Marcus Quane from Co. Limerick Youth Theatre is two months into his European Voluntary Service placement in Lithuania. He has sent us a short update on his experience so far:

My name is Marcus Quane, I am doing an E.V.S. In Lithuania, I have been here for 8 week’s now and am enjoying every minute of it.

I have been enjoying the different cultural experience and different life style they live here. My placement is with a cultural centre/ theatre in a small town called Vezaiciai. I also work part-time in an even smaller theatre in a very small village called Laupi. Both are located just outside the city of Klaipeda, where I am living.

Both groups are very talented and have such great energy.  It really is fantastic to see the hunger they have for drama. By my second week I was giving warm up’s, and I have taken part in a number of events such as Uzgavenes, which is pancake Tuesday for us. It involves dressing up to scare ‘lady winter’ away . The tradition also involves getting a scarecrow and dressing it up as ‘lady winter’ and then burning her as she is a symbol of all that is bad about winter. I also took part in the national Independence day of Lithuania. It is a very patriotic day for them, as Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union until just 23 years ago. It is clear that feelings are still quite raw.

I have discovered that there is more of a focus on competition over here. Two of the theatre groups we facilitate have taken part in a competition to get into a theatre festival. One of them were chosen so we are busy working with them. We have also started up a new group for local young people. So busy times ahead!

Marcus

NAYD sent Marcus on this EVS placement as a pilot project and we hope to offer other EVS opportunities to youth theatre members in the future.

This project is funded by the Youth In Action Programme of the European Union.

NAYD’s Community Drama Training has now moved to Tipperary. The programme is aimed at youth and community workers who wish to use drama in their work with young people. In this blog entry participant Joanna Corcoran shares her experience of  the first day of the training. 

The first day of Community Drama Training I came along to the group excited but a tad nervous as to what the day would involve. I am a Youth Worker from Waterford but have never participated in drama facilitation training previously.
The first exercise we did was an exercise where we formed a circle. We then turned our backs to the circle and closed our eyes. We were asked to make an image of how we were feeling coming along to the group that morning. I thought this was an excellent visual exercise for a facilitator to gauge how nervous, tired or excited a group are at the beginning of a session.

I found this exercise so important as often I have asked people in groups to describe how they were feeling and found that if there are one or two people who have a sense of tiredness or apathy that they voice, it can have a negative effect on the whole group. This exercise is so valuable to the facilitator as games and exercises can be tailored to the group’s energy levels and needs.

Throughout the day we participated in physical warm ups, ice breakers and short improvs that ranged from low to high focus. As we went along, the participants observed, interpreted and gave feedback on each exercise. Games such as name games, Jump Ha, tableau’s, tag, hug tag helped to increase energy and break down physical and psychological barriers between a group of adults from various backgrounds. This was achieved quickly in a safe nurturing supportive environment. Short bursts of dialogue were encouraged through inner on outer circles, where you would talk to a participant about your favourite holiday or pet for two minutes. Then you moved on, to tell the next participant about the last participant, you spoke too.

Overall the first training day with Colin Thornton was an amazing fun-filled experience. It was thought provoking, skill enhancing and laughter inducing! I look forward to the remainder of  NAYD’s Community Drama Training

Joanna

Find out more about the Community Drama Training. 

The terrible effects of cyberbullying have been all too clearly demonstrated in this country  by the recent tragic deaths of two young girls. Anyone who works with young people needs to be aware of the possibility of this form of bullying taking place in their groups.

There is a danger that the perceived anonymity and distance provided by social networking sites can divorce actions and their consequences. It is essential that young people are aware of the possible results if they post negative and hurtful comments about others.

Young people should be encouraged to speak up if they are being targeted by cyber bullies or are aware of it happening to someone they know.

A number of useful resources have been developed by various organisations  and they can be used to develop your own policies around cyberbullying but also to encourage awareness and debate among youth theatre members about the issue.

NAYD has developed advice on the safe use of new technologies including social networking. It is contained in our Welfare and Child Protection Guidelines for Youth Theatres and can be downloaded as an Advice Sheet from our online Advice Centre.

The Office For Internet Safety has a number of initiatives aimed at promoting safe use of the internet among young people, they include Get With It, a guide to cyberbullying and www.webwise.ie, a collection of resources for parents, teachers and young people.

