Over the next year the company will be delivering the following projects :
Early autumn 2007
Working in partnership with Positive Steps Oldham, the company production of Love and Lullabies by Mike Harris will be filmed to form the centre-piece of a new free standing resource for young people looking at love, sex, romance, relationships, cultural differences and parenthood. The resource will feature the full play with interactive and written exercises to support anyone seeking to raise and pursue these issues with young people. The package will be particularly suitable for Year 9 pupils in schools. A release date of February 2008 is anticipated but firm details, including the cost, will be published on the website nearer the time.
Late autumn 2007
The company will be touring the brand new production One Extreme to the Other by Mike Harris, which tackles the most difficult and pressing issue of our time: extremism. Aimed at young people age 14-25 and adult audiences too, One Extreme to the Other offers a powerful theatrical stimulus to debate and a comprehensive multi-media follow-up package and a major website to inform further discussion and lead in good practice: an essential educational tool for anyone seeking to tackle this sensitive issue.
Performances have been confirmed across the borough of Oldham and there is significant interest in the show in other areas. The play will also be performed at a national conference on Extremism in London on 31 October. The play is likely to be toured again in the late spring of 2008. The production has its own section on this website but if you require any further information, including tour dates and the cost of booking the show, please call or email the company office.
Early spring 2008
Acting Your Age by Mike Harris will be out on tour, with a tour of all Tameside schools already confirmed. Acting Your Age a tense and volatile drama which deals head on with youth crime, anti-social behaviour, juvenile disturbance and inter-generational conflict. The play has its own section on this website. Contact us for further information or costings. For this tour we will be enhancing the follow-up resources by including some new multi-media elements including the key moments from the play on DVD.
Made in Bolton Project - In the continuance of a long-standing creative partnership with Bolton Youth Service the company will also be working with young people from Bolton on a performance piece exploring their views and feelings about immigration, asylum seekers and the changing nature of their communities. This is likely to culminate in public performances in March or April 2008.
Creative Residence at Mossley Hollins High School , Tameside, Greater Manchester
The company is thrilled to be continuing its creative residency at the school. Across this academic year every pupil will see a GW Theatre performance. After helping to significantly raise attainment levels with GCSE Drama students last year the company will once again undertake a three day intensive project with this years students. GW are also leading the development of a two year programme of work which will see the use of drama being utilised across the whole curriculum, the establishment of a school based youth theatre and the instigation of a tradition for live performance in the school theatre. The long term aim is to establish school as a centre of regional and national excellent practice.
GW THEATRE COMPANY NEWSLETTER (2005- 6)
Please read on for details of what we are going to be up to for the rest of 2005. It's going to be an exciting year, with one brand new show, a re-run of a hugely successful primary piece we developed last year and the return of two flagship GW Productions.
March 2005 - Acting Your Age
A brand new play about youth crime, anti-social behaviour and inter-generational conflict.
This production is currently in rehearsal and we will be doing 8 pilot performances in Bury, Rochdale, Tameside and Oldham. We are also thrilled to be doing a very special premiere performance at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.
In Acting Your Age, by Mike Harris, Stevie [14] and his gang make the life of an old couple miserable, hanging around noisily drinking outside their house. When his wife dies, the old man blames Stevie and kidnaps him. Meanwhile Stevie's social worker mother comes back from abroad to find her ex-husband, a housing manager, unwittingly trying to get his own son asbo'd. Both stories intercut rapidly as the play moves towards its nail-biting climax, and in the process the audience is invited to address important questions about generational conflict, social responsibility, the causes of anti-social behaviour, and how to deal with it.
The play is likely to be aimed at Year 10 pupils in schools, but will also be highly suitable for a variety of other audiences and for use as a training tool for professionals.
Performances of the play will be followed by character hot-seating sessions and there will be a specially developed follow-up pack, including guidance on how multi-agency partnerships can develop a programme of subsequent work linked to the issues in the play.
Acting Your Age will be touring in the late autumn of 2005
Commissioned by Bury, Rochdale, Oldham and Tameside LEA's, Positive Steps Oldham, BrEAZone, GMP Reassurance Project, Oldham Community Safety Unit and The Arts Council.
April - May
Working in partnership with Peacemaker we will once again be touring A Likely Story by Mike Harris into primary schools in Oldham and Salford
A Likely Story is a play about telling stories....
Audiences will learn about the basic rules of story construction as they watch this unique play, and they will then be given an opportunity to put those rules into practice, by deciding how the play should end, and will then see that performed by the actors. Each performance can be followed by sessions with a professional storyteller who will help the children build on the knowledge gained during the play to build narratives of their own.
A Likely Story will be touring through April/May. We are no loner taking bookings on this but we always welcome visitors at our performances if you are interested in seeing this piece. There is also more information on our almost finished website.
June - July
After a very successful tour last summer we are delighted to be offering performances of SMASHED by Mike Harris through June and July.
Smashed is a sharp, hilarious and provocative production that deals directly with the awkward issues, concerns and questions raised by teenage drinking. Performances of the play provide a uniquely challenging view of under-age drinking as four teenagers go on an alcohol fuelled spree with tragic-comic results.
Smashed is aimed at Year 8 pupils
Demand is likely to be high as this is one of our most requested productions, so if you are interested in booking it please contact us as soon as possible
Autumn and Winter
We do not have definite dates at this stage but in the last quarter of the year and maybe into the spring of 2006 we will be touring Acting Year Age, as detailed above and Love and Lullabies by Mike Harris, a very powerful play about love, sex, teenage parenthood and cultural differences
