Young People

Because our Artistic director and company founder Gill Simmons is an experienced secondary teacher, it will be no surprise to learn that we frequently work creatively with young people.

We are committed to supporting young people from Withywood and Hartcliffe in south Bristol, who have an interest in any art form. We do this through Arts Award courses, by providing work experience and by running art projects specifically for young people.

We are an accredited Arts Award Centre and can deliver all levels of Arts Award. We have been recognised by Trinity College London as an Arts Award Champion Centre every year since 2021 - 2024 for our successful and innovative delivery of Arts Award courses. For 2023/2024 we were the only Arts Award centre in the whole of Bristol to be awarded Trinity Champion Centre status.

We were selected to join the Bristol + Bath Creative R&D Expanded Performance research cohort in 2020 and used this time to explore our interest in creative projects for young people that included technology. This uncovered a wider research interest about the issues of knowledge sharing between creative organisations.

For schools and colleges, we provide specialist devised theatre training for GCSE, A-level & BTEC students.

Arts Award Explore 2024

We are running an Explore level Arts Award course for 22 students at Bridge Learning Campus in Hartcliffe, between January and April 2024.

This course is part of a larger project co-ordinated by the Bristol Old Vic called Young Company City where youth groups all over the city take inspiration from a new musical called Starter for Ten. They watch the show for free at the Bristol Old Vic and then perform a new devised show on the main stage at the Bristol Old Vic in April.

Final year students from Bristol University who are on work placement with us during the same period as this project are also contributing to the devising sessions at the school.

We continue to be the only Arts Award centre in the whole of Bristol with Trinity Champion status for 2023-2024, which is awarded to centres with a strong track record in successful and innovative delivery of Arts Award courses.

Arts Award Bronze 2023

We ran an Arts Award Bronze course in devised and improvised theatre making for young people living in Hartcliffe & Withywood between Feb-May 2023.

We partnered with Bridge Learning Campus in Hartcliffe, and are delivered most of the rehearsals in weekly extra-curricular sessions within the school day.

We also partnered with Bristol Improv Theatre on this project. The young people watched an improv show at Bristol Improv Theatre. The young people performed their own devised/improvised show Nightmare on Ward 13 both at Bridge Learning Campus and at Bristol Improv Theatre on 17th May 2023, sharing a stage with Brave Bold Drama who performed an improv set at the beginning of the evening, which placed the young people as the headline act.

The course culminated with the young people leading a workshop in improv games with younger children from the primary school of Bridge Learning Campus.

Kierann Shah, Artistic Director of the Bristol Improv Theatre, had these kind words to say about this project:

"I was blown away by the courage, focus, and professionalism of the young performers. The show they put on was easily comparable to shows I have seen by adults of a similar experience level. All the performers had great comic and theatrical instincts that they had obviously worked on developing and using to support each other, and the result was a very funny show that had the audience howling with laughter and grinning pretty much all the way through. Improv allows performers' personalities to shine through, and that was certainly the case here, with the performers leaning into the mischief of improv in a truly collaborative fashion, something that even adults in improv can struggle with.

The show audience was almost totally new to our theatre, especially the parents and families. It was a breath of fresh air to have them come to our venue with such enthusiasm and excitement to see their family members perform. I was also delighted to see so many teachers attend in support of the young people. There was a wonderful atmosphere in the room for the show, and the feeling in the theatre afterwards was truly joyous and electrifying in support of the young performers. I feel like it is a night they will remember for a long time.

The experience of working with Gill and Paul from Brave Bold Drama was brilliant, as ever they were incredibly professional and brought their immense experience and enthusiasm to bear. The Bristol Improv Theatre would not have been able to host a show performed by schoolchildren like this without partnering with Brave Bold Drama, working with them to engage performers and audiences beyond our usual reach has such value for us, and we are keen to take up any opportunities like this to work with them in future."

Kierann Shah, Bristol Improv Theatre

Arts Award Bronze 2022

We ran a Bronze Arts Award course for young people living in Hartcliffe and Withywood between March and June 2022.

Young people went through the "research and development" process of theatre making. We were investigating how we could use theatre to create a live version of the video-sharing platform tiktok.

We partnered with Tobacco Factory Theatres who provided a theatre lighting workshop, with Quick Duck Theatre Company who provided a Q&A about their show "Yours Sincerely", which the young poeople watched at Tobacco Factory Theatres, and with the Hartcliffe-based drag queen performer "Miss Jam Tart". Several Bristol University theatre students who were on placement with us co-delivered rehearsals.

Rehearsals were at Hartcliffe Club for Young People. During the course the young people also supported younger children in the community to enjoy a performance of Brave Bold Drama's The Munch Mission, and the arts award course culminated with the young people faciliting a shadow-puppetry workshop for children attending Hartcliffe Club for Young People.

This course was funded by Arts Council England.