Spunout.ie has some very succinct advice for those who are being bullied by text or online.

If any leader of an affiliated youth theatre is worried about a particular situation, please feel free to contact me for advice or I can help refer you to a specialist organisation. I can be contacted on 01-8781301.

Katie Martin

NAYD’s Designated Welfare Person

We recently announced details of our Young Leader’s Training Pilot Programme. This is a significant development for NAYD and its member youth theatres who identified the need for such a programme.
There are many youth theatre members who have been with their group for a number of years who have reached, or are reaching the stage, when it is time for them either to move on to other things, or to take on another role with the group.

Such are the huge benefits they have gained through their time in youth theatre, a significant number of these young people want to continue to stay involved. They are aware of the difference that youth theatre has made in their lives and wish to contribute to the youth theatre so that other young people can have a similar experience.

For a youth theatre, having a young leader who has had this experience and who wants to be part of the youth theatre’s future is a great asset. However, there are so many demands on the time of the youth theatre leader that it can be very difficult to put time aside to support a young person in developing the necessary skills and knowledge to take on a leadership role. Affiliated groups have pointed out that one of the main challenges involved in the progression from member to leader is redefining the young person’s role in relation to the rest of the group.

The Young Leaders Programme has been designed to assist youth theatres with this transition. The programme will be a comprehensive introduction to the role of the youth theatre leader.
The first weekend of the pilot programme will take place between 23-25 November in Dublin. It is open to senior youth theatre members and those already in a junior leadership role aged 18-25. The closing date for applications is 12 November. More details and an application form can be downloaded from http://www.nayd.ie/training/show/young_leaders

We are very excited in NAYD to be able to offer this programme. We feel it will be a valuable support to our members in helping to ensure there is a pool of enthusiastic and skilled leaders at a time when resources are so scarce but also to ensure that the great work they do continues on into the future.
If you would like to find out more about the programme or have any specific questions, please contact me on 01-8781301 or email katie@nayd.ie

Katie Martin
Administrative Officer NAYD

Eleanor Walsh, Kilkenny Youth Theatre, and Paraic McLean, Stage Craft Youth Theatre  (Clonmel), share their thoughts on their participation in our recent Advanced Theatre Skills Training Weekend facilitated by Gavin Quinn of Pan Pan and NAYD’s John Taite.

I was the second-youngest of our merry drama troupe at the Advanced Theatre Skills Training Weekend in Marino Institute/The Lir Academy. Our ages ranged from 16 to 20, and we were starting Fifth Year, Sixth Year in secondary school or First or Second Years in college. Sixteen young people from all across Ireland. That’s a lot of different life experiences.

This seems like a very simple thing, but it was important to me, so I will write about it. I’ve been a member of my youth theatre for years, and over the past two years I have quietly come to realise that I want to be involved in theatre and drama for as long as I can. Coming to Dublin for the weekend, I didn’t know any of the other participants. Of course, we all got to know each other and became great friends, all the rest.

But one of the things I appreciated the most, especially during workshops, was being able to observe them, members of different youth theatres with different leaders and different ways of doing things. They all had their own aspirations, their reasons for going there. It was really, really helpful, not just to do the workshops with Gavin Quinn of Pan Pan leading them, but with some of the best and brightest that this country offers in terms of youth theatre and drama. People who knew what they wanted to do. Isn’t that why we were all there? This was a viable option. Working in theatre in Ireland was, and is, possible, for all of us, if we so wanted. That was what I came to realise during the weekend.

I don’t want you all to think that I was following everybody around all the time with a pad and pen taking down every little thing that they said or did. I am not that much of a stalker!! But it is helpful when you are of a young and impressionable age to spend time with people who share the same goals as you. Looking at things they said or did that work, that make sense, and taking it on board, adapting it to how you do things, if it fits. I don’t know how many opportunities I’ll get like that in the future, to work with so many talented people (for free).

Hopefully, we shall see each other again, and get to do the things we want to do. I know we will.

Because – oh my God, they’re just so cool.

Eleanor

For all of us who got a place in the Advanced Theatre Skills Training course, our journeys began on Thursday. I took the train from Thurles and made my way to Dublin. The journey wasn’t too long but I was so excited about getting to Dublin to meet new people and to act that the journey just felt much longer.

