New York’s Epic Theatre Ensemble takes over Scotland
The National Theatre of Scotland in partnership with Macrobert Arts Centre presents Exchange 2016 Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling from 4 to 10 July 2016
The National Theatre of Scotland’s international theatre festival for 16 to 25 year old. Now in its eighth year, the National Theatre of Scotland’s vibrant Exchange programme brings together groups of young theatre-makers (aged 16 to 25 years old) from Scotland and across the world, to facilitate a national and international exchange and to enable the groups to create and perform new pieces of theatre with the help and support of a professional creative team. Ten groups of young theatre-makers have been selected to take part in Exchange 2016; eight groups from Scotland and two international groups including New York’s Epic Theatre Ensemble.
The groups are each supported artistically and financially in the creation of an original work of quality contemporary theatre. The creative partners for this instalment of Exchange are Colin Bradie and Fiona Manson. Each theatre piece is initially performed in the group’s home area before it is staged as part of the week-long Exchange festival at Macrobert Arts Centre in July 2016. During that residential week on campus at the University of Stirling, participating groups are encouraged to develop their skills through stimulating master-classes and workshops with leading national and international theatre-makers. The popular Exchange TV returns for a fourth year.
The Scottish theatre groups taking part in Exchange 2016 are:
• Beacon Youth Theatre, Inverclyde
• Collision Theatre, Buckhaven
• Creative Electric in collaboration with Dance Base and #Artcore, Edinburgh
• Eden Court Collective, Inverness
• Ignite Theatre, Glasgow
• Macrobert Collective, Stirling
• Paperdog (Firefly Arts Youth Theatre), West Lothian
• Strange Town, Edinburgh
The international groups taking part in Exchange 2016 are:
• Epic Theatre Ensemble, Harlem, Manhattan, USA
• Massive Company, Auckland, New Zealand
National Theatre of Scotland's Learning and Outreach Manager Gillian Gourlay says:
“From its inception in 2006, I have been delighted to see how not only the festival itself has grown and flourished, but also how the young theatre -makers involved have developed over the years, raising the bar year on year. To be able to bring such a mix of ideas, talent and enthusiasm together from all over the world, and to see them immerse themselves in sharing and creating their own form of theatre, is just amazing to witness. Exchange is an opportunity for everyone to bring something with them to the festival as well as to go away with not just new skills and experiences, but genuine friendships too - and you just can’t buy that.”
Venue: Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling
Performances: Â Two groups each evening at 7.30pm and 9.00pm from 5 to 9 July 2016.
Beacon Youth Theatre (BYT) in Greenock is led by Andy McGregor and Marianne Yeomans, who specialise in facilitating, making and directing theatre with children and young people. This dynamic and creative group is always adventurous, making every one of their performances unique. Â They may decide to take audiences on journeys into fantastical worlds or they may have a burning desire to explore social media and its effects on young people. Whatever topic, story or genre, the group decides the creative process will always be a collaborative one. Participants are encouraged to use their imagination, share ideas, tell real life stories and together they make them come alive on stage.
Collision is a collective of Fife-based young theatre makers and is produced by Claire Bloomfield. They create work that responds to the everyday and explores the world in which they live.
Since its inception in 2013, Collision has presented work at The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Rose Theatre London, Edinburgh International Fringe Festival, the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme, Glasgow, various theatres across Scotland, and in non-traditional performance spaces, including parks and nursing homes. The company has created work with the National Theatre of Scotland, the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, Kingston International Youth Arts Festival, Hearts and Minds and Scottish Book Trust.
Creative Electric is a critically-acclaimed, award-winning theatre company, which creates contemporary performance based on real experiences. Often their work is interactive, sometimes it’s personal, at times it’s one-to-one. The company creates socio-political work with an intentional emphasis on the social and an often unintentional emphasis on the political. Creative Electric aims to engage with young people who may not traditionally attend arts events and do so by producing theatre in non-traditional spaces including nightclubs, skate parks, trains, abandoned buildings and even on rooftops. They are currently working with a group of young men aged 16-24 to explore the themes of fragility and masculinity through verbatim and physical theatre supported by Dance Base and Artcore Edinburgh.
