The Skills Sharing Network is a independent collective of drama facilitators and youth drama leaders who meet bimonthly at agreed venues throughout the country hosted by different facilitators each time. It is back after a short hiatus and Alan King, NAYD’s Youth Theatre Officer, was at the recent meeting in Monaghan:

So as I caught the early bus to the Garage Theatre in Monaghan I began wondering what the day would look like for the upcoming Skills Sharing Network daylong workshop.

As someone who facilitates regularly it is always a nice treat to go a workshop as a participant and not have to lead a group. I am sure those of you who facilitate regularly often feel the same. The feeling of just standing in a workshop and being able to play and have fun is a rare one these days and one that I welcome with open arms.

As I arrived the atmosphere was relaxed and inviting. Krista and Eileen hosted the event in the wonderful Garage Theatre. The participants were a mixture of old friends and new unfamiliar faces. Over tea we swapped stories of recent encounters and upcoming plans for youth theatre events.

Niamh McGrath led us through her workshop on Recyclable Puppets. We did a thorough warm up; especially focusing on our arms and fingers, essential for puppetry don’t ya know. Following some fun improv exercises we got down to the very serious work of making our own puppets from junk.

Niamh had brought a huge selection of everyday household items; milk cartons, scrap fabric, brushes and kitchen utensils along with other arts and crafts materials. Her many boxes of eyes I found fascinating and disturbing in equal measure.

I would consider myself someone who is not every creative when it comes to arts and crafts; my paintings and drawings are basic at best. Soon I was shifting through the tables of junk, finding new creativity with every new piece I discovered, be it a BBQ tongs or a pipe cleaner. I wasn’t alone; everyone was milling around, gluing, tying and stapling incongruous pieces of junk together to make recognizable faces and characters. By lunchtime we had a cast of characters ready for play.

Thanks to our gracious hosts we all enjoyed a wonderful lunch and another round of tea and chats. More ideas were swapped and plans made for future events.

After lunch we presented our puppets and performed some short improvs. There was such creative enjoyment in the room and all in a very fun and supportive environment. Certainly this is the type of workshop we could all do again and again. It was so enjoyable.

To finish off the day we all had suggestions for our favourite games and exercises and played these out. It was great to see similarities in familiar exercises but also how subtle or radical variations can make a tired game come alive with renewed vigour.

I think this is what makes the Skills Sharing Network such an essential asset to our work as workshop facilitators and youth theatre leaders. We all facilitate week in week out and are always on the look out for new and interesting ways to engage with our groups. Whether it’s teaching them new skills, building on what we already have or just exploring new ways of having the craic, we all need new ideas.

What’s more given this country’s current economic woes we don’t have a lot of money to spend on taking training courses. Training courses can be expensive and are sometime offered so the facilitator can generate some income. Nothing wrong with that except very often these courses can have little new to offer or the material is delivered at the most basic level. I’ve certainly left some of these with a feeling of ‘well sure I knew that already, I could have done that myself’.

The Skills Sharing Network is different in that those offering workshops are doing so for free. As they are committed youth theatre leaders I can only assume that their hope is to share their knowledge with fellow youth drama practitioners in the hope that they too will take something new away with them. I certainly did.

This is a great initiative and special recognition must go to Aine Caulfied for taking the ball and running with it. Very often we all say that we will do things and often don’t. Aine said she would take the lead on this and she certainly has. Those who were in attendance in Monaghan certainly got the benefit of her hard work and networking skills. Special mention must go to Kirsta, Eileen and Barry for hosting the event all to all those that attended. It was a brilliant day and well worth all the effort.

This is going to be the start of something great so you better get in there early if you want to host or take part in future events. Ultimately we will all benefit from initiatives like the Skills Sharing Network, and this can only be a good thing. For everyone.

Alan

Aug 2011

To find out more about the Skills Sharing Network, visit their Facebook page.

 The National Youth Theatre is on stage at the Peacock this week with It Only Ever Happens In The Movies…directed by Mikel Murfi. For the first time in many years the production is devised and this has made for an even more unique and challenging experience for the young cast. Clodagh Duggan, of County Wexford Youth Theatre, describes the experience:

Being a member of the cast of the National Youth Theatre is like joining a family. We’ve all became so close within a matter of days since then have spent every possible moment together. It really is fantastic because we all share the same passion for theatre and making something that is truly ‘of’ us.

The devising process was a whirlwind because every element of the play was created by us, every day was different. The days that we got less work done than usual really shocked us, whereas when we had a day where all the pieces came together we felt more of a company of actors than before. It’s really nice to see everything coming together and see an idea turn into a scene in the play. We were able to put our own style on the play even as far as music and movement.
The audience will essentially follow Derek as he desperately tries to find love in a world where he sees all his best friends and movie icons find it without hassle. The play shows how our generation experiences love and what we want to say about it. We create different pictures, movement pieces and scenarios displaying where love can occur and how easy it is, to go un-noticed.

