2024nWRNo66a-wJW 6/12/04 3:30 pm Page 81 Section 66.pdf · member during Williams’ time, alongside his friend, the photographer Keith Morris, ... Reynolds, poet. The list is seemingly

2024nWRNo66a-wJW 6/12/04 3:30 pm Page 81

Tomorrow’s StarsThe National YouthTheatre of WalesKate Frost

Director, Simon Harris, for example, was amember during Williams’ time, alongsidehis friend, the photographer Keith Morris,who manages the award-winning Theatre inWales website. Then there’s Sara Evans,journalist for BBC News 24; Rhodri Owen,presenter; Oliver Reynolds, poet. The list isseemingly endless.

More recently, there have been strikingnew figures, such as Matthew Rhys, whohas found success with a run at the RSC ina critically-acclaimed production of Romeoand Juliet, and Joanna Page, with hermemorable and scene-stealing performanceof ‘Just Judy’ in the British film LoveActually.

A common theme emerges from theconversations I’ve had with past NYTWmembers: the fact that the youth theatrebuilds confidence and that it offers aunique opportunity to work professionallywith other like-minded young people fromall over Wales, whilst at the same timeevoking a sense of fun, commitment andpassion during the course, as well ascementing friendships that last well past thefinal curtain call. Matthew Rhysenthusiastically tells me, ‘I think the bestform of training is doing it – you learn atthe same time, are guided and tutored,eased into the experience.’

1976 saw the birth of the NationalYouth Theatre of Wales, in what was a bravemove in the economic climate for theWelsh Education Authorities. Wales had astrong tradition of music: the NationalYouth Orchestra of Wales was already verymuch established when the youth theatrewas just beginning. Alan Vaughan Williamsrelished the opportunity to lead the newNational Youth Theatre, and the summer of1976 saw a production of Oh What a LovelyWar performed by its first members.

‘I think somebody who was behind thescheme said that they wanted to create an

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T H E A T R E

The publicity shots kept in the archivesof the National Youth Theatre of Walesmust look like a pictorial Who’s Who ofcontemporary theatre, film and TV.During the last 28 years, the NYTW hasbecome a diverse breeding-ground forraw talent both on and off stage,nurtured by the inspiring directors whohave taken the company to their heartsand moulded it into the success story thatit has become.

The NYTW’s very first ArtisticDirector, Alan Vaughan Williams, has seena number of his youth theatre graduatesflourish as professional actors, but he neverthought of the NYTW as merely a trainingground for actors. ‘I wasn’t looking toproduce actors... [While] many havebecome actors in fact, and some of themextremely successful actors – and it’s greatwhen that happens – we produced all sortsof people.’

One of those emerging talents wasMichael Sheen, now a successful actor withan impressive resumé in theatre and film,including Ridley Scott’s latest movie,Kingdom of Heaven. Likewise, actor IanHughes has worked extensively at the RSCas well as appearing in West End musicals.There are too many notable names tomention; the acting world has its fair shareof NYTW graduates. In addition, manytalented youngsters found their professionallives leading them in other directions, aswriters, producers, designers, presentersand agents. Sgript Cymru’s Artistic


overall awareness of the arts in general andof the particular contribution of the theatreto the nation’s culture,’ he explains. ‘Ithought that was a good way to look at it.’

For eleven years Williams nurtured theNYTW and its talented youngsters. Eachyear the youth theatre grew, attracting morecommitted young people and putting onmore productions. Simon Harris, amember from 1979 to 1983, remembers hisexperience in an entirely positive light:‘Alan was certainly the inspiration behind it(NYTW) at the beginning, and he kept itgoing for many years through quite difficulttimes, but I think it was thecomprehensiveness of what he was trying todo that was so impressive really, in that hetried to involve people right across theboard, from all the counties.’

The Welsh Joint Education Committeetook over the responsibility of managingthe NYTW in 1990, alongside the muchneeded support of the LEAs. At the sametime, Pauline Crossley became theExpressive Arts Officer for the WJEC, withthe aim of ‘looking at what it (NYTW) wasdoing, who it was serving, how it wasoperating across Wales’. A new ArtisticDirector, Paul Clements, was soonappointed and as Pauline Crossley says, ‘Heturned the fortunes, if you like, of theyouth theatre, both in terms of what it wasdelivering artistically and educationally butalso financially. There were quite extremepressures at the time and the localauthorities bailed the youth theatre out.’

Each Artistic Director has broughtsomething new to the NYTW, with theirindividual skills, experiences and artisticideas. I suggest to Pauline Crossley that thiswas a way in which the NYTW couldcontinually reinvent itself.

‘Paul Clements was Artistic Directorfor, I think, three or four years and he wasvery much a text-driven director,’ she says.