When I finally met up with everyone I just felt so welcome. There was instant chemistry between the sixteen of us and not one person was arrogant or rude to me for the whole weekend. Everyone was friends and ‘we were just one big happy family from day one’ in the words of Grainne from Lightbulb Youth Theatre.

We did a workshop from six o clock until eight o clock with John Taite. We were filling the entire room with just the sixteen bodies and trying our best not to leave any gaps. We had to work as a team, quietly and in a continuous stream – no stopping unless you were told to stop by John. It was fun to be running around the room to fill in the empty spaces in between everyone.

On Friday and Saturday we went to The Lir to do our workshops with Gavin and John. The building itself was breathtaking. It just had a vibe that made you want to act. We did some improvisation work, work with scripts – both Chrysalids and The Good Person of Szechuan – and then we did some work on how to grab the attention of the audience to keep them listening. We played games where we could only communicate by telling jokes. I found that all the jokes that I knew had just slipped from my mind but others like Jimmy from Laois Youth Theatre just excelled and had everyone laughing.

On Sunday, we were all quite depressed and sad that it was our last day. I don’t think any of us wanted to leave. We all just wanted to stay forever. We would’ve been quite happy if they had told us that we had to stay due to some random reason. We did our last workshop with John and Gavin. We worked on the first monologue from the Brecht piece and then we played some improvisation games. It was fun but we could all feel it come to an end when they handed us out the evaluation forms that we had to fill in.

We got the last bus back to the G.P.O. We hugged and said goodbye and I just wanted to cry because I had created a bond with the rest over the weekend. I had really enjoyed myself and the fact that I was leaving Dublin was upsetting to me. All good things must come to an end though.

This was a very amazing experience. An amazing weekend with amazing people. Amazing workshops, workers and just great laughs.

Thank you for giving me such an amazing weekend and clarifying that acting is what I want to do everyday for the rest of my life (even though I had an assumption already).

Paraic

Congratulations to all the participants on NAYD’s Community Drama Training Programme who are graduating this week. They have blazed a trail as they are the first ever participants on the programme. The course took place in Drogheda and participants were from a number of local youth work organisations including B.O.Y.N.E. and CABLE Garda Diversion Projects, Southside Community Youth Project and Drogheda Youth Development.    The course has been specifically designed to support youth workers in developing new skills in drama facilitation that they can use in their work with young people. It is facilitated by Colin Thornton, NAYD’s Community Drama Development Officer.

Ciara Duffin, Drogheda Youth Development, has been keeping us up to speed with her experience on the course and here she details one of the last sessions they had together: 

Our drama training for month five, concentrated on giving us the skills to plan, structure, and deliver an entire one hour workshop to the group. We would be facilitating in groups to make it easier, and it would be the first time we would have had to deliver a workshop without Colin’s assistance. It was a little scarey, but exciting at the same time to have full creative control and I was looking forward to the challenge of leading the group on my own.

Colin lead us into the task gradually, by first asking each one of us to instruct the group in a warm-up exercise. It was interesting to take part in a warm-up where everyone contributed something different. After some concentration games and short improvisations, we divided into our groups to set about planning our workshops. It was a beautiful sunny day so we were allowed to sit outside and work in the sun, which lifted everyone’s spirits. I was working with Vivienne, my colleague from DYD, and Colin set us the task of designing a workshop that could be used at the end of an eight week introductory drama course - similar to what we had been doing with our DYD drama students for the past few weeks, but taking character development and improvisation to a higher level.

Firstly, we decided on our warm-up exercises. As we had a lot of specific ideas that were geared towards character development, and creativity, we wanted to keep the warm-up brief to allow for the time it would take to get through the more time consuming parts of the workshop. We settled on a quick rub down! and a shake out with names to energise the group. We decided next we would play the game Where do we come from?, as it is also a good energiser, but more importantly, it introduces the idea of creative play, movement and character development.

Participants are divided into teams where one team must come up with a physical movement/gesture that suggests a type of occupation and the other team must guess what the occupation is. We would then ask everyone to find their own space in the room and close their eyes. In our previous drama training session, as a group we all participated in the Role on the wall activity, where we came up with our own characters. We asked the group to remember the character they came up with, and using the technique Character Visualisation we instructed them to imagine seeing this character in a full length mirror. They are asked to consider their character’s appearance, physical stance, clothes, jewellery, hair, as well as how that character sees themselves i.e are they confident, insecure, indifferent to the way they look? More questions from the facilitator(s) help the participants to develop key notes on their character and explore them further in terms of personality and social status etc.

