about
Bounce makes original, imaginative, and brave work. Formed around a kitchen table in 2006, we’ve spent the time since then learning and refining the way we think about theatre. We now create stories, podcasts, visual art, and drama with people in and around London. Everything we make is underpinned by our values – creativity, care, and connection. We believe that, in these moments, great ideas are made. Great ideas can make the world a better place. In the context of the last two years, this statement has never rung more true. How can we support people to recover from the impact of the pandemic? How do we recognise political division and the complex narratives about the way we perceive the world around us? For us, it’s about our values. We care about people and use theatre (and the associated arts) to connect people. Creativity is a platform to share and listen to each other’s stories, celebrations, joy, sadness, and fears. In these moments of care – we see possibility. In possibility – there is always scope to make the world feel like it can be a better place to live.
Our core team include writers, performers, visual artists, sculptors, and educators. We also collaborate with heritage practitioners, mental health charities, community cafes, youth services, voluntary sector charities and children’s services. Our work takes place in cafes, community spaces, schools, markets, heritage sites, and on digital platforms. We work with people who share our values. Practitioners who want to make work with other people. Together, we are unafraid to make our projects - ideas will bound around - back and forth between everyone - until we are ready to channel it towards an end goal - creative writing, podcast, film, exhibition, or live performance. We are committed to developing and refining the way we work to best suit the needs of the people who want to be part of making it. 15 years on since our inception, we see theatre in the broadest possible terms – as an opportunity to do good things for people. The process of making theatre, and the output, gives people space to think about the world around them.
Creativity, Care, and Connection in Action During 2021
“Just before Covid, we were establishing a youth theatre for the Grace Dear trust. As we went into lockdown, everything was in its infancy, and it was uncertain as to whether we’d worked long enough for things to continue.
time it didn’t matter, they just needed to be together. One young person wrote to us and said we lit up the gloominess - which was in part because he and his sister spent a good week making an oversized paper mâché turkey for Bob Cratchit to hold on screen. It was large.
“Slowly, we grew an online community of young people involved in youth theatre, podcasting, and zine making. It was a genuine joy to log on and in the midst of lockdown give a bunch of young people time just to be silly and giggle. We played ridiculous games, we tried to stage A Christmas Carol on Zoom. No one bothered to learn their lines, we gave up the idea of being YouTube sensations because at that moment in
“Looking back, there was definitely a moment where it all changed. On World Book Day a small group of them logged on dressed up in costume - they were going to podcast about their favourite characters, the importance of stories, and their benefit to your mental health. One girl didn’t dress up. So when it was her turn to explain, she said she was going to tell her own story instead. She talked about being dyslexic,
living with ADHD and anxiety, being bullied, and the importance of her friend who had brought her to our group. As soon as she stopped, one of the other girls started talking about recognising what she said about anxiety, because she experienced it too. She had been bulimic in primary school and was now home schooled. She was possibly on the spectrum, like her brother. Her brother then talked about being autistic and how deep down he felt he had power because no one knew facts like he did. Another who lives with anxiety and spent half the year with her screen off spoke about the brick wall she climbs on a regular basis to get through each day. “It was honest, authentic, and humbling to listen to. At that moment talking about their mental health became part of what they did as a group. They grew to be a tribe. In fact, the first time they actually met in person, they sat in a circle, went round one by one saying their name and how their mental health was at that point. So, to honour the spirit of what we’ve been allowed to create, they wrote the end of this for me. I asked them to tell me what they’d want you to know.”* Louise, Founder and Artistic Director of
Bounce Theatre
(*Extract of a speech to the Grace Dear Trust, November 2021)
“Hi, my name is Poppy. Your charity helped me to get through lockdown. Before lockdown I was very self-conscious about my body and I get nervous performing. But since I joined the youth theatre, I’ve felt more confident about myself. It’s given me a place to be myself and not worry that people are looking at me. I have become part of a tribe of people who also like the things I like and for me to feel free to be myself. If I didn’t have these sessions to come to, I feel like I wouldn’t be as confident as I am today. You guys have helped me a lot during the pandemic, Thank you.” Poppy, Bounce Theatre Member
“Hello everyone, If you didn’t know, this is Eva, one of the people you’ve helped a lot. I’m dyslexic and I have found it always hard to do drama just because I was bullied multiple times from primary all the way ‘til probs last year. Once I heard that you had your own drama classes, I was like “oh maybe I should try that, so I did”. Harriet and Louise are the nicest to me. They are understanding and I never felt embarrassed on what I was doing during my drama lessons! To be honest I can never be more thankful for what you have done for me. I love every session that I come on! Your drama sessions are and have changed my life. And I can’t tell you how thankful I am. Goodbye for now.” Eva, Bounce Theatre Member
“I was really lost before and it has made me feel purposeful and that I was included. In other drama groups I’ve felt like the odd one out in the background. It helped to make friends and speak out where before I sat silently.” Em, Bounce Theatre Member
Finally, “There isn’t enough happiness in the world at the moment. Coming to these sessions feels like heaven. I feel free to express my emotions, share my ideas and am open to everyone else’s thoughts. It is a safe and friendly environment. You couldn’t have made my life any better, because without it, I would be lost. Sometimes, throughout lockdown I felt like a boat sinking in the middle of a large, dangerous and endless ocean but the smiles from people on zoom are contagious. This has changed my life, thank you.” Bethany, Bounce Theatre Member (*Extract of a speech to the Grace Dear Trust, November 2021)
Creativity We cherish both the creative process along with the large productions. As the pandemic has pushed us to think creatively about where we can make work - we’ve seen a leap into digital spaces. Wonderland Book When the country went into lockdown, we chose to use virtual platforms to stay connected. Using our homes as playgrounds for our imaginations, we made stories, wrote poetry, invented recipes, and produced art. Highlights of the time made their way into a book created by children from 6-16 years old.
