As Lighthouse Youth Theatre takes its first half term break its students have been roundly praised by teachers for their talent, enthusiasm and energy.
Established by Lighthouse Poole, one of the UK’s largest arts centres, it offers weekly classes across three age groups taught by local theatre-makers for young people to explore creativity, build confidence, make friends and have fun through drama.
The first classes started in September, and teachers have given a glowing report to those taking part.
“It has been a great start; you can already tell the boost in confidence,” says actor/director/writer Brook Hopper. “In all of the groups, everyone’s talking a bit more, getting a bit more involved. That’s my favourite thing to see – I’m very proud already!”
His colleague, actor/singer/dancer Emily Angel noticed how quickly young people grew in confidence.
“The first time, all the kids were a little bit shy, but by the second time I taught them, you could see that they had all made friends with each other,” she says. “They were so different; all getting on, they were really putting themselves out there, really having a go at the activities.”
Tiger Deffee, a graduate of the Young Producers course at Lighthouse, has noticed how comfortable even the youngest class are with contributing ideas.
“They particularly enjoyed this one game we played called Find the Lion, where we go around and basically tell a story, because that’s what acting is – it’s just storytelling,” she says.
“They love to come up with their own ideas, going on this big adventure, they can picture it all with their imagination, it’s really fun. For the youngest group in particular, we just set the narrative, and we go on the adventure, but for the middle group, because they’re so excited by it, they were able to add more and more layers to it.”
All three teachers are excited by adding to their own professional practice and experience – they’re learning just as much as their young charges.
“I’m very glad I’m doing this because it’s nice to be able to support children to be what they want to be,” says Emily, a Performing Arts graduate from Arts University Bournemouth (AUB).
“I never went to like a stage school, it was just like a youth theatre, and I feel like that was better because there was no pressure and I could just make friends and perform, be silly, experiment and have no judgement. I feel like that’s definitely shaped me into who I am today, and it’s made me have that passion for wanting to be an actor.”
Tiger is in the final year of her Performing Arts degree at AUB and is enjoying the responsibility of teaching: “Although I’ve taught in the past, I’ve take the role of assistant teacher where your job is to look at the kids who aren’t joining in, but when you’re the main teacher, you have to focus on everyone. So, they’re all the priority.”
For Brook, the classes have been as much about learning from the other teachers as passing on what he knows to the young people.
“I’ve not really worked with children as young as our youngest group before, so I’ve had to work out how to work with them,” he says. “Then I ask what can I learn from the other teachers in the room and how do I do the best work for them?
“I think I can be a bit of a fast person, a bit extreme in terms of here’s the thing, we’re going to jump into it, and see where we go. That can work, and I think some people take that really well, but other times it’s better to slow it down bit by bit, take it easy, low energy, and we’ll go from there.
“So, yes, I am learning as we go.”
(NC)
photo – Jayne Jackson Photography