I first co-directed a show back in 1999, when I helped my drama teacher stage our high school production of Oliver in which I played Fagin. It was from this moment, at the tender age of 16, that my fascination with directing and performing began. Nearly 20 years on, and I am back in the very same theatre with over 100 productions to my name.
If experience has taught me one thing, it is true that: “the best directors are as good at understanding people as they are at understanding text.”
A cast of talented, opinionated teenagers, presents a very different challenge to a group of trained professionals; but there is something magic about it. Imagine walking through the woods with your friends and finding an old box; your natural curiosity makes you want to look a little closer, you brush away the dust and dirt that is tarnishing the box and you begin to realise that it is no ordinary box. Eventually, you open it, and the contents sparkle in front of your eyes. Untold riches lay under the surface and you are thankful that you bothered to look a little closer. This, is how I would describe youth theatre.
My job is to provide a platform for young people to express themselves, and to more importantly, be themselves. I don’t want performers to walk around the stage, carrying out a series of pre-rehearsed steps and pre-determined movement. I want them to actually be in that moment, as that character, at that time; this is when you know you are watching a quality performance. In order to do this, we have to remove the barriers that prevent this from happening. Telling a performer to be more expressive, smile more or to speak louder on stage means nothing, unless you understand the reason for their reluctance. Our job is to find out why.
Once we have helped a student to manage the stress of their exams, given them advice on bullying or helped convince them that they are unique and special in their own way; then we go back to trying to teach them about context, subtle facial expression, intonation and how to inflect a line to portray more dramatic effect. As well as artists, we must become teachers, mentors, councillors and friends. To produce anything with young people is a challenge. To produce something quality with young people is an Art.
This show is littered with fantastic performances; the skill of acting can often be underestimated, as in reality “we all have the instinct to act and imagine”. The difference with actors is, “they have the talent to embody this act of imagination”. Acting is much more than having the confidence to get up on stage; it is a complex, intuitive skill, that is demonstrated beautifully throughout this production.
I once again, pay tribute to the creative team that have helped to bring this production together; but we are merely setting the stage. We cannot tell you the story of Legally Blonde. We can turn on the lights, turn up the sound and open the curtain; but the success of any production lies in the hands of its actors, and it just so happens that we have some pretty special ones.