The character visualisation exercise then lead nicely into Character Walks, where we instructed the group to then walk around the room, still in character, taking on any physical movements or habits they felt their character should have. It was interesting to see the variety in the room, where some people were taking large confident strides around the room, others were wandering aimlessly or else walking very anxiously through the space. We felt that Imaging on the hour would also be a good tool to help the participants to explore a day in the life of their character. We went through various different times of the day and asked the group to demonstrate what their character would be doing at that time of day.

We then asked the group to hold on to their character and to bring them to the setting of a dating agency, where each character would have just twenty seconds to “sell themselves” on film to a potential dating partner. This was where the real fun came into play as each character was different to the next, some with sad stories of broken down marriages, others with hilarious attitudes towards men and dating. It was a fast paced exercise also, which gave the participants less time to plan what they would say in advance which added to the spontaneous fun factor!

We then developed this exercise further by adding a “collective role” element. We took two of the characters from the dating agency sketch and had them meet up on a date. Three of the group members were collectively playing one of the characters on the date which added an extra dimension to the improvisation. It was a challenge to the participants involved to know and understand their own characters as well as someone else’s, and it worked very well. We had hoped to take this further by having an improvisation set in a doctor’s waiting room, using the same characters from the group. As it turned out, we didn’t have time for this on the day, which is often true of planning a workshop. Timing is a difficult thing to measure, as any number of factors can affect how long it takes to perform an exercise or set of exercises, so you must be ready to adjust or make changes to your plan where appropriate.

Overall, it was an excellent experience to get a chance to deliver a full workshop to a group of my peers. I learned that I was in fact capable of doing it, and I enjoyed it a lot more than my nerves predicted I would! It was also exciting to participate in the workshops that everyone else in our group gave on the second day, and to observe the differences between them. We all proved to ourselves and to each other, that we are natural drama facilitators, who all have great potential in working with young people through drama. I am quite sad in fact that we only have one more month’s training before we finish, as the entire course has been so beneficial to me. I look forward to our last training session as they are always enjoyable, but with a heavy heart I begin to realise that my journey into drama facilitation is drawing closer to its end. I hope to ensure to follow it up with more drama training at the earliest opportunity.

Ciara

Find out more about NAYD’s Community Drama Training Programme. If you are interested in participating in a future round of the programme, contact Colin.

Ciara Duffin, youth worker with Drogheda Youth Development and participant on NAYD’s Community Drama Training Programme, continues to keep us to up to date with her experience of the training. April saw the participants begin to facilitate drama with the young people who participate in their programmes: 

April’s training felt like a giant leap forward into drama facilitation, and most importantly, I felt ready for it! We began planning the first four weeks of workshops which we were going to be doing with our individual youth groups, in my case with teenagers from Drogheda Youth Development. We would be co-facilitating alongside Colin Thornton, who would be leading the workshops while gradually allowing us to take on more responsibility each week by facilitating individual exercises on our own. It was an exciting prospect, as we all could finally begin to see ourselves for the first time as workshop facilitators rather than just participants. I won’t deny, it was also a daunting prospect, as none of us really knew how our young people were going to react, or what there feedback in general would be (if any!). My experience has been that it is often difficult to assess the level of enjoyment our young people find in new types of experiences as their verbal communication skills can be lacking when it comes to expressing their feelings. Of course, we were hoping to challenge and change this through the medium of drama. We have just finished week 4 of the program with them and so far I can honestly say that I’ve already seen huge improvements in this area.

In order to achieve this, we had to work gradually with them though a very specifically designed series of workshops with a deliberate order. The first session would focus on introducing one another to the other group members and creating a group dynamic. We were also instructed by Colin to create a group contract with the teenagers in order to establish the rules and what they hoped to get out of the eight week program. This is important when working on any long term project with young people, especially making them a part of the rule making process. The first workshop would also establish the importance of a mental and physical warm-up and the relevance of both to drama. We would also attempt to begin to break down physical barriers though subtle games and exercises like “Hug Tag”. The beginnings of a group dynamic are easily formed through the use of “Our Circle”, which demands everyone at least knows the names of the other group members so that they can arrange themselves in alphabetical order. This is then further developed through the use of exercises like “Group knots” (requires teamwork and co-operation), and “Carousel” (requires small group co-operation and negotiation). We would also introduce the idea of giving and receiving feedback, and how important it is to be vocal about your opinions and to listen to the opinions of others.