We have all learned many things artistically particularly in the form of physical theatre. A lot of the scenes in our play are derived from some sort of movement exercise that expanded into an idea for a bigger piece. We learned how to bounce ideas off each other and try to find the one that suited our vision for the play. Not only have we learned to work as an ensemble of actors, we have spent hours in dance and singing classes to improve our overall stage presence and hopefully improve the direction we have finally decided to take the play in.

This experience has meant so much to me. It was a chance to work with talented young actors from all over the country and really put all our skills to the test. The chance to work with Mikel Murfi is something I will never forget and I am so grateful I had the opportunity to do so. I will never forget all the friends I made here, we truly all became a family. As Mikel would say “THANKY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD”.

Clodagh

Our guest blogger is Diarmuid Woods of Roscommon County Youth Theatre. He was one of 103 youth theatre members who attended the National Festival of Youth Theatres in Kilkenny in July.

From the beginning of my summer, I had been looking forward to this year’s NFYT. I had been bombarded with tales of last year’s acclaimed Carne-Val, and I was devastated that I had been unable to attend. Of course, I had no idea what to expect – but in my experience, any NAYD event is destined to be one to remember. And, true to form, this year’s NFYT did not disappoint. It has definitely gone down in my books as one of my fondest experiences, a highlight of my summer and my year; a fantastic week during which I met some wonderful people and made some lifelong friends.

The Blue Group

Thrown together into a room with the multi-talented Annie Ryan, mime artist and actress extraordinaire, we got to work on some advanced improvisation work – a mix of intense physical theatre and straight mime. As the eldest group, we felt it was our responsibility to set the tone in terms of focus and creative freedom for the younger groups. With this in mind, we attempted to have as much fun as we could, often in the most ridiculous ways possible.

Participants will remember the raw terror inspired by echoing sounds of The Blue Chant as we marched through the grounds of Kilkenny College proclaiming our love for the fabled colour. They will also recall The Walk of the Blue Zombies as we reenacted every hackneyed Zombie film in our search for blue-hued items – be they posters, tractors or the clothes on people’s backs. We were unrelenting in our mission to spread freedom and eliminate self-consciousness within the other groups.

Within our own workshops, we focused mainly on developing a seamless group consciousness, utilsing time-tested theatre games designed to eliminate hesitation in improvisation environments. Over the course of the week, we lost our initial hesitation and really bonded as a group. Our improvisations became organic and seamless, culminating in our final performance on the last day – an unrehearsed piece of movement, free of restrictions. I don’t think we could have reached such a level of comfort and freedom with one another if it wasn’t for the warm and loving atmosphere that was present in Kilkenny.

The Creative Atmosphere

Throughout the week, there was such an encouraging and open environment in which people could learn and perform. It wasn’t just confined to the workshops, either – there were impromptu music sessions galore, with people pulling out guitars and and warming up voice-boxes, and performances would ensue with gusto. Everyone was encouraged to get in on the act, whatever their speciality – singing, dancing, storytelling and what have you. Nobody needed to worry about being amazing; it was only important to have performed. Buí Bolg, the street theatre company, gave a fine display of their skills on the first night which was an impressive sight.

There was a lovely energy all around, a fantastic hustle and bustle. There was barely a moment where you weren’t rushing from place to place; from the morning group warm-up to class, to lunch, dinner activity group and then to the disco, if you had any energy left at all.

There was a really all-encompassing sense of everyone giving it their all, socialising with as many people as you can, having as much fun as humanly possible, and doing all of that in double-time.

The Group Identities

As the days went on, something really interesting started to happen; the different groups began to really distinguish themselves. The dancers began to walk with a jazzy spring to their step, the clowns began to show their tragic side, and our own group began to improvise outside of the workshops; from firing invisible arrows across the canteen to staging fiery battles in the corridors. At some point, everyone became completely immersed in the wonderful arts-filled environment that had been provided for us, and they really embraced it. I found that as a member of the Mime/Improv group we were constantly handing one another imaginary objects and and getting lost in our own terrifying imaginations – or, as Annie would have put it, “playing”. I would not have changed a single thing about my week, and I would not have missed it for the world. I learned so much in such a short time; I explored a new type of theatre and fell in love with it. I came away from Kilkenny energised and feeling so very lucky for having been given such a wonderful opportunity.

The tears were real, the final embraces were strong and the goodbyes were heartfelt, emotional and downright painful. We were saying farewell to people we had known for less than a week, but I swear, this did not make our goodbyes one bit easier.

I think everyone took a wonderful experience from Kilkenny, with luck a few more friends, and in our group’s case, a strange and fantastic attraction to the colour blue.

My sincere thanks to NAYD for providing such a wonderful and refreshing event. I think I can speak for everyone when I say – thank you so much, and you should be so proud that this and similar events have had such a profound effect on Youth Theatre members. It really does help to connect and make a community of Irish Youth Theatres.

Viva la Blue!

Viva la NYFT!

And forever loving the inexhaustible Annie Ryan.

Diarmuid