Eden Court Collective is a group of young actors from all over the Highlands, who were brought together to participate in a performance project that would challenge us as young performers and theatre makers. We are an exciting, talented, modest, friendly, cooperative and awesome group of young people. We are up for anything and we are all committed to being part of something brilliant, pushing creative boundaries and challenging the common expectations of what youth theatre can be. We were first brought together in 2014 for a project called A Century Untold, and we are delighted that Exchange 2016 is our next challenge.
Epic NEXT is Epic Theatre Ensemble's flagship youth development program, a multi-year mentorship that builds tomorrow's American arts leaders.  Epic NEXT transforms young economically-disadvantaged artists from passive participants into agents of change – first of their ways of thinking and working, then of their personal academic and economic situations, then of the inertia endemic to their communities.  Through in-depth mentorship with professional artists, skill-building courses during a six-week annual Summer Intensive, opportunities to create relevant performance pieces on social issues, and in-depth college preparation, Epic NEXT participants enter college with the drive and capacity to use theatre to change their world. Â
Firefly provides quality theatre, film and arts activity in venues across West Lothian, working with over 300 children and young people each week. Our programme embraces classic and contemporary text, new writing, devised, physical and multi-media work. Recent productions have included devised pieces These Shores and Humming for Contact and Chrysalis festivals, adaptations of Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Aristophanes’ Women in Power, Golding’s Lord of the Flies and Molière’s Tartuffe.
Ignite Theatre was founded in 2010 by writer/director Aileen Ritchie and an original group of young asylum seekers and refugees, and is an award-winning Glasgow based charity which engages with a diverse range of children and young people who face multiple challenges in life. Through free weekly workshops and innovative drama projects, Ignite Theatre offers its members a supported environment in which they can fulfill their creative potential, develop confidence, forge new friendships and build their life skills.
Located at the heart of the University of Stirling, Macrobert Arts Centre is a cultural hub for Stirling, the Forth Valley and Scotland. With a vision is to promote and develop participation in, and enjoyment of, the arts, the organisation offers a huge variety of activities with over 400 live performances - comedy, dance, drama, exhibitions, family shows, music, opera - a range of opportunities for all ages to get involved and a year round cinema programme. Macrobert Arts Centre also produces and co-produces award-winning new work and is acknowledged as a producer of quality productions for younger audiences, working in partnership with other companies and artists.
Macrobert Collective is an exciting new opportunity for talented young people from Stirling and the Forth Valley to get involved. Created especially for National Theatre of Scotland Exchange 2016 by Macrobert Arts Centre, this new company is open to 16 to 25 year olds.
Massive Company is a professional theatre company with youth at our heart and is a recognised leader in developing emerging performing artists in New Zealand. Specialising in creating new theatre for emerging and professional actors, the work performed by Massive springboards from real New Zealand stories and real people, and expresses authentic emotions. Our work is curious, playful, inventive and energised.
At the core of the company is Massive Nui Ensemble a committed group of emerging artists who are selected to develop, create and perform dynamic and personal theatre pieces. From this group Massive will bring 6 cast members to perform at Exchange 2016. 2016 will be the 25th year since Massive Company was founded by artistic director Sam Scott MNZM. The company’s work has reached critical acclaim both in New Zealand and overseas. Some highlights have been touring Sons of Charlie Paora to The Royal Court in London; touring Up Close Out Loud to Contacting The World Festival in Manchester; Touring their acclaimed work The Brave to Hawaii in 2015.
Our PaperDog company is committed to making dynamic and exploratory performance, developing contemporary practice that both combines and deconstructs theatrical form, creating work that is physically and visually arresting, and universally readable. PaperDog performers are keen to take risks and challenge boundaries.
Strange Town is a performing arts company for 5-25 year olds based at Out of the Blue in Leith, Edinburgh. Strange Town consists of a “youth theatre that really works” (8-18s); a “startlingly gifted young company” (18-25s) (Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman); Young Actors’ Agency (5-25s) and schools outreach programme (5-12s). All the plays produced by Strange Town are original, written by young, emerging writers. These productions (70 new plays to date) have reached large audiences in Scottish venues (Scottish Storytelling Centre, Rothes Halls, Royal Lyceum, Traverse, Roxy, Summerhall and Edinburgh Castle) to critical acclaim.
