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Posted: Wednesday 04 August, 2010
Still celebrating after their country’s win at the World Cup, Spanish teenagers from Madrid had more to cheer about when they linked up with cast members from the prestigious Next Stage Youth Theatre Company.
Over in Bath for a month at a Summer School based at Monkton Combe, 20 Spanish teenagers and mentors came to see the NSY production of Sparkleshark by Philip Ridley at The Mission Theatre on July 21st.
The result of a meeting between Alfonso Martinez Fischer – the Summer School Director - and Ann Garner - Next Stage’s Artistic Director - this collaborative project was designed to foster cultural relations between the teenagers from the 2 countries.
Before they saw the play Ann Garner met the Spanish youngsters at The Mission and delivered an hour’s Page to Stage Workshop, helping to break down the story line of the play so that some of the language and interpretation barriers were eased before the evening performance.
The play is about Jake, a bullied teenager, and his friendship with Polly, a girl from his school. Together they take on the bullies and turn around Jake’s fortunes, diffuse gang tensions and bring a sense of self-worth and fun into otherwise troubled lives. The themes are universal and recognisable and the Spanish audience enjoyed the depictions of the teenage protagonists especially Jake “the geek”, Russell the “love muscle”, Natasha the “tart with heart” and Shane “the brooding, Shane the cool”.
The Spanish teenagers loved the play and returned to The Mission on Wednesday 28th July to take part in a 4 hour Drama workshop with Next Stage actors and the cast of Sparkleshark. After playing some warm-up games to allow the teenagers to get to know each other, Ann and her team rehearsed with the youngsters recreating key moments of conflict from Sparkleshark and exploring characterisation through mime and improvisation. After a break where more friendships were forged the Spanish group and the Next Stage Youth actors went on to work with company fight choreographer Nicky Wilkins in recreating some of the exciting scenes that happened in the play. At the end of the workshop the youngsters presented their work in a showcase and were awarded certificates.
In a final cultural link up, Next Stage youth actors were invited to say farewell to their Spanish friends on their last night in Bath and enjoyed an exciting evening of entertainment, tapas and disco at Monkton Combe.
There is already talk of more extensive link ups next year and the Summer School team and Ann are convinced that in this Spanish/English match there are no losers!
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