When Jamie Garven took the helm he waslooking for something quite different forthe youth theatre; more interested indevising a new kind of theatre for youngpeople that was driven more by the youngpeople themselves and perhaps not focusingexclusively on being set in theatres.’

The one thing the NYTW is not afraidto do is experiment. With each director theyouth theatre has taken a new path andbuilt upon past successes to give the most toits young members. Garven’s succession asArtistic Director in 1997 certainly ensuredthat the youth theatre went in a newdirection. It was a risk that paid off. TheWestern Mail’s reviewer was certainlyimpressed in 1999: ‘Boldness is the friendof the youthful company, enthusiasm itshallmark and a welcome dash of irreverencethe spice that hones its cutting edge.’

The first production Garven undertookwith NYTW was Ubu, written byseventeen-year-old Alfred Jarry, a play hethought particularly suitable for the youththeatre to perform. I ask him what his aimswere. ‘Artistically it was about creating workyou couldn’t possibly see anywhere else, inthat you’re working with a large companyof people, and professionally you can onlywork with a small company, so to use thatscale and use the possibilities of creatingsomething unique, I think was, at the time,quite apt for the NYTW.’

Ubu was certainly a change in directionfrom the crowd-pleasing and relatively safeperformances of Grease and Godspellproduced under the direction of ArtisticDirector Michael Poynor in the late 1980s.As Garven comments on his first play withthe youth theatre: ‘You could fill it with allsorts of inventiveness, youthful exuberanceand artistically unconventional ideas.’

Garven’s next step, in 2000, was tobring in Italian-born Firenza Guidi, aperformance-creator, director, writer and

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performer, to direct her own adaptation ofGoethe’s Faust. The NYTW members wereremoved from the safe conventions oftraditional theatres and thrown intounpredictable and exciting spaces withGuidi’s site-specific productions. Faust wasperformed in the National Library of Walesand Cardiff ’s National Museum andGallery. Subsequent productions of Hamletand Woyzeck were performed on a specially-created stage set in Aberystwyth.

‘I think Firenza’s introduction as GuestDirector took the youth theatre in adirection that it had never been before, inits then 25-year history,’ Pauline Crossleyexplains. ‘She focused on site-specific workbut it was also very physical – not negatingtext or the value of text but working with itvery differently.’

‘It’s fair to say that there have been upsand downs,’ she goes on to say. ‘At times theNYTW has struggled financially, but withthe continued support of the Arts Councilof Wales, the Youth Theatre has continuedto build an impressive reputation both

nationally and further afield. The limits ofwhat the NYTW can achieve seem limitedonly by time and money.’

Current Artistic Director Greg Cullen’sproduction of Frida and Diego in 2003 sawa massive increase in audiences as well as a54% increase in young people applying tojoin the company for summer 2004.Guidi’s site-specific work, whilst diversifyingthe youth theatre and producing excitingand experimental work, limited the amountof people who could see it. Cullen reinstatedtouring with Frida and Diego and took theNYTW back into the theatre. Audiencefigures for 2003 topped 5000.

‘I just think the only limitation is youcan’t work with enough young people,’Garven tells me. ‘If there were the resourcesyou could do it all the year round, do it indifferent geographic locations – it’seducation, it’s development, it’s stimulus,it’s new ideas for people.’

One of the challenges the NYTW hasfaced throughout its 28-year history ismarrying the Welsh and English languages

Whispers in the Woods (photograph courtesy NYTW)


effectively, in order to stay true to theeveryday reality of life in Wales. Eachdirector has found new ways of workingand experimenting with language.

Alan Vaughan Williams found itimportant to get the balance right with theproductions because ‘the Welsh speakerswould always be in a minority’. The mainstage play would be text-based and inEnglish; plays ranged from Shakespeare toDylan Thomas through to Brecht.Alongside these he would run a Welsh-language play and usually another devisedpiece. ‘I was very careful that the peoplewho were in the Welsh production were notonly in the Welsh production,’ he says.

For Harris, who came from a non-Welsh speaking background, his time withthe NYTW was a unique experience. ‘Thatengagement with other cultures andparticularly with the Welsh-speakingculture of Wales was at the time quite adevelopment for me,’ he recalls.

There were long discussions whenGarven became Artistic Director as to howto work both Welsh and English into theproductions. The decision was made to dojust one production, like Ubu or Beggars’Opera but to do an English-language andWelsh-language version. And the result ofthat? ‘It was a step forward,’ Pauline Crossleytells me. ‘It worked, it was supported, but itwas very difficult to work on two shows,large scale and then only doing two English-language shows and two Welsh-languageshows. It was unsatisfactory, so then westarted to think about how we could workbilingually.’

Guidi’s three productions were anotherstep in the right direction, as the verynature of the performances was shaped notonly by language but also by physicalelements, movement and setting; ‘...although language was an important part ofit,’ Pauline Crossley explains. ‘It was many

languages if you like, physical languages, aswell as English, Welsh, Italian and anynumber of other languages.’