The second workshop’s focus would be on Team Work and a sense of “play”. We would reaffirm the importance of the warm-up and do our best to energise the group as well as giving them focus. This would be achieved through developing co-operation and negotiation skills using exercises like “Stops & Starts” (requires group intuition) and “10 seconds to create” (requires working in pairs or smaller groups under pressure). The latter exercise also introduced image work by asking the participants to work in teams to produce an image or symbol using only their physical bodies as props.
There would also be smaller confidence building exercises interspersed through the workshop like “Anyone who…” and “Opposites”.

The third workshop to be part of our eight week program would centre mainly on tableaus, image work and audience performer relationship. It would also introduce an element of stage-craft. The exercise “Change three things” is an excellent example of image work combined with performing to an audience skill development. It requires the participants to both create a pose/image and then change three things about the pose while their team mate isn’t looking, and their team mate must then correctly identify the three changes that have been made. Tableau work is then introduced as they have to work together to create the shapes of their own initials with their bodies in groups of four or five. This further enhances their ability to perform well as a team while working to strict time deadlines and with little time for discussion.

The fourth workshop would concentrate on team work, trust and observation. It would contain concentration games like ” Zip, Zap” and “In the River, On the Bank” which also energise the group and create excellent focus. Trust exercises like “Colombian  Hypnosis” and “Blind handshake” help to strengthen group bonds and promote a healthy attitude to team work. “Blind cars” is also an excellent exercise which young people in particular would enjoy, as it combines a fun element of imaginary driving with trust and negotiation challenges. The fourth workshop would also begin to explore character development and improvisation. Simple games like “Greetings your majesty!” begin to introduce the element of character creation and voice play, while “Where do you come from?” also challenges the imagination and demands the practice of physical role play. “Who’s Knocking?” develops this further by requiring the participants to imagine various scenarios involving a person knocking on a door, and how that knock may be interpreted or varied. Script work can then be added to this exercise to help create their first prolonged improvised scene devised entirely on their own interpretations of a short piece of dialogue. This is a tremendous achievement for a group of young people whom three weeks previously would have been highly intimidated by the proposition of being required to perform in any way, and it is the direct result of a gradual building upon of skills and confidence, in a carefully controlled manner. Through drama, it is possible to raise the self esteem, communication skills, and social skills of young people in our communities and I have now seen this for myself in Drogheda Youth Development where I proudly observe vast improvements in these aspects of our drama students every day.

Ciara

If you want to find out more about the training, contact Colin Thornton

Visit the Community Drama Training Page

The pilot programme of  NAYD’s Community Drama Training is well underway in Drogheda and is facilitated by Colin Thornton, NAYD’s Community Drama Development Officer. Some of the participants have very kindly agreed to share their experience with us. Here Ciara Duffin, a Youth Support Worker with Drogheda Youth Development, gives us an insight into the second and third months of the programme.

Month Two

The second month of our Community Drama Training began with the group being encouraged to become more aware of our own reactions when confronted with some of the challenges of participation, and how individual reactions and behaviours can have an impact on the whole group. Following on from this, we were introduced to a simple method for reading the level of participation within each member of any given group.
The technique uses a sliding scale of three differing personality types and how these types will usually perform within a group context. Type A is the confident participant who is always willing to step forward and volunteer for exercise after exercise. This type of participant is very important to the facilitator, as they are often “ice-breakers” and encourage progression within the sessions. The role they play especially within newly formed groups, or groups with particularly low self-esteem where there can be a reluctance to participate should not be underestimated. However sometimes Type A’s never-ending enthusiasm can start to have an opposite effect on a group and alienate or distance some of the other members, so it’s important not allow them to overly dominate the session.

Then there is Type B who will typically allow type A to go first, however if type B is in a group where there aren’t any type A’s then they will take the lead and put themselves forward within the group. This type of participant usually has more awareness than type A when it comes to considering the larger group.

Finally Type C represents the type of participant who rarely if ever volunteers to put him or herself into the spotlight.

