At Doorstep, we love nothing more than giving the young people the opportunity to work with professionals in the industry. At the beginning of the year, we were approached by Le Navet Bete, an Exeter based theatre company comprised of Nick Bunt, Al Dunn and Matt Freeman. They are one of the UK’s leading touring physical comedy theatre companies creating high quality, family friendly performances.
They approached us to see if Doorstep would be interested in being apart of the research and development for their new performance of ‘King Arthur’, where they would run several workshops with yp to share their theatre making process. We jumped at this opportunity for young people to engage with this experience. There were 3 phases for this project:
Phase 1, Le Navet Bete came to a DAS (Doorstep Arts Studio) session to lead a series of games that would create ideas & content for their new show. This workshop enabled the group to see how a professional company create theatre from scratch, through games & conversations in the rehearsal process. This was a really valuable tools for the group to experience as theatre makers.
Phase 2, Le Navet Bete came and shared scenes from the production that was soon to be performed for their upcoming tour. DAS had opportunities to become directors for the scenes, sharing ideas of ways to improve and explore different character development. This gave them the to chance to see the development phases from starting with a simple idea to creating scenes to be performed for a tour show.
Phase 3, DAS were invited to attend the performance at the Exeter Northcott Theatre, with the added bonus of subsided tickets at only £5 each. Due to ACE funding, Le Navet Bete & Exeter Northcott made this doable for our yp which we are hugely appreciative of. Affordable ticket programmes are so important in making theatre ticket costs accessible in this day & age. We know that the cost of attending theatre performances are a huge barrier for so many families at this time. We cannot let this happen & if ticket prices continue to stay at such a high rate, theatre industries are then creating a divide between financial status & who can/can’t attend live theatre! We must continue to make live theatre affordable for ALL!!!
We took 17 students to attend their show and what an performance it was. The young people loved the performance and all howled from the rooftops when watching this comedy masterpiece for families.
Some of the young peoples reviews:
‘So funny’,
‘They are really good at playing so many characters’
‘It was great to see how they came up with the original ideas and now to see the finished thing was great’
‘I want to see more theatre like this’
‘Funny, can we work with them again’
This experience has been fantastic for the young people at Doorstep Arts. We would like to say a huge thank you to Le Navet Bete for thinking of us and opening up your theatre making process with the next generation of creatives in Torbay. Also a big thank you to the staff at Exeter Northcott for being so warm and welcoming. We can’t wait to bring the group to more shows in the future.