“They have thoroughly enjoyed using their ideas and vision, which plays a part in shaping the process and direction of the work as it evolves. They are very appreciative of the opportunity to be part of Bounce Theatre!” Parent
Falling As Zoom lags and freezes, step between the screens and see what is really going on in someone’s mind. A collection of small stories about falling down, growing up, and holding onto hope. Inspired in part by Alice in Wonderland, the Grace Dear Youth Theatre tackled stories about mental health and the importance of kindness. Made during lockdown and through the releasing of restrictions – it is a poetic testament to how they felt this year.
Sugar & Spice Sugar & Spice celebrates the people, the places, and the spaces which helped shape the High Street as we know it today. With participants aged between three and 93 years old, we joined in to celebrate the spirit of renewal and community that lifted Tooting out of WW2 to become a place for small businesses to flourish. Sugar & Spice is a hybrid offer of digital and in-person workshops.
“My son says I have changed. I am less depressed. I tell him that it is because of my Tuesday club. I am having counselling for depression. I told my counsellor about this, and they said to keep coming. I have benefited very much. My health is improving. My anxiety is slowly improving. Very amazing. I can now speak and be positive. It has helped me to focus. Coming on a Tuesday has helped with depression and loneliness, socialising, chatting with people and improving my concentration by being creative. This meeting group is more than medication. It is healing.” Turn Up Join In Participant
Care
“This is amazing. Thanks for sending this through. I had tears in my eyes when listening to it. Such a profound and emotional podcast. I am so pleased with the way it is as the personal accounts really hit home. Will keep listening to it as its very powerful indeed. Thank you for producing this amazing piece of work, it’s outstanding.” Parent
We make our work with care, thinking sensitively and carefully about how we can offer to best support the health of the people involved in our projects.
Wind Down Wednesdays Wind Down Wednesdays grew out of a podcast project during the January lockdown. When young people were tired and anxious, we stopped asking them to structure a conversation for recording. Instead, we sent them to their cupboards and asked them to pick out random ingredients. We then made sandwiches and snacks, invented recipes and talked about life outside of lockdown. The success of the project is perhaps best summed up when one person, unprompted, at the end said she had missed human conversations. Hello from Home Hello from Home was a podcast to keep young people connected during lockdown. We started with the intention of hearing their perception of lockdown. As the recordings continued, a cohort of young people came together to talk about mental health, normalise the conversation, and acknowledge in a global pandemic that it is ok not to be ok. Turn Up Join In Turn Up Join In is a lunch club for adults. We have an open-door policy for people to turn up, join in, make art, and have conversation. Working with social prescribers and the voluntary sector, the project is an opport-unity for people to sit together share a meal and feel less isolated.
connection In all of our work, we think about our connections. How do people connect to each other, our material, our ideas, our ambitions? With connection, comes possibilities. Digital workshops We’ve hosted x number of digital workshops throughout 2021 keeping children and young people connected in lockdown, when restrictions limited opportunities, and when they’ve been forced to self-isolate during Covid. In doing so, we’ve built digital tribes of young people who feel better connected to the world around them. Tooting Youth Theatre We’ve also taken the latter part of 2021 to connect ourselves to our new neighbourhood. In November 2021 we launched a youth theatre in Tooting. A group of young people are working with us to devise a performance for Sugar & Spice. In doing so, they’ve reminded us of the value of putting down roots.
“We really thank you all at Bounce for making these sessions possible. You have really helped us at this challenging time and inspired the children to have a go at things that they might not usually have the confidence for. Your teachers have been inclusive and patient and even tolerated my older children joining in, and we are really grateful and lucky they shared their artistic and teaching talents with us. Thank you all so much for your efforts and generosity in sharing your practice with us.” Parent