I found this to be a very useful tool for facilitation as part of the job can be about helping people who may be feeling vulnerable within a workshop. I also knew that I had been a bit of a type C so far in our training sessions, therefore I challenged myself to behave like a type B for the rest of the day. Using the scale allowed us to observe ourselves and our own behaviours as participants in a workshop. I imagine, as a facilitator, this is what you have to be looking out for whenever you lead a session with a group. You are looking for patterns and bad habits that may be developing, and from this you try to come up with ways in which to challenge this kind of behaviour in the hope of getting individuals within the group to step out of their comfort zones, which in turn will build a stronger ensemble.

Over the two days we explored and participated in a number of Process Drama techniques. Process Drama is a specialized area of drama where drama techniques are used to engage participants in a wide range of subjects and issues with the higher intention of learning.
This was of particular interest to me - working as a Youth Worker, I was searching for techniques that I could use to address various subjects of importance with young people, while still making it fun and engaging. The idea behind Process Drama is to give young people the opportunity to step into a variety of roles and situations, in an attempt to explore an intellectual or social problem. Colin offered us 30 different techniques we could use to achieve this. We got through as many of them as possible over the next two days as a group, and it was a fun and interesting way to discuss topics such as Sexuality and prejudices surrounding it, Crime & Punishment, Laws in Society and more. It really stirred up the emotions of the group, and some very strong opinions emerged along with stimulating conversations that spilled over to the cafeteria table at lunchtime.

At the end of the two days, Colin explained that next month we would participate in a one-day complete Process Drama Workshop, where everything we had learned over the past two days would be put into practice in a more ordered and sequential fashion. As there had been a lot of techniques to get through in a short space of time, we were all looking forward to experiencing Process Drama in a more concentrated form.

I thoroughly enjoyed the two days, and it was very encouraging to see the ways that young people could participate in an active discussion around a topic, without it seeming like a teaching environment. I am looking forward to putting it all into practice next month.

Month Three

This one day Process Drama workshop began with the usual gentle warm up we have now become accustomed to - which is a great way of waking yourself up in the morning! Colin then initiated a game called “Anyone Who?…” which begins with the facilitator making a generic statement like “Anyone who is wearing jeans today…”. Upon which, anyone who is wearing jeans must cross the circle and take a different position in the room. A later question asked was “Anyone who went drinking on Paddy’s Day change places in the circle”, as St. Patrick’s Day celebrations had just taken place recently. This naturally led onto a brief discussion around drinking in Ireland, and whether we use national holidays like St. Patrick’s Day, as an excuse for over indulgence in intoxicating substances!

We asked ourselves, who do we think does the most unnecessary drinking on such occasions, and we decided that teenagers were most at risk, of feeling obliged to participate in binge drinking. Colin encouraged us to consider, what we were like ourselves as teenagers and the kinds of activities we would have engaged in to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Personally, as a teenager I spent a lot of time as part of a Youth Theatre, and we annually took part in the Drogheda St. Patrick’s Day Parade either through street performance art or as part of the local Samba band, so I had little time to spend “drinking with my mates”. However, plenty of others in our group admitted they would’ve engaged in under-aged drinking around St. Patrick’s Day when they were teenagers. Colin asked these people where they would have gone to drink at that age, considering the pubs and nightclubs weren’t an option. It was agreed, that back then and currently even now, the “Ramparts” by the river is probably the most popular spot for teenage drinking in Drogheda. We decided as a group that this would be the setting for our improvisations. Colin divided us into three groups and each group was asked to represent in a “freeze frame” what a group of teenagers might look or behave like, at the beginning, middle and end of a night’s drinking. We stayed in our groups and then we had to act out an “Incident” that may have occured over the evening’s drinking. Process drama is all about putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, and it was interesting to see how we had developed different scenarios and circumstances that young people could find themselves in when alcohol was introduced to the equation. Without realising it, we had entered into a deep discussion around teenage drinking where we were exploring the temptations, dangers and consequences surrounding it. It felt like a natural progression of thought rather than a structured workshop with a specific agenda.