Garven agrees. ‘Language is only a partof it: theatre is about action.’ Talkingspecifically about Guidi’s threeproductions, he says, ‘It was bold,adventurous, I suppose, experimental in acertain way, very visual, very physical andtotally unique.’

Greg Cullen’s first production with theNYTW, Frida and Diego, united the youththeatre members in one bilingualproduction. The reaction from the studentsthemselves, according to Pauline Crossley,was ‘unanimously in favour of one group ofpeople working towards one goal.’

Cullen also worked bilingually on thisyear’s production Whispers in the Woods.During rehearsals, he told me, ‘We willonce again be experimenting withbilingualism in performance, and the videoprojections will become a majorcomponent in that. We want to create ashow which is uniquely Welsh in that itreflects the languages of its members andhow those languages are used in everydayspeech.’ It’s a bold decision but one thatseems to have paid off.

‘I think it’s good that they’re moving inan opposite direction,’ Garven says ofCullen’s leadership. ‘Their priorities will bedifferent from mine. It’s a good contrast, togo for change, go for a different feel.’

Although acting is naturally a majorpart of the youth theatre, the ArtisticDirectors have been united in their aim tooffer youth theatre members so much more.Williams often offered his students theopportunity to work on a devised piecealongside the main text-based play andWelsh-language production. This side tothe youth theatre particularly intriguedSimon Harris, who says that ‘it was one ofthe ways in which I was exposed to writing

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at an early stage and it was an opportunityto work with other people, to exchangeideas and to get something done.’

Harris has come full circle, as SgriptCymru, in conjunction with the NYTW, hasset up a web-based project, Livewire, ‘whichinvolves us paying professional playwrightsto work with groups of young people acrossWales and to build up a relationship, toencourage them to write a play.’

When I suggest that such diversificationbodes well for the future of NYTW, Harrisagrees. ‘That’s part of Greg’s mission, havingbeen a playwright himself. He’s keen to seeyoung people take more ownership of theproject they’re working on, and that willinevitably involve some devising and writing.’

And, as I discovered, Cullen is thinkingexactly along those lines for summer 2005.‘This year we have sought to developplaywriting with Sgript Cymru,’ he says. ‘Iwant to develop scriptwriting next yearwith a view to producing a play which hasbeen written by young people to a standardof real excellence.’

This is just one example of how NYTWwill continue to grow and develop while stilloffering its students unique opportunities todevelop new skills. Everyone involved withNYTW has big ideas for the future. As GregCullen puts it so well, ‘We are a modernnation, and our national companies shouldbe embracing who and what we are inrelation to the world. Frida and Diego wasabout two revolutionary Mexican painterswho used their art to redefine a nation andthemselves as individuals within it. Whispersdraws on storytelling traditions fromaround the world whilst bearing down uponthe petty prejudices which prevent us fromexploring what it means to be human, alive,in Wales, now.’

What makes a monster?The creation of frankensteinsPhil Mackenzie

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The Sherman Theatre Summer Schoolwas established in 1988, and has sinceput on a production almost every year.Groups of young people aged 10-25 visitthe theatre for an intensive five-weekperiod of rehearsals each summer, whichculminate in a dynamic production.

Over the years, the Summer Schoolhas worked with professional actors andwriters, produced previously writtenworks and devised their own shows,incorporated film, animation, dance,singing and music, all under thedirection of an experienced,professional director (currently PhilMacKenzie). Past productions haveincluded Baroque and Roll, Gregory’sGirl, A Midsummer Night’s Dream andThe Jungle Book.

New Welsh Review asked PhilMackenzie to write about the creation ofthis year’s production, frankensteins.

December 2003Chelyabinsk, Siberia.It’s late afternoon and already dark. I amstanding on the edge of Revolution Square.Big Russians in thick coats pass by, ladenwith makeshift shopping bags on their wayhome. On top of one of the empty officeblocks a large projection screen is pumpingout endless video loops: a mix of Bacardi,car and shampoo commercials. A fiction ofperfect teeth and smiling people living in aworld of emerald oceans, happy families andshining yachts. The stooped shoulders in furcoats stop and watch. Then they go home.

Drama graduate Kate Frost is currently working on herfirst novel.


What do they think, looking up at theseimages? Moscow is a lot of dollars away.What did Dr Frankenstein’s ‘monster’ feellooking in on the ‘other’ world that he couldnever be part of? What happens when whatcreated you, rejects you? How come so manypeople have plastic surgery? How comeMichael Jackson keeps changing his face andhe can buy anything he wants? What sort ofmonster is that? How do young people in theWest deal with the endless carnival of‘virtual’ utopias bombarding them everyday? Do they notice anymore?

