A performance and workshop residency project for young people
An exploration of wishes, fears and dreams - and a journey of discovery
Everyone is on their own journey, taking their hopes and fears. The Wishing Key can open secrets, doors, wishes and dreams.
It helps us reflect on where we are going and our desires for the future.
Where have you come from? Where are you going? What would you take with you?
In a series of workshops High Hat and the group weave these different threads
into a final piece, the themes and ideas unique to the participants wherever
we bring this project.
We explore movement, storytelling and images, all based in our company techniques,
using costumes, masks, mime and movement, dance – there may also be poetry,
spoken word and music. This way we help the participants find a language to express
their own ideas, in what they choose to act out and say about their own journeys,
their wishes and hopes.
At the end they have the chance to perform what they‘ve devised, to an audience of family, friends or others, that reflects their imaginings and creates a colourful and positive celebration.
Number: 20-30 young people.
Age range: Flexible, but the project is aimed at two particular age groups,
9 -13 yrs and 14+. We’ll fit the activities and approach to the age range.
The Places: Festivals, schools, youth and community centres, theatres or any public space.
All are welcome, and we are offering this project especially to groups of mixed culture, language and ethnicity. We aim to help them gain a positive awareness of their own cultures, and to encourage communication and mutual acceptance. This makes the process and final piece all the richer.
High Hat Theatre and the project
1 - 2 actors/workshop leaders lead the workshops, introducing the group to mime,
maskwork, and dance techniques, while helping the group to devise their own ideas.
We bring visual staging - fabrics, masks and costume items - to inspire the group,
and can prepare music and voice soundtracks. We invite the group to bring firstly
their ideas and imaginations, as well as any objects or stories special to them
that connect with their own family or journeys.
Some youth centres or schools like to prepare their own masks, costumes
or banners that can become part of the piece.
We can promise to give them an exciting and rewarding experience, to inspire their imaginations and draw on their own abilities. As well as passing on our theatre skills
we want to encourage talents they already have for performing, drumming, dancing ;
these too can become part of the show they devise with us.
