The Impossible Dream

What did you want to be at 16? Chris Squire tells us about how a wannabe Blue Peter presenter ended up in touring Theatre and how the reality turned out to be just as exciting as the dream.

At 16 I daren’t tell the careers adviser that I really wanted to be a Blue Peter presenter – I just knew that for my honesty I’d get that condescending look adults give you together with a comment about being a bit more realistic. So instead I plumped for something far safer, but then totally ignored their advice anyway.

I got into touring Theatre that literally took me to new places. But now, years later, I’m finally about to take up a job in that famous Television Centre studio …ok, not really… but my work has actually earned me a real badge from the team and, in a funny way, I’m sort of doing it myself now anyway.

Doing it ourselves? What does that mean exactly?

Well, I suppose what I liked about the idea of presenting Blue Peter was the huge variety of interesting subjects it visited, the hands on approach to constructing things, the sharing of interesting facts in a light-hearted atmosphere. Plus of course the chance for John Noakes to make a bit of a fool of himself. A great combination, and a pretty good description of the things that we are now doing - although without the BBC’s budgets, and with a stand in for Mr Noakes.

Anyway – what do we do, and why? What do young people get from it?

As a creative enterprise we do just what it says on the tin – we find a need, usually a social problem or educational opportunity, and then create a new project to meet it. We tend not to repeat ourselves often, which can cause headaches, but the results are bespoke, hand-crafted and usually a pretty good fit.

Sun, Moon, Earth

For example we were recently approached to work with a year 4 class to help spice up the science curriculum and in particular help the pupils find ways of remembering solar system facts. Part of the school's standards agenda. We took this on board, but then devised something that the pupils themselves would enjoy.

We ended up working closely with the class-room teacher to deliver a project making ultra-violet paint decorated hats representing key parts of our solar system, then devised a group piece which put these objects in relative motion around each other all filmed from above under UV light, and finally made a movement / text piece presenting the essence of the project to the rest of the school with interesting facts and dynamics.

So - hands on construction, amazing facts (the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun - and 400 times nearer so it appears the same size) with a bit of a song and dance in front of everyone. Recognise the elements? Anyway it created a pleasant, memorable process that we’re pretty sure delivers all we intended in an enjoyable format – learning really can be fun.

Dudey Movie

Another time we worked together with a team of local young people to research and produce a new short film inspired by the pioneering silent movies made in our local town at the dawn of the film era. Holmfirth was home to the Bamforth production company who started making films in 1898 just a couple of years after the invention of cinematography. This fascinating fact appeared to be lost on a group we talked to at the local youth club, so we applied to the heritage lottery fund to do something about it.

The result - Dudey Movie - a project that explored film making processes and created a new movie in response to the originals. Like them it contains short comic scenes, visual humour, silent gags and a local cast. The young people were involved in almost all aspects of the project gaining new technical expertise, raising personal skills and improving confidence and self esteem. The outcome continues to be well received in showings and exhibitions - let us know if you’d like to see a copy.

One of the most amazing days we had was a ‘Have-a-go’ session – a splurge of creativity resulting in 19 one minute films produced, shot, edited and shown in one day – desktop video has made possible something that would have cost tens of thousands and involved some serious kit just a few years ago.

Otherwise

Working with young people is often a feature in our work – demanding, requiring flexibility, challenging expectations - but its not all we do; installations, exhibitions, film-making, training and new-media are also within our remit.

But…

Of course some times there are problems; attempting a physical workshop in a high school classroom – 30 growing bodies in a cramped furniture rich room is a challenge, let alone messing with the timetable or attempting cross-curricular projects. These can be made to work but there always seems to be a trade off between quality and quantity as the pressure to include whole year groups kicks in.

Another problem lies in the increasing call to include young people in the management and bid-writing of projects. Unfortunately the decision-making and timetabling cycle mean projects seem painfully slow to young people for whom tomorrow is a long way off.

We often use a lot of technology in our work and have had some ‘ouch’ moments when the button is pressed but the expected doesn’t happen – thankfully not often due in part to good preparation and in part to a technological problem-solving persuasion.

Then of course there’s the young people themselves. We have to work hard in the more deprived neighbourhoods to recruit participants – they often have to see something first before confidence / trust can be built. Also any infrastructure needs to be robust especially if installing semi-permanent features. Seems obvious maybe, but easy to slip up on.

Overall, through half-closed eyes, can you see this element of our work as Blue-Peter-esque? Ok, maybe we don’t get the high salaries, star treatment, gossip column inches, VIP lifestyle, media personality hype that TV folk get. Perhaps that’ll come later? Interested BBC commissioning executives should please email the address below, thanks.

Chris Squire

Impossible Theatre – participatory arts

arts@impossible.org.uk

www.impossible.org.uk