Title: Shalakazap! - Empowerment in Young People's Theatre, Aotearoa/New Zealand: An Interview with Jenny Wake of Calico Theatre
Abstract: It is tempting to draw the conclusion that young people's theatre (YPT) is the best catered-for sector of the New Zealand arts community. Certainly, some of the country's most lively and varied work and artists find an outlet here, with diverse agendas, protocols and levels of funding and community support. YPT in Aotearoa offers everything from professional training for teenagers (such as Massive Company and Auckland Theatre Company's 2nd Unit, both Auckland based1) to children's theatre classes; from script development (Playmarket's Young Playwrights' Conference) to health education, story telling, puppetry and the commissioning and touring of new works.2 All the mainstream professional theatres have some form of educational unit, with mandates that range from comprehensive programmes of school visits, workshops, special matinees, resource packs, curriculum development and the building of theatre appreciation through an ambassadors scheme3 (Auckland Theatre Company Education Unit) to staging holiday programmes of adapted fairy tales (Court Theatre, Christchurch).4 Wellington has Capital E, which provides both theatre and technology entertainment and education for children. Under artistic director Peter Wilson, the theatre side of Capital E offers plays such as Lynda Chanwai Earlc's Monkey King performed by professional actors both on site and on tour, as well as workshops and other activities, including a national arts festival for young people.5 There are also a significant number of independent companies and practitioners who receive varying degrees of project funding to pursue youth theatre initiatives in the community and in schools on a local, regional and national level.6 One such company is Calico Young People's Theatre, founded by Jenny Wake in 1991. Wake's theatre background includes an MA in Children's Theatre from California State University, Humboldt. Returning home to New Zealand in 1978, Wake pursued a career in television, first as script editor and then as director and producer of Play School, and later of shows such as The Mostly Useful Job Guide. She continued to work in theatre, teaming with writer Michclanne Forster to direct original plays for primary school children such as Musical Beasts and Arabella and the Amazing Wardrobe, and discovering by trial and error what worked best for an audience of that age. She subsequently worked as an audio producer for the Education Department, producing audiotape resources for schools, and then as Education officer for Downstage Theatre in Wellington. While working at Downstage, Wake continued to direct shows for children and young people. Significantly, she also initiated a pilot programme sponsored by the Arts Council which she called The Police Show, working with five actors, playwright Peter Hawes and with police cooperation, aimed at intermediate school children aged eleven to fourteen years. The show explored mutual negativity and relationship development between kids and the police, and involved spending a week with each participating school, where the actors would perform the extant show on the first morning. For the next five days, Wake, the actors and a police representative would lead workshops with different classes and year groups, in which the children would be guided to explore their responses to the issues raised by the play. On the final afternoon, scenarios created out of workshopped ideas provided by the children were performed by them for one another in a re-gathering of each year group. The project consolidated many of the ideas Wake had been exploring since the beginning of her career in terms of empowering young people through theatre, appealing to their exuberant imaginations and sense of self-awareness as well as providing an educational framework, which she was able to explore further with Calico Young People's Theatre. From the beginning of her career, Jenny Wake's practical theatre work with young people has actively sought ways to empower them in the narrative and creative process, and this is a keynote of her work with Calico Theatre, which primarily focuses on the eight to fifteen years age range. …
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-10-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 3
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