By Dr Jan Wozniak, Senior Lecturer, Department of Theatre, University of Bristol.
What do you remember about Youth Theatre?
Did you attend theatre sessions at Bristol Old Vic when you were younger? Or did you run sessions as a practitioner? Do you know anyone who did?
Bristol Old Vic Young Company is 30 years old this year! As part of the celebrations, we want to hear from anyone who has had any involvement with the Young Company since 1994.
This autumn, I will be working with around 25 final year undergraduate students, Lucy Hunt from the Bristol Old Vic and colleagues in the Theatre Collection to build an oral history of the Young Company. We’ll be exploring the Young Company holdings in the Bristol Old Vic Archive at the Theatre Collection and sharing our findings here.
We’ll then be interviewing former participants of the Young Company to hear what they remember about their time at Bristol Old Vic and whether this experience still plays a part in their lives today. We’ll make an initial analysis of these interviews, which will then be made available in the Theatre Collection for future researchers.
“All art is quite useless” Oscar Wilde
Do you agree with Wilde? Or do you think that art is important for all?
Theatre for and by young people is rightly valued by those involved. But it’s difficult to prove! And how long does that value last? With a renewed interest in the value of art and culture in the new government, this is a great time to conduct research I have wanted to do for a long time.
I became aware of the great work done by the Young Company through my daughter’s involvement around 2010-2012. And the Young Company has a great track record in producing a great range of theatre makers, not least the Wardrobe Ensemble.
Not just luvvies!
We’ll be hoping to interview the Wardrobe Ensemble, and other theatre makers, to find out how their time in the Young Company has influenced their work. But it’s not just those who have gone on to work in theatre or the arts that we are interested in – we want to hear from YOU!
We’re really keen to hear from anyone who was in the Young Company and to find out what effect it had for you in the long-term. Do you remember particular productions? Did it give you the confidence to try things later in life? Did you hate it so much, you swore never to inflict extra-curricular theatre activities on your own kids!? We want to hear from anyone, whatever their memories.
If you’re interested, you could fill out this form
It’s not ALL hard work
Students will be working hard exploring the archives, interviewing and writing blog posts over the coming weeks to chart the project, so do check back in!
But we’re hoping they will also have fun at a couple of events we’re planning.
Firstly, there will be a public access event in the Theatre Collection where you’ll be able to see some of the Young Company records, that we’ve been exploring.
There will also be a celebration event at the Bristol Old Vic. We will confirm dates of both of these soon, so keep your eyes peeled
And do get in touch with us if you have your own memorabilia you’d like to share – we’d love to hear from you!