CREATIVE LEARNING WINTER 2023
MEET THE TEAM
FREELANCERS
Mathias Andres Lightpost Director
Hilan Gully Creative Learning Administrator
Bhavik Parmer Head of Education
Jasmin Hylton Drama Practitioner
Becky Reidy Drama Practitioner
Becky Deeks Head of Young Rep
Robert Beck Drama Practitioner
Alex Summers Director of Creative Learning
CJ Lloyd Webley Lightpost Lead Artist
Natalie Hart Drama Practitioner • Billie Lewery
The Creative Learning team strive to make theatre accessible to as many communities as possible. We currently work with primary and secondary schools, universities, Young Rep Youth Theatre, Lightpost Theatre Company, care homes, libraries, homeless shelters, local charities and other drama organisations to make The Rep a space for anyone and everyone.
WHAT WE’VE ACHIEVED
Welcome to the Creative Learning Newsletter Winter 2023! We have had a really successful summer across the Creative Learning team and are excited to share what we got up to and what we’re looking forward to in the next few months.
Our Uncommon Riches Festival was a huge success with performances from over 20 educational settings, the Satellite Youth Theatre group at Sandwell College, Young Rep companies and our Adult drama group. It was a welcome sight to have friends and family join us in the main house stage. All of our actors did a fantastic job and made the Creative Learning team very proud.
Over the summer we delivered ten summer school projects engaging over 900 young people. Some of these workshops included the return of firm favourites such as Spy School held at The Rep, and
‘Play in a Day’ programmes across various areas of the West Midlands. We also celebrated some brand new partnerships. This included our Drama Practitioner, Rob, leading drama workshops as a part of an amazing summer programme with the children and families from Vysions Youth Service & Active-ate in Rugeley. Furthermore, we also worked in partnership with OPUS Arts to deliver some Early Years sessions as part of the Commonwealth festival live sites in Castle Vale, Selly Oak, Edgbaston and Handsworth. The good weather meant a high turnout and lots of fun! More Commonwealth linked activities included practitioner, Jasmin, working with young people at the Core Theatre in Solihull, exploring the theme of sports through drama. They were able to perform their scenes to the mayor of Solihull and Perry the bull himself!
Lightpost members led community workshops for the Everything to Everybody Shakespeare project at the Birmingham Library and performed in a Verbatim project with the Jabali network, celebrating the impact of NHS workers from black and diverse communities.
Some solo Lightpost successes we would like to celebrate are:
• Cory landed a role on Hollyoaks and has also received a casting in Doctors and is filming a costar in a BBC 1 show
• Osama has landed a role in a short film
• Orion has finished a BFI short film
• Ashley has been supporting the Marketing team at The Rep
We would like to recognise some changes within the Creative Learning team itself. Firstly, a big thank you to Janeel Brown, who is facilitating sessions alongside Mathias in Tuesday workshops. His hard work and dedication is much appreciated by the Lightpost team.
Next, Jasmin Hylton, previously one of our freelance practitioners, has now joined our team on a permanent basis as a Drama Practitioner. She will continue to direct Young Rep Companies as well as working closely with other school settings in addition to leading a new partnership with Core Theatre, Solihull. Congratulations and welcome to the team!
Finally, we also want to extend our congratulations to Becky Deeks, who has been promoted to Head of Young Rep. Becky will take on the overall direction of our Youth Theatre groups and other informal youth engagement.
WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO
We have an exciting term ahead as we start to plan for our annual Winter Festival, this year inspired by the main House production of NATIVITY! The Musical. There are large group/schools discounts, and tickets are still available if you want to book, click here. We look forward to hosting 12 primary schools who will be performing in The Door between 21st November and 1st December. Within this week, there will also be two Scratch nights for the older members of our Young Rep companies. Wishing the best of luck to our young actors!
For our Early Years children, the production of Jack and the Magic Beanstalk will be on in The Door from 7th- 31st December. Perfect entertainment for families with younger children, we will also be hosting some additional activities before and after the main performances, please see the website for more details.
Our drama practitioners will be covering a number of topics in partner schools to support the national curriculum through drama. Hillstone Primary school have already received a visit from Howard Carter, and Billesley Primary will be working on immersive drama techniques for their unit of Crime and Punishment, giving our young people an opportunity to influence the direction of their lessons. Many of our schools are working on projects based on WW2 or the city of Birmingham itself, as well as working with texts and stories in English throughout their partner schools. Braidwood School for the Deaf have also started with their new cohort of BTEC performing arts students and our ex-foundry member Rinkoo Barpaga will be running an
immersive theatre-making week with students in November.
Cadbury College and Sandwell College will be taking part in an Industry Day at The Rep which will include a backstage tour and a Careers QnA session with Rep staff. Sandwell College Young Rep will restart on Thursday 3rd November.
Lightpost are facilitating a Bedlam film project with service users at Northcroft Mental Health settings.
