Youth Company: Choosing our summer production
Our Youth Company gives young people aged 16-21 the opportunity to experience technical theatre and acting training by creating a space for members to develop new skills and get creative. Each year, the courses culminate in a summer production at the Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre on Malet Street.
As a full company, the students decide which play to perform in a collaborative and transparent process, exploring different options and creating a shortlist together. Take a look at how they chose this year’s production:
Saturday 25 February
Today, we shared presentations and research on our chosen plays and explored different topics like budget, copyright and production possibilities.
To create the shortlist, we focused on:
- Themes
- World of the play (different settings)
- Plays/playwrights
- Questions in response to the presentations
We made a post-it drop off and stuck all of our ideas on the wall.
Then, our Youth Company team (Phil, Debbie, Esme & Bashiie) confirmed a final shortlist of four plays: Alice in Wonderland, Macbeth, Sweeney Todd and 1984. After that, we split into groups and delved into the plays more, thinking about performance and production opportunities.
Saturday 18 March
In our production discussion session, we looked at the shortlist in more detail and talked through questions like:
- Which themes do they include and are they important to our company/community?
- Is there potential for new writing and devising?
- Do they build on and/or challenge our skillsets?
- Could the play give us a range of design and creative possibilities in terms of settings, sound, lighting and characters?
- What personal skills or hobbies can we bring to the plays?
After talking through those questions and more, we looked at the opportunities and challenges of each one and did an anonymous vote to figure out how many people preferred each play. Using our worksheets and the results of the vote, we confirmed that Alice in Wonderland would be our Youth Company play for 2023.
Tickets will be available soon for Alice in Wonderland at the Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre on 4-5 August. In the meantime, find out what's on at RADA here.