May 2004CardiffAuditions for ‘monsters’. I have asked eachyoung person to bring two pieces of textincluding one they have written themselves.We do simple movement and group workand combine that with the texts. From the60 who come I choose 23.

June 2004La Maison Verte, Southern FranceA week with Ron (Bunzl), my assistantdirector/film-maker for the production. Wetake inspiration from Mary Shelley’sFrankenstein, the film versions by JamesWhale and Kenneth Branagh.We also look

at short stories and essays by social,psychological and literary analysts, andscience fiction writers. How might we makea piece of contemporary theatre that bridgesthe gap between the Gothic novel written in1816 and the concerns and experiences ofyoung people living in today’s world oftechnology and virtual realities?

We part armed with a network ofimages, questions, actions and situations,each recorded onto their own little whitecard. Someone asks me what my ‘method is.The method is actually no method; it’smore like an intuitive/abstract searchengine. It discovers and generates avocabulary and structure by repeating itselfover and over. Each time it is repeated itlayers itself with more information anddiscoveries, so that what is being createdreveals itself out of itself and not fromme… I just turn the engine on.

July 2004Think about June 2004.Visit Mike Ashcroft (my other assistantdirector). I taught Mike 14 years ago, andso began our ongoing collaboration; henow works closely with the RSC. We speakof the ‘monster’ inside us all. Mike seems tohave a fixation with Thriller and MichaelJackson as the ultimate horror of a humanseeking perfection.

August 2004The Sherman Theatre Cardiff Rehearsal Day 1. 23 ‘monsters’ (11-25 yrs)waiting, talking, nervous and ready to start.I’ve been a theatre maker for 25 years; thefirst day of rehearsal still terrifies me. Whatam I going to do? How to start? Why didn’tI prepare more? What is going to work withthis group now? Always starting with ablank page – map vague and destinationunknown. In a moment of weakness Ithink, ‘Why didn’t I choose a play? Whynot let somebody else do all the work on

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All images accompanying this piece and the review thatfollows courtesy the Sherman Theatre.


structure, content and character?’ Butwhere are the plays for such a large cast ofyoung people? A play that doesn’t revolvearound 4 or 5 main characters witheverybody else as chorus?

How do we start?We watch two films of Frankenstein (Whaleand Branagh). Only one person has readthe book; for most this is their introductionto the material. With the continual mantrathat we are not remaking Frankenstein: thisis merely our starting point, starting point,starting point, starting point.

Creation of ensembleAn empty clean room blacked out and lit ineach corner. Keeping the ‘outside’ world asfar away as possible. Mobile phones off,shoes off, loose clothing, no gum, totalattention, poised and ready.

Gradually we build a unified groupthat is capable of creating its own material– establishing the frames and conditionsthat enable them to experience the act ofmaking something together; the creativeefforts of a group of people in a particulartime and space, creating something whichcannot be predicted in advance. Engagingthem in the ‘actions of doing’ rather than ‘acting’. How does what thatperson/group of people are doing give mesomething to do (now)? What activatesthe ‘doing’ is RESPONSE to what else ishappening in the room. If in doubt,STOP and LOOK for details, somethingyou like, something that interests you,something that embarrasses you. Take arisk, use other people’s actions,invitations, provocations as triggers andimpulses from which to respond andcontribute. It is by engaging with othersthat we find out a little more aboutourselves. It’s not for one’s own privatepleasure in a corner somewhere.

ProcessEach day becomes a series of extendedimprovisations. Each day this empty box,this tabula rasa is filled with a new groupexperience that is guided by a live mixedsoundscape and each person’s choices. Eachday a search for something else and thingsremembered. Each day beginning with thesimplest of impulses – a question, anaction, a song, a walk, a stillness, a position,a tableau, an unexpected event, an embrace,a fall, a change of tempo. All the timeseeking to use every person’s creativityinside a developing performance language.

At the end of each day, a discussion andreflection upon what we have done,identifying events worth pursuing. Anongoing investigation into what we aretrying to do, coming from what we havejust done – always referring back to thesource material of Frankenstein.

August passes (very) quickly.In the course of these four weeks the

content mutates and multiplies, and whatwe are making with each other graduallyreveals itself. Soon I must start to simplifyand clarify, organize and edit. As always, Iput it off as long as possible. So muchmaterial – how do we do justice to it?

What’s the story?It’s an elusive Zen secret, how to captureand store the ‘magic’ of theseimprovisations – those moments when theensemble transforms with invention andimagination. If captured too quickly, the‘magic’ simply disappears. Of course, this‘magic’ is followed by hours of stumbling,falling, grasping, guessing, missing andoccasionally catching.