Some of the other process techniques we used were: Tableaus, Thought Tracking, Hot-Seating, Imaging on the hour, Sliding Scale, Writing in role. In the afternoon Colin parked the workshop before it came to an end. We were then asked what would we do next if we were facilitating the workshop ourselves. We divided ourselves into smaller groups and each group came up with some ideas around how the workshop might progress from here.
My group considered using Decision Alley, or Meetings where the participants/young people would come together as concerned parents to address the problem of their teenage children’s bad attitudes towards under-age drinking. I thought that young people might enjoy impersonating their own/each others parents while at the same time being forced to look at things from an adult’s point of view.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop, and it was helpful to see how easy it is to create learning opportunities for young people, without them feeling they are being lectured to, or spoken down to.

Ciara

Find Out More about the Community Drama Training Programme

 This year’s Young Critics had their first meeting a couple of weeks ago. Luke Casserly from Backstage Youth Theatre Longford, shares the experience:

Our journey started on Friday evening, where we all gathered at various points around the G.P.O in Dublin City Centre. Everybody was scattered around the building, almost like pieces of a jigsaw scattered on the floor. Little did we know, this jigsaw would soon be assembled and would present itself in the form of a beautiful picture. We eventually introduced ourselves to one another when Alan King, our NAYD Leader and Young Critics coordinator showed up to meet us.
From there, we got a bus to the Marino Institute of Education where we would be staying for the two nights. Mirjana and Diane were our welfare leaders for the weekend. They were both extremely nice and we all got along with them.
We had our first workshop on Friday evening when we arrived at Marino Institute. We were all slightly “train and bus-lagged” but we got through it nevertheless. It was Alan who gave us the workshop, he did some warm-up exercises with us and that got us all energized and ready for action. Alan then divided us into groups and we discussed important questions like, “What does a critic do?” and “What is the job of a critic?” The workshop was really fun and enjoyable. It was the perfect start to the weekend.
Marino was a really nice place to stay. We would be sharing our bedrooms with one other person. I was sharing with Aaron from Co. Roscommon Youth Theatre. There was also a common room with couches and a television where we had the opportunity to socialize and get to know everybody better.
The next day, we had an early start (8am if I recall.) After breakfast we had our second workshop of the weekend. This time, we were introduced to Dr. Karen Fricker who is a professional theatre critic and a drama lecturer at Royal Holloway. Karen was really cool. She had loads of experience and knowledge regarding criticism. We looked at some background information in connection with Alice In Funderland and Tea Chests and Dreams. We discussed openly in small groups what we were expecting from the performances that we were going to see that day. We looked at images from both productions, the cast list and their backgrounds, production teams, venues, etc.

Following the workshop, we had a quick bite to eat and then we journeyed on the bus, which brought us directly to the Abbey theatre in Dublin’s city centre to see Alice in Funderland. It was absolutely fantastic. Philip McMahon produced something very fresh, vibrant and engaging. Not one dull moment throughout. I recommend anybody to go see it; it’s well worth it. The souvenir programmes were also fantastic. I personally collect programmes from all the shows I go to and this one was really superb. It was my first visit to the Abbey Theatre venue and it will be indeed one that will last with me a lifetime. I found it really warm and inviting. Overall, an outstanding production in a lovely venue.
After the performance of Alice In Funderland, we took a bus out to Ballymun in Dublin where we would see an evening performance of Dermot Bolger’s play Tea Chests and Dreams - A Night of First Nights in The Axis Arts Centre of Ballymun. We were served dinner in the Axis before the performance, it was delicious and we were all really well looked after. The Axis, for me, was a bright, open and airy space with a very laid-back and relaxed kind of ambiance. The Axis provides a wide range of services like Theatre, Arts classes, Crèche, etc. so therefore I was very excited about the prospect of visiting it. Our group found the play very good overall but we felt some aspects of the show were a little lacking in spots. Bolger’s script was magnificent which made it a joy to watch. In a nutshell, a really nice production in an excellent venue which had some flaws but they may be forgiven due to the strength of the rest of the production.

A very tired bunch at this stage, we returned to our beds in Marino Institute that night after what was a very exciting and action-packed day. The two productions we had seen that day left a really lasting impact on us and it was really good to have the chance to mull things over, in a manner of speaking, overnight.
On Sunday, we arose bright and early for another workshop, again facilitated by Alan and Karen. It was excellent as always. We were divided into smaller groups and we engaged in discussions and debates about the productions we had seen the day before. It was really interesting to hear everybody’s opinions and reactions to the performances. Some people highlighted things others didn’t see and vice versa. We then had a questions and answers session with Karen in which a group of representatives from the different groups shared their mixed views and opinions.
We then got our final bus of the weekend into the city centre and parted ways. Knowing that we had learnt and shared things over the weekend that we mightn’t have got the opportunity to do, had we not been there, was a small consolation to the sad moment when we realized we wouldn’t be seeing each other for another three months.
We had seen two amazing pieces of theatre, engaged in lively discussions and debates, made new friends and had the craic all weekend and that is what I think sums up our weekend at NAYD Young Critics 2012.

