Youth initiative

download Griese_Youth_Theatre_Workshops_booklet.pdf

LETS ACT TOGETHER



Lets act together is the name of the youth initiative project that members of griese youth theatre were involved. A youth initiative is a project that young people not only take part in but plan, organise and develop. The aim of a youth initiative is to better an aspect of your community. The projects, if approved of, are funded by Leargas and they give the training necessary to act out your initiative.

Our project was based around social inclusion whether it be in a classroom, on a team or a refugee situation. The message we wanted to get out there was that no-matter what a persons background is, where they’re from or what they do they are still a person and deserve to be treated as such.

Our group consisted of; Emily Vaughan, Shane Bennet, Katie Byrne, Joseph Dillon, Shauna Rouse, Ashley Prendergast, Charlie Cox and with Colette Murran as our coach and Leish Burke always there with help and advice. Our age ranged from fifteen to seventeen( excluding Colette and Leish).

We decided ,seeing as we are a drama group, to do drama workshops based on our theme with people of our own age. The idea of peer-led teaching through drama workshops, we thought, would get the message of social inclusion across better. We wanted the people who we were aiming our project at to learn about cultural diversity in their own community but not in a class room situation. So when planning our workshops we made them fun, energetic and those participating would learn much more about the wider community of Ireland, Europe and the whole world and how better to deal with it.

However before we were to actually initiate the workshops we had to learn the skills first. Leish Burke taught us how to but together good workshops, gave us the facilitating skills we needed and gave us invaluable training on how to create an environment in which people are comfortable to express themselves. Colette Murran gave us a skills presentation course so that we would be able to present the workshop in the right way and be able to host it properly. Our own youth theatre were the guinea pigs that we tested our workshops on with great success, preparing us for the real thing.

To help us work better as a group we had a team building day in Avon Rí which was paid for by Leargas. The exercises we took part in built up our trust in each other and brought us closer as a group so that we could rely on and be relied upon for the rest of the project.

Another aspect of our project is that we are doing a fetaq level three qualification in community participation with Mary Menihan. This course is all about understanding what community is and how to work with it so it is very relevant to the theme of our project.

On the 22nd and 23rd of January after months of planning and preparation the drama workshops took place in the meeting house in Ballitore. The group we had consisted of about fifteen people, boys and girls, ranging from thirteen to seventeen years old. They came in tentative and curious about what they were going to be doing on their Friday night, some had never had any experience in drama before so this was like diving into the deep for them, but before long everyone was enjoying themselves and comfortable acting on stage. The exercises we had planned kept them lively but not over-excited and we truly felt they were learning about culture and social inclusion in ways they had never experienced. There were improvisations about being comfortable or uncomfortable which everyone enjoyed. By the end of the workshop that night everyone was on a high and were sorry to leave, especially those facilitating the workshop.

The Saturday morning the next day was going to be much longer, staring at 11:00 and ending at 16:00, but no less enjoyable. There were different people which brought a different group dynamic. We started off with some warm ups to wake everyone up then some other exercises about community and then a short improvisation. Lunch was again graciously paid for by leargas and after everyone had had their fill we began work on the devised pieces. The class was split up into three groups and each group, with our assistance, had to devise a movement piece, a piece based on a short script and a piece based on a poem respectively. They were given over an hour to work on their productions and they were helped by their new found knowledge and skills in drama. The theme of the pieces was social inclusion and when everyone sat down to watch the performances we as facilitators saw what we had taught the class about cultural diversity through the productions they performed on stage.
Everyone went home with a smile on their face, including us.