Stay patient, stay humble: there is time. Side by side with the theatre-making is thecomposition of the films to be projected aspart of the performance. Ron Bunzl has satwith me for four weeks in the room

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constructing frankensteins. ‘I worked tocreate movies for the production,’ he writes.‘Three screens dominated the stage image.Like a video wall projecting images of desireand icons relating to the themes ofFrankenstein. Some of the ‘movies’ were likecommercials portraying a perfect world,while others mirrored, echoed and providedcontext for characters and actions, forexample, the Sims world that accompaniedthe opening section of the performance wasa combination of the Sims Hot Datecomputer game – in which each playercreates and manages characters andsituations in a simulation of the real world –together with short movies I made with theyoung people in which they inhabit‘ideal/dream’ worlds of designer furniture,beauty parlours, fitness/body building andhigh-end automotive technology. Othermovies featured 3D animations of perfectand impossible bodies floating throughmanipulated otherworldly landscapescomposed of video images of demolishedmotor parts. These movies were intended toframe the stage action and introduce levels ofvisual content based on the themes of desire,creation, destruction, longing and thevisualization of virtual/perfected worlds.’

The cast are away filming with Ron inFerrari showrooms, a scrap yard, a beautyparlour and a furniture store. Mike and Ihave a day together to thread a storythrough the blocks of material that havebeen created. A simple clear red linerunning through the piece that theaudience can hold on to. Dr Frankensteinbecomes a hybrid of a vaudeville magicianand a psychotic scientist whose laboratory isa little Victorian theatre on wheels. Theensemble, all in white on a white stage,inhabit a strange Stepford-Wives-crossed-with-the-Sims-world of automatedperfection mutants. All of them cravingperfection in the human form. MichaelJackson’s Thriller dance mutates into a

collective dance of death. Threadedthrough this is the pathos of the monsterlooking for his bride. In the tradition ofhappy endings the monster is united withhis bride, the magician’s assistant.

Why don’t I come up with the storysooner, the thread that tells us what to do next?

Four days before opening we transfer from thecomfort and security of our rehearsal room tothe brutal reality of a large stage with 468empty seats facing us. Always the cruellest day.Panic sets in and our young cast is plungedinto brief despair. We plough on through withthe tedious task of blocking the work onto thestage, at the same time weaving the story intowhat we have made. Black clouds quicklyvanish in these final three days. Suddenly thewhite canvas of the stage is lit with beautifullights, there is sound, the films are edited andprojected like giant billboards. All those hoursof improving and moving and stumblingbegin to make sense.

Mike (Ashcroft), who has shared thesummer school with me for the last threeyears, writes: ‘What is so refreshing aboutthis summer school, and a lot of this comesdown to the way Phil approaches the work,the way he instills in all the young people atotal belief in the process. At the end wealways end up in a place that we did notexpect. So much theatre begins on day onewith an idea and the rest of the days arespent trying to get that idea onto the stageas quickly and painlessly as possible.

The summer school is not like this. It isa real journey into the unknown, a high riskadventure. The greatest thing we always do isto let it take its own direction. Everybody isequal, everybody is a collaborator. This levelof commitment and trust takes time. Theshow stops being about the ideas of theleaders but rather about the stories and ideasof all those taking part. I thought this yearwas a harder show to make than the previous

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two (Lord of the Flies Revisited in 2001 andAlice in 2002) because of the scale of theissues raised in the book. Maybe a smallercore at the beginning of the process wouldhave helped us identify the heart of the bookand which ideas were worth exploring.’

The daily challenge throughout was how tokeep 23 young people across a wide agespectrum engaged all of the time. Otherwisethey make a lot of noise. We need to create anatmosphere that keeps their attention andinterest – that encourages them to grapplewith the complex issues that rise from thematerial. Actually they bring a very astuteunderstanding of the world in which they liveto the project. They ask a lot of questions andexpect them to be answered. But I wonder ifthere is an easier way to do all of this? Maybestart with a smaller core of people to explorewith and then add more later? Is eight hours ofrehearsals each day too long? Could we sustainmore performances? Should we do somethingvery different next year? Take over the entireSherman building, have smaller teams, eachwith their own director, and create a series ofperformance installations for the corridors, thedressing rooms, the foyer etc.?

Finally, watching the audience as theywatch what these 23 performers havemanaged to achieve in a month is (asalways) deeply moving. Their level of beliefand concentration, their sheer joy and style.Thank you to each and every one.

frankensteins was created for theSherman Theatre Summer School 2004Performed Sherman Theatre Venue 1 on September 3 & 4Directed by Phil MackenzieAssistant Director/Film-maker: Ron BunzlAssistant Director: Mike AshcroftLighting: Kay HardingDesign: William GoadCostumes: Deryn Tudor

FrankensteinsSherman Youth TheatreA review by Josh Green

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This latest offering from the ShermanYouth Theatre was a loose updating of theclassic Frankenstein story to a modernsetting. The production took a number ofthemes that arise in the original novel –principally alienation, the search foracceptance and the fascination withappearance – and drew parallels withissues that are prevalent in our currentsociety and are of particular relevance tothe show’s target audience of 11-25 yearolds (which included me). Add to this thefact that this was a devised piece, giving acertain amount of creative freedom to theyoung cast, and that it aimed to create andsustain an interaction between liveperformance and recorded footage (videoartist Ron Bunzl collaborated on theproject): this production had all theingredients of an interesting and thought-provoking piece.