Thank you so much NAYD for a fantastic weekend that we will truly never forget.

Luke

Find out more about Young Critics

I was really looking forward to this one-day seminar, as I wanted to reconfirm what I knew or probably didn’t know about working with young people with disabilities and learning difficulties.

Along with the other members of NAYD staff we were joined by over twenty other drama workers from across the county.

The first session was with Stephen Moynihan and Sarah Duffy from the Irish Wheelchair Association.

The day started with a nice icebreaking exercise where we were all given a lemon and asked to give them personalities and names. We then had to put them into a big pile in the middle of the room and then asked to find them again. It was a fun way of seeing that just because people may appear the same we all have our own personalities and traits. We continued with another exercise where as small groups we all had to experience a disability while trying to complete a child’s jigsaw puzzle. I personally find some of these types of exercises can be a little corny at times but I found this one really useful. It is always good to stand in someone else’s shoes for a small while. It is an exercise I will definitely be stealing and using myself down the line. Watch this space.

The most useful part of the morning was actually chatting about disability. I sometimes get hung up on language that it is hard to know what to say. We try to be so politically correct that we fear we will say the wrong thing. So we end up saying nothing, and nothing is ever dealt with. The use of language can be so incendiary at times that it can very much get in the way of practicalities.

We finished off by watching a very funny clip from the C4 sitcom the I.T. Crowd. It showed how our attitudes to disability could be taken to the extreme with embarrassing outcomes. It was a lighthearted way to end the morning.

Dr. Carmel O Sullivan addressed the group in the afternoon on Drama in Education and Autistic Spectrum Disorders.
She gave us a brief history of autism and Asperger Syndrome and brought us up to speed with current thinking and developments. Again it was very useful to know that not everyone with autism can be labeled as being the same. There are different traits and characteristics to every individual.

She is currently engaged in long-term research at the School of Education in Trinity College in which she has been working with a number of young people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders over a number of years through drama. She spoke to us about her work with these teenagers with autism and how that work through drama has thrown up some interesting and radical outcomes.

She told us what drama activities could work best and what types of activities to avoid. By using long form story and process drama exercises she can engage these young people in problem solving and notions of empathy. How we as facilitators can use our voice, facial expressions and body language will have a huge bearing on how these young people will engage with us through drama. Exaggeration and theatricality really does a difference in communication with people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders.
This work can be slow, as you really need to build relationships over a long period of time before progress can be made.

What I gained from this is that drama really could make a real difference to these young people. These young people’s engagement in drama activities is flying in the face of previously held misconceptions of how young people with autism could engage with the world around them.

I found Carmel riveting. She was such a good communicator and her theatrical style of delivery along with her humorous and passionate approach ensured I paid full attention.

The biggest issue we face as facilitators is not being fully informed as to people’s needs. Very often parents can either be in denial or feel it is not necessary for a drama worker to know of a young person’s condition. In fact the young people may not be aware themselves and this can prove difficult for everyone.
I feel that if we are best able to serve the needs of that young person and the needs of all the members of a group it is imperative that we are informed. Once you know about something you are better able to deal with it and have agreeable outcomes for all.

Again the main thing that I took away from this session is that I can keep doing what I am doing as a facilitator. It can be ok to exclude someone from a group if you feel it is detrimental to the rest of the group or to the young person themselves, especially if they are being so disruptive that it becomes impractical for everyone. I will still get some things right and I will still make mistakes sometimes. It’s not the end of the world if I do.

I honestly feel I have a greater awareness of working with people with disabilities and those on the Autistic Spectrum and I would be more confident is solving problems as they arise in sessions.

To find out more about the work of the Irish Wheelchair Association visit their website.

The results of Carmel O’Sullivan’s research will be available soon. We will provide details on how to access them at the time. In the meantime visit the Aspire website to find out more about Carmel’s work.

Alan King

April 4, 2012