Our second activity of 2019 for teens aged 14 to 17 saw us heading into the big city for a real treat with a group of artistic young people! We had a dramatic day with Extant, a performing arts company based in London at Greenwich and Lewisham Young People’s Theatre.

Lights, camera, action… we were thrown straight into the spirit of the day, working on our own performing skills by introducing ourselves. However, these were not your average introductions. Each person had to say how they had arrived at the theatre. However we soon discovered these journeys were far too… normal. So we did not stop there and instead adapted each into a story, adding all manner of twists and turns into each journey.

All introduced and warmed up meant a game was next. There was no break for our imaginations as we had to catch either a red or a yellow ball in the most imaginative way possible, each catch becoming more and more imaginative, the ball changing size and shape between throws!  

After some already inventive acting and storytelling, we then began to come up with some set-ups for improv acting. Each act was linked by an actor change, heading off in a different direction each time.

We took a quick interval for lunch and then were straight back into the action! We continued to do various improvisational skits and workshops. We created human sculptures, with one including some impressive acting in which a person became a talking table! Sadly the day had to come to an end, however, it was with a truly fabulous finale! We finished with a spectacular improv performance, allowing us to showcase everything learned throughout the day.

We’d like to thank to our amazing workshop leaders from Extant who made the day a lot of fun as well as helping our group learn lots about how they perform and even helping increase their confidence in the performing arts world!

Written by John Smith
VICTA Activities and Volunteers Co-ordinator

Performing Arts Photo Gallery

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