I have chosen the word interesting herefor a reason. It is a word often attached topieces of theatre that have not completelyfulfilled their potential, where a good ideahas not been carried through orcommunicated fully. And this performancewas an example of this. It had strongindividual elements but no clear overallstructure.This led to a piece of theatre thatsprawled, not across the space, which wasused effectively, but across its own duration.It lacked the slickness that brings pace, andalthough the piece had its own energy, thiswas not enough to hold the attention of theaudience throughout.

However, there were parts of the showthat I genuinely enjoyed. After a weak and


overly melodramatic beginning, the piecefound its feet through a series of well-performed, strongly-stylised movementsequences. The sight of a box breaking freefrom a formation of identical boxes andmoving apparently of its own accord acrossthe stage, being propelled from within byone of the younger actors, was bothunderstated and aesthetically brilliant. Atthis point, the line between playfulness andexperimentation, comedy and horror, wassuccessfully blurred.

It was in this section of the show, too,that the cast clearly showed their ability andalso their enjoyment in what they weredoing. A sense of excitement radiated fromthe performers and from the elder membersof the cast, a sexual tension that is oftenpresent in youth theatre. This seems to be areaction to the intimacy of the rehearsalenvironment, which is often misinterpretedas mutual attraction. Here, this sensualenergy was harnessed well to portray howsexuality has to be dealt with at anincreasingly younger age in our society. Forme the sight of very young girls taking partin a dance sequence relating to plastic

surgery was certainly disturbing.The sense of sexuality was heightened

by the fantastically kitsch costumes. WhitePVC dresses and dyed wigs for the girls andPVC doctors’ outfits and black hair for theboys gave the impression of plastic people,moulded into one image. This theme wasintroduced early in the performance via avideo projection of the Sims computergame, which allows you to construct yourown virtual family. This was the first videoclip used on the impressive triple screenwhich hung at an angle downstage abovethe performers. However, subsequent clipsfailed to match the effect of the first oneand added little to the live action. This waspossibly the first performance using video Ihave seen where I hardly watched theprojections. This is both a compliment tothe strength of the on-stage performers,but also an indication that the projectionswere redundant within the piece. It is invogue for experimental theatre to usevideo, and it felt like the video wasemployed here for mere aesthetic appealrather than to enhance the themes of the performance. Considering that the

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piece was a collaboration between liveperformance and video art, the lack ofinteraction between stage and projectionswas disappointing.

This disparity emphasised the lack ofcohesion apparent throughout the piece. It isadmirable that director Phil Mackenzie andhis team attempt to give young performers ataste of experimental work, but this needed tobe carried through the whole performance. Asit went on, the piece abandoned all pretenceat being experimental, resulting in two mid-performance rounds of applause from thelargely family-based audience. A seeminglyimprovised spoken section delivered directlyto the audience about the state of the femalebody and our obsession with perfect beautywas laboured, and a version of MichaelJackson’s Thriller video (every performertaking part in the famous choreography andportraying Jackson as the modernFrankenstein’s monster) was clichéd at best.These audience-pleasing numbers actuallyundermined the stronger and considerablymore thought-provoking work that hadpreceded them. And as a member of the targetaudience I began to feel patronised. Wherethe earlier elements had dealt subtly with thethemes, leaving the audience to come to itsown conclusions, the later sections had all thesubtlety of a sledgehammer.

Despite these criticisms, however, Iwould say that Frankensteins allowed youngpeople to be part of and have a hand in thecreation of a piece of theatre that introducedthem to experimental forms, for which PhilMackenzie should be applauded. The pieceattempted too much, which resulted in thelack of a clear structure. But the level ofenjoyment the cast were taking in what theyhad created was a privilege to witness andlent validity to the whole project.

Josh Green is a recent graduate from the Department ofDrama at the University of Glamorgan.

‘My problem sometimes’Sera Moore Williams

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Playwright and director Sera MooreWilliams is currently Associate Director ofArad Goch, one of Wales’ foremost theatrecompanies catering for young people.Arad Goch’s aim is to create sophisticated,contemporary theatre, primarily for youngaudiences in Wales; to create links betweenWales and other cultures and countries bytouring the best of the company’sproductions abroad and by inviting newwork into Wales; and to encourage andinstigate new ideas and work for theatrefor young audiences through co-operationwith other artists, companies andorganisations. In this article, Sera MooreWilliams reflects on her recent work withyoung people in Ceredigion.

