls short of what was imagined.

It is something else too.  We feel it as a deep and profound responsibility that we are charged with developing young artists - young people who are discerning about theatre, who are able to articulate what makes something good or bad, and who strive to make their own work original and challenging.  And equally, and no less important that they understand that they share that journey with many other artists and individuals some of whom have different talents to themselves, and who come from very different place or who strive for different meanings, and different ways of telling.  We are absolutely committed to the development of generosity.  If someone is wearing ski boots, and uses an orange as a prop it's okay to gently question the purpose of this, and suggest there might be a different way of working.

Ultimately, we feel that we have an immense role to support the young people who come to the youth theatre - the 450 who rock up week after week - to become fully engaging, thoughtful, passionate human beings.  Because in the end, whether you are making or watching theatre (or any of the arts) you are engaged in social action, political or non-political and that has a considerable consequence both now and in the future.  It is not easy.  Young people need to be convinced by the need to see other work - and this is a journey we are beginning to take.  We would welcome any suggestions about how we engage young people in this process.  I can’t make them come to see the work here - but I passionately want them to.

ps if you want a copy of 'Something Piggy and Unappealing' I still have a few hundred in the cellar.