Fairvale and Cabramatta

Today and yesterday l visited High Schools in the Fairfield LGA. Fairvale High School was first up on Tuesday. A very fun and talented group of enthusiastic students and teachers. I liked it. It was some what exhausting. It's going to be hard to make cuts, wondrous and wonderful people in year 10 and 11 drama indeed.

Today was Cabramatta High School, and it was a brief encounter with a gorgeous bunch of year 11's- one period is not enough...l think i'll be back!

Oh yes l gotta do a report, which is trey hurty at this end of the day indeed!

Part One: ENGAGING YOUTH (a tricky thing)

It is really quite a "tricky thing" trying to engage young people through schools and systems yet to be open to the delight of engagement. So far on the POWER UP project l have faxed, emailed and called (an called again and called again and faxed again and called again) over 30 schools across the Fairfield, Liverpool and Bankstown area. Seven of whom have booked in, three jumped on board right away and the other four took some courting. There are four more school's that l'm hanging on a response from. It is a tricky thing to connect and build and get your project onto the top of a teacher's in tray and not let it end up in the middle of "Harmony Week" posters, Theatre Company Education flyers and DET reminders. Come to think of it there are a few hurdles to jump(and skill is needed) to get to the "youth" who are the heart of the project.....

No.1 Finding the school's contact details

No.2 Choosing your approach (and then realising you may need to hit them all) i.e phone/ email/ fax... interestingly enough not all school's exist online as yet!!!

No.3 The school administration staff: "Who are you? Sorry you're going to have to speak up! Who? From where? Sorry l can't give you those teachers email addresses. I'm going to have to take a message, no one is picking up in the staff room. What was you're name again? Yes i'll make sure they get the message......"

It is kinda hard to believe the message is going to get through, is three days enough to wait before calling back. The gingery dance that occurs between when to call and how to and how to approach each different school can be a little nauseating at the best of times.

No.4 Finally the teacher you're after- Head of Drama, Head of Performing Arts, Head of Creative Arts, The Year 10 drama teacher, The Year 11 drama teacher, The English teacher ('cos they don't do drama at the school)...that is when you have the right person.....WOW YOU MADE IT THROUGH!!!!

well then- the next bit is easy

Book them in, turn up, run the workshop, inspire and delight young people, inspire and delight teachers, inspire and delight yourself, get the students direct contacts, keep a good connection with the teacher and get ready for PART TWO: theatre crafts training.

three weeks till l get to the easy bit aye carumba....

THIS IS A LITTLE BLOG ABOUT THE POWER UP YOUTH THEATRE PROJECT

Something big is happening in Fairfield.

Calling on young people from Fairfield, Bankstown and Liverpool, it’s time to get busy!

Power Up is a Youth Theatre project that is about to explode in your neighbourhood! Over the next six months a group of young people from the Bankstown, Liverpool and Fairfield region will be trained in the crafts of theatre making, technical production and live performance by some of Sydney’s most exciting artists.

Powerhouse Youth Theatre with the support of The Department of Community Services has created a project that will birth a league of new young Artists from the West.

Led by Candy Bowers, a NIDA trained actor, hip hop artist (of SISTA SHE fame) writer and theatre maker, the project has already attracted some brilliant people from the industry. Candy was brought up in Campbelltown and has been writing and performing on stage and screen across the world for the last 7 years. Her greatest achievements include winning the 2008 British Council of the Arts Realise Your Dream Award, Adelaide Festival Youth Education Program Best Show Award, She TV for Channel V (Foxtel) and performing her work at The Sydney Opera House, The Melbourne International Comedy Festival and in Scotland at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The extraordinary Busty Beats, Australia’s hottest female beats producer and sound designer for the stage, is on board and looking forward to meet the young people of the area.

So this is how it works, in March 2009 Candy Bowers will be visiting schools across the area to find the performers and backstage crew to take part in the project. There will be a six day training workshop series in the April school holidays in which the participants will learn skills in acting, movement, dance, comedy. voice, devising theatre and technical production. At the end of this process a team of young Artists will be assembled and begin devising a show from seed to performance. The production will be toured across Fairfield, Bankstown and Liverpool between July 27^th and August 16^th 2009.

The participant requirements and schedule is as follows:

Age range: 15-17 years old (some flexibility in special cases)

Address/School: Fairfield/ Bankstown/Liverpool (NSW AUSTRALIA)

School Workshops- When: March 2009

Training Workshops & Auditions- When: April School Holidays 2009

Rehearsals- When: Monday evenings in May/ Mondays & Saturdays in June

and July School Holidays

The Performance Season When: July 27^th- August 16^th

Candy Bowers, PYT, Youth Engagement Officer and Theatre Director of POWER UP.

POWER UP: The first connection

Today l headed out to Sir Joseph banks for my first in school workshop for the PYT POWER UP youth theatre project.

I left home early and headed to Redfern...then changed at Wolli Creek and got to Revesby by 10am!

I saw an old man against the backdrop of Miller's fashion store and Go Lo variety shop. He had an expression like life had passed him by. It was "filmic"...like in a film.

I headed over to the shops to see if there was a quick break fast style snack. The cafe across from the station didn't do it for me, so it was a trip to Franklins to fill the gap. I bought yoghourt and and vegetable juice.

When l got into the school there was a woman and a young girl in the front office. I hung at with them untill the head teacher of Drama came to find me. The front office was the same as many l saw during my time facilitating workshops for the YWCA. a mix of art, trophies and plaques littered the walls. (Not truly well curated as many different shaped memorabilia filled in the spaces between honor rolls and the like.) A warm feeling was in the space.

Off to the drama department and l was greeted with a sky blue (moving towards colbalt) coloured wall. A space with chairs around the outside and plenty of room to move....perfect. As l was setting up a couple of different teachers popped their heads in offering technical assistance and it was all very accomodating and sweet. we set up a screen and projector for the video, the ghetto blaster was on the ready and then it was time for action.

Enter the year 12 drama class....27 of them at least (those most interested in the POWER UP project.) I looked into the faces of the sort of peopl lwanna see on TV and on the stage. I saw the stories. A mix of polynesian, anglo, chinese, viet and arabic students looked back. I really dug it- in the funky way!

I chatted with them about why it's time to step up and how the POWER UP project was about getting the talent from the West out there!

The best bit of the day:
Watching a class of students move, that is dance to LOSE CONTROL- whether a dancer or an actor...just doing drama as a subject, or truly into hip hop...or not...they all really jumped in and put their personal spin on the moves.... SO GOOD!

Yup for now that's it.