Graffiti will be spending the first part of 2010 concentrating on the development of long-term projects.
We are optimistically treating the financial insecurity as an opportunity to invest that most precious of resources, time, into our commissions and development plans. We are working with award-winning Australia playwright, Angela Betzien, on an exciting new piece for teenage audiences. Artistic Director Emelie FitzGibbon and Angela have been invited to develop the script as part of the Provincetown New Theatre for Young Audiences series in New York in June this year – the only international script in the series of three. We are all very excited about both the commission and the opportunity to develop it in NY. Meanwhile, closer to home, Cork writer Jody O’Neill, recent winner of the Patrick Murray Bursary, is working with Associate Director, Síle Ní Bhroin, on our other new commission, Walking Man. This charming and unusual piece is for our younger audience. We are enthusiastically hoping to premiere both new commissions in 2011. And in case we aren’t busy enough, we are also in early developmental work on a new piece for a very young audience. As Wolfgang Schneider put it at the TYA Gathering in October, we are seeking to “establish the art of simplicity” and engage the imaginations of the very young. In common with many other production companies Graffiti is holding off on announcing its production schedule until after funding decisions have been made.
Our Outreach department is in full swing with a range of workshops in schools and both ACTIVATE Youth Theatre and Physically Phishy Youth theatre are up and running, with AYT in late development of a very intriguing new devised piece. A new Outreach development is the Fish Tank Pilot Project – the trial of an intermediate Youth Theatre, which started in January 2010, to help the older members of Physically Physhy (10-14 years) make the transition on to AYT (16 +). The Fish Tank is a ‘holding tank’ for members aged 13-15 and will allow this particular age group to develop and express themselves in a way that honours the unique qualities of that age.
Throughout the National Campaign for the Arts and now as we all adjust to difficult financial challenges, Graffiti has ensured that the issue of children’s cultural rights-or, more appropriately, lack of them – is on the agenda of our politicians and supporters. With children and young people bearing a lot of the burden of recession and with so many arts programmes for children wiped out we hope that all the members of TYAI will keep our politicians aware of the inadequacy of children’s cultural provision in this country and its ultimate short-sightedness in the development of a nation.