Our Young Rep Youth Theatre groups are getting settled in and beginning their rehearsal process for their productions in the summer of 2023. This includes a completely new Young Rep Satellite group at the Core Theatre in Solihull. Following their main house debut of ‘Uncommon Riches Festival’ last summer, Young Rep are back with a gripping season of politically-charged, contemporary plays. All of the plays explore the social structures and systems that contain and restrain us. When order fails and chaos erupts, what future can be reimagined? Please continue to check our website as tickets will go live soon.
Young Rep Backstage will be starting in early 2023 for young people aged 16 and over. Young Rep Backstage will offer skills in stage management, lighting, sound, and costume. Members will be supported by our professionals here at the Birmingham Rep and be given the opportunity to work on Young Rep productions, some of which will be full scale performances. Register your interest at learning@birmingham-rep.co.uk.
We are also starting to recruit for our Youth Board. Youth Board members work to have an impact on the overall running of The Rep, give their opinions on future projects and act as a voice for young people. Please see details for this on the jobs page of The Rep website from Mon 5 Dec.
Lastly, there will be a Teachers Continued Professional Development (CPD) session for Of Mice and Men for our secondary partner schools on 15th February 2023. If you’re not currently a partner school but would like to get involved, please get in touch at learning@birmingham-rep.co.uk.
03 Would you be interested in enrolling your school to one of our tailored programmes? Email us at learning@birmingham-rep.co.uk
AN INSIGHT INTO THE ROLE OF....
Head of Young Rep
What is your name, role and how long is your service at The Rep?
Hi, my name is Becky Deeks, I’m the Head of Young Rep and I’ve worked at The Rep for just over six years.
How did you begin your career at The Rep?
I began working for The Rep full-time in 2016 as an Education Officer, delivering drama-based sessions in primary schools and secondary schools and teaching GCSE drama modules.
How has your role changed through the years?
I have been through a few roles in my time at The Rep! I’ve gone from working mostly in schools to directing the Rep youth theatre companies and now I’m managing our informal youth engagement programmes.
What does a typical day look like for you currently?
My role is responsible for any work The Rep is doing with young people outside of education/ formal settings. It’s a new role for The Rep so at the moment I’m still finding my feet, but I have spent the past month ensuring our youth theatre companies have the best start to the year; developing a recruitment plan for our Youth Board (we aim to recruit some new members very soon); developing plans for a Young Rep Backstage so we can train new theatre technicians; planning for our winter and summer festivals and exploring opportunities with new community partners. I am still directing The Young Rep Company too, our young adult group who are just brilliant to work with and are my favourite part of the week!
What is something you say a lot in a lot in your daily role?
‘Does anyone want a coffee?’ I am a bit of a coffee connoisseur but if you want to have a meeting with me, I will share my coffee with you!
Are there any key people at The Rep who helped you on your journey?
It’s quite hard to choose specific people. There are so many people at The Rep who have offered me advice, support or a beer in the bar after a long day at work!
I would say I’ve always found our team of practitioners at The Rep a fantastic support group. We have always looked out for each other, particularly throughout the pandemic, and offered brilliant creative ideas for sessions and workshops.
04 Would you be interested in enrolling your school to one of our tailored programmes? Email us at learning@birmingham-rep.co.uk
What are your personal goals for 2023?
A couple of my goals are:
To produce an incredible summer festival with all of our youth theatres having a fantastic performance experience on the main stage.
To recruit some new, brilliant young people for the Youth Board and see the Youth Board have a real impact on the running of The Rep building.
On a completely personal front, I have written a play about women’s football called Good for a Girl that I am hoping to see tour the UK in late 2023 or early 2024.
What are your personal highs and lows of your time at The Rep?
Personal highs are generally the shows – watching young people I have directed perform onstage and enjoy themselves are always my favourite moments. This year I particularly enjoyed directing a version of Twelfth Night with The Company as it began with a shipwreck to ‘Pure Shores’ by All Saints and basically included all the music of my childhood! I also really enjoy devising new work with young people.
The lows were definitely around COVID and all the staff transitions and changes, whilst adapting to delivering drama sessions virtually. It’s so good to be back in person with young people, I will never take that for granted again!
What advice would you give to someone hoping to get into your area of work?
Work hard; be persistent; don’t be afraid to email and ask for advice; be friendly and make an effort to get to know people. Work is way more fun when you have friends there!
Describe your role in three words Creative, strategic, empowerment.
Favourite production at The Rep and why?
Ghost Boy back in 2010. I had just moved to Birmingham and it was the first show I saw at The Rep. I fell in love with the theatre, the building and 20 Stories High, the company who produced the show. I remember the puppetry was brilliant and they had a beatbox artist, Hobbit, and a cellist creating the soundscape. It was just a really different type of theatre to anything I had seen before and I loved it.