A music festival, a death in suspiciouscircumstances, a wrist watch and drugparaphernalia: all these elements feature inDead Man’s Bong, a performance devisedand performed by a group of young men,and based on the experiences of one ofthem. As well as telling a gripping story, theperformers expressed a variety of (wellresearched) youthful opinion about the useand abuse of recreational drugs. Dead Man’sBong (1999) was my first experience ofworking with young people who areamongst the least privileged (in so manyways) in Ceredigion. It was the beginningof a strange journey for me as a director, toa place where the final production was onlyone outcome required of the creativeprocess. Fortunately, by virtue of the factthat we were making theatre, it was almostinevitable that the young men involvedfound themselves having to address some


basic issues of communication, and gainingbasic communication skills.

By that time, I’d worked in the theatre inWales for approximately twenty years, first as aperformer and then as a teacher, playwrightand director, before coming to Arad Goch asAssociate Director. I’d been making all mannerof theatre with other professionals for years,and as Practical Tutor at the Department ofTheatre Film and Television at the Universityof Wales, Aberystwyth, (where I had graduatedin 1980), I’d revised my knowledge of actingtheory, and put theory into practice on a dailybasis with very large groups of young people. Ifelt fairly confident that I was qualified to leadcreative work; but I was, in the first instance,barely prepared for the very specific challengesof working with young people whoseexperience of life contrasts so sharply with thatof the average drama student, myself included.

The young people that I work with noware guaranteed to arrive at Arad Goch eitherhyper or exhausted, hungry or hungover,withdrawn, angry, depressed, distressed orpreoccupied, or a combination of all of thesethings, and they’re almost always late. Forsome their condition on any given daydepends on whether they’ve taken theirRitalin, for others on whether they’ve got aplace to sleep that night, or how anxious theyare about a court appearance later that day. Asa director, I’ve always been aware of andinterested in how a group dynamic affects

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creative work, but the dynamic of a group of adozen young people, all struggling with thesymptoms of lives difficult in the extreme, isincredibly complex. One of the mostchallenging aspects of the work I do ismanaging an ever shifting group dynamicwhilst retaining a clarity of purpose. Evenmore crucial, however, is the need to maintaina useful degree of distance between me and thegut-wrenching emotional turmoil which isoften in the room with me: to remain a theatrepractitioner and not become a social worker.

Since Dead Man’s Bong, Arad Goch, incollaboration with Ysgol Ceredigion(previously known as the Pupil ReferralUnit) and Ceredigion Social Services YouthJustice Team, has run several performanceprojects, in which the needs and concerns ofyoung people are at the very heart of thecreative activity. The aim of each project hasbeen to make and perform a new piece oftheatre to an invited audience of family andfriends, teachers and care workers. Thecreative process is structured to provideopportunities to explore issues as well as togain creative and other transferrable skills,including participation in discussion, asense of responsibility, respect for others,listening and taking advice/direction, andteamwork. The actual performances providean opportunity for each young person to bea visible, audible part of somethingperceived by both their peers and the adultsin the audience as successful. It is anopportunity for people with little or nostatus in everyday life to make an impact. Photographs courtesy Sera Moore Williams.


Scheduling is a concern for all theatrecompanies, but my suggestion to schedule aproject for December one year was met withtrepidation, not by Arad Goch, but bycolleagues from Ysgol Ceredigion and theSocial Services. Christmas is a notably difficulttime for many of the young people with whomwe work, but I hoped that the project mightprovide a focus that would deflect some of theproblems. What we eventually achieved wasChristmas Spirit (December 2000), a nativityplay like no other, where ‘all the usual suspects’where lined up in the style of an identity paradeto be questioned about a teenage pregnancy. Itwas a positive experience for all concerned, andhumbling for the more privileged amongst us.A very tough youngster cried when his eventougher father ignored all our pleas to turn upfor the first performance, and then cried againwhen his dad arrived just in time for the secondperformance, having changed his mind at theeleventh hour and run all the way from theother side of town to get there. Using the sameslot in another year, Happy Day (December2002) – a panto set in a children’s home –became a hilarious yet poignant tale of adulthypocrisy and youthful revenge, as well as anopportunity to think about and express whateach and every one of the participants wouldreally wish for from a fairy godmother. ‘Ahouse’ and ‘a life’ are two of their wishes thathave stayed with me.

