From Thursday 12 – Saturday 14 February, Sounds like Chaos and the Albany present Uncover Theatre’s, Phenomena: A Beginner’s Guide to Love & Physics. To get us in the mood for a journey of discovery, Lulu, one of the young artists, has written about her experience:
I have been with Uncover Theatre Company for nearly six years, joining the group at twelve when it was called Dig Deptford. Throughout this time we have worked together with Sounds like Chaos (Gemma Rowan and Roisin Feeny) to make our performances. At first I can remember being the youngest in the group and what it felt like to be around older teenagers who were all so different, but all of us, regardless of age, ability or who we would hang out with outside the group, shared a love of drama and performance and I felt at home. For the past six years that feeling of home when I’m at Uncover has grown and I have met most of my closest friends there. So for me Uncover has really shaped me as a person and when I’m there I don’t have to be anyone else but me. And I think that this closeness within the group is what makes us and our shows unique.
When I first joined, we produced small scale performances that parents and friends would come and see. The first show we made was performed in the small room we rehearsed in. From there we took part in National Theatre Connections and also performed some of our own devised small scale plays. Through all of this the group found its own identity; we became Uncover Theatre, writing our own plays about young people and performing them as ourselves. We produced Euphoria, performed in the Albany theatre, When it’s Night Time, performed on the roof of Deptford Lounge and at the Southbank Centre. Our current play, Phenomena: A Beginner’s Guide to Love & Physics, will run for three nights in the Albany theatre in February. All three of these plays have our own stamp on them and show the ways young people have fun, fall in love, party, cry and live.
We recently received Arts Council funding for Phenomena, which wasn’t because we’re kids from a bad borough, but because our work is at a professional level. In the past our plays have had an audience mainly made up of family and friends, With this show we wanted to do something new. We feature in the Albany’s main programme alongside other professional artists, because this piece isn’t just for family and friends, but for people who love going to the theatre and watching professional shows, because we’re not ‘just youth theatre’, we’re theatre.
I am also a spoken word artist and I used to dance and play music. As a young performer it can be hard to be taken seriously. But just because we’re young doesn’t mean we don’t know what we’re doing. We have our own unique ways of viewing the world, with all of its problems and beauties. We don’t just want to be viewed as participants. We are artists in our own respects and we should not be seen as anything less. We have our own energy and language and through our art we can share this. But how do we change people’s perception of youth arts, in my case, youth theatre? It seems that people think of it as plays written for young people and never by them. They think that the level of acting is going to be for parents to be proud of, not for an audience member to be blown away by. They think that youth theatre isn’t something that can be seen as professional, but in my opinion Uncover and so many other groups have proved this wrong.
Check out the trailer for Phenomena here:
Come and watch Uncover’s Phenomena: A Beginner’s Guide to Love & Physics on Thursday 12 – Saturday 14 February 7.30pm at the Albany, and see what youth theatre is really about.
The Albany, Deptford 