Yohan

Abi Richards, Amelia Dixon, and Eddie Plaskitt  joined forces for their Key adventure when they decided to create a piece of interactive theatre for their own community with hopes of inspiring local youngsters to get involved in the arts.

Key Group, Yohan, met at Mortal Fools, a Northumberland creative learning organisation, where they began their Key journey decided to come together and participate in The Key’s youth-led, skills development programme.

For their stage 1 project, the group headed to Edinburgh Fringe Festival to get inspiration and experiences they could only have dreamed of previously. For Stage 2 Yohan decided to organise and host their own Oscars style awards evening for young people in their theatre club. With two successful projects under their belts, the group decided to carry on through KEY+ and head to Stage 3.

With tons of ideas for what to do, the group had to use their decision-making and negotiation skills to agree on their  final decision - an ambitious promenade theatre show for the community with six installations staged across their Northumberland village. The group set themselves a rather difficult task with lots of planning, creativity and organisation required to ensure they had everything sorted in place ready to pitch to panel.

Yohan searched for information and even sought advice on all aspects of their project. With lots to consider including lighting, performance themes, locations to perform and health and safety, the group took their skills to the next level and this was duly noted at panel.

So with a successful decision at panel the group got to work, recruiting their 30+ young performers and choosing the themes for their six micro-performances including The Twits, The Madhatter’s Tea Party and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

At the end of the promenade performances, audience members enjoyed a buffet during the finale in which 40 young people gave a performance featuring physical theatre.

One of the young organisers, Amelia, said: “The experience has given me much more confidence to speak to different types of people and take on things that we wouldn’t usually do.”

Abbie Foster, Key Community Panel Member, said: “Illuminate was an absolutely spectacular project. “It was great to see the young people take their passions and turn them into something for the whole community to enjoy. This is what The Key is all about and it’s great to see the young people truly make it their own.”

Tyne Valley Youth Theatre is produced by Northumberland-based creative learning company Mortal Fools.

Key Facilitator Helen Ferguson said: “The community was blown away by the hard work and dedication the young people showcased throughout.”

A big well done to Yohan. We can’t wait to see what crazy project the young people come up with next.