ID (October 2001) was a project whichoffered the young people a chance to enhanceperformance skills on an almost one-to-onebasis with expert practitioners. It was also avehicle for exploring identity. Although thelanguage of the projects is alwayspredominantly English, the actors who workwith us are bilingual, and we activelyencourage anyone who can to speak Welsh tous. Most of the young people initially denythat they can speak Welsh, possibly becausetheir main experience of the language hasbeen at school, and school for the most parthas very negative connotations for most of

them. It’s been a joy, and possibly a measureof the success of the work, to see the languagebeing reclaimed as something that for thefirst time for them probably has some statusattached to it. During each project peoplewho have been extremely reluctant to speakWelsh have begun to relish their ability tospeak a word here or a sentence there.

Physical action has historically been thestarting point for improvisation in most ofthe projects, and sequencing physicalimages into a visual narrative has oftenmade up the main body of the production.However, both of the most recent projects,Big Buts (March 2003) and Driving MeCrazy (March 2004), have focused oncreating dialogue, and on the discipline oflearning and remembering lines. Both playsexplored the fact that our actions do haveconsequences. Whilst ‘Big Buts’ was acomedy of errors, Driving Me Crazy, anissue-based play was intensely personal andemotional for some of the participants andtheir families.

Working with only one youth workeron Dead Man’s Bong, I quickly learned thatthe higher the ratio of practitioners toyoung people the better. We have foundthat the professional actors who work withus hold an instant fascination for the youngpeople, and that their presence alone seemsto give credence to work which can I’m sureat times seem strange and irrelevant. Theactors are involved in all stages of theproject, including the performancesthemselves: they provide a safety net,supporting, and even directing when needsbe, from within the piece. The actors alsocreate a role model for the participantswhen, later on in the process, I have toassume the role of director in a moreobvious way; this is a transition fraughtwith difficulties in a room full of peoplewho take issue with anyone vaguelyresembling a figure of authority.

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A musician who worked with us on oneproject likened the process of trying to keep allthe participants in the same room and focusedat any one time to ‘herding cats’. It’s an imagethat has stuck in my mind. The occasionswhen the whole company has been in thesame space and focused on the project havebeen extremely rare, and are seen by all asnothing short of miraculous. As a consequenceI have learned to work in a permissive way,seizing the moment as it arises, working as andwhen it is possible. We have also learned thatit is crucial to have a number of carers at handto work with the young people who leave theroom for any number of reasons.

As a writer, much of my recent work hasbeen inspired and informed by the youngpeople I’ve worked with in the course of thelast few years. I was commissioned by theNational Eisteddfod of Wales to write a playfor the 2001 Eisteddfod, and wrote anddirected Mab, a play based on a true storyabout a young boy who went missing and ayoung impostor (who was looking for afamily) who ‘returned’ in his place. Thecompany Y Gymraes was invited to performMab (in its English translation, Son) at theASSITEJ conference in Seoul, South Koreain 2002, where it was picked up andtranslated into Hungarian for performanceby the Kolibris Theatre Budapest.

Confetti (2002), a play written inconjunction with actors at Arad Goch,dealt with the rough and tumble of twobrothers growing up in less than easycircumstances, and has toured to schoolsand community venues playing in Englishand Welsh to thousands of young peoplebetween the ages of 13 and 16. Riff (March2004), my most recent production withArad Goch, was written in conjunctionwith a performer and musician. A hard-hitting look at the life of a young boygrowing up on the edges of Welsh society,the play draws on a tragic incident that

took place at Columbine High School,Littleton, Colorado. At a time of everincreasing violence in our schools, it is atimely reminder perhaps that we disregardyoung lives at our own peril, and that asadults we risk reaping what we sow.

We have experienced violent incidents,including assault and vandalism, during theprojects at Arad Goch but the success of theprojects has far outweighed the failures.Young people now vie for places on theprojects. Past participants always want tocome back. The building in which we workbecomes a place they visit for weeks after aproject comes to its conclusion. Two youngmen turned up a day early for the last project:one of them had chosen to come to AradGoch rather than go to Spain on holiday withhis family. Young people who have been veryaggressive, or completely withdrawn, havebeen encouraged into doing the work, andhave dared to be part of a group. Youngpeople who have been dismissed as worthlesshave dared to succeed. One young man, whowas asked what he’d got out of the project,answered, ‘Happiness.’

One young man from Dead Man’s Bongnow works as a councillor in a youth drop-incentre; another is in jail for GBH. Oneyoung writer is at college, another left schoolthis summer with no plans at all. Some ofthe young people now have children of theirown. Some will be good parents, some won’t.We don’t expect the work we do to changelives, but I am told time and time again notto underestimate the difference that it makesto them. As a colleague from YsgolCeredigion explained, the young people withwhom we work ‘are not trying to beproblems, they are trying to solve them’. I’mconstantly touched by their ongoing desireto try to express themselves, and their abilityto be creative through thick and thin, andlike their inspiring teacher, I am glad thatthey are ‘my problem sometimes’.

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