The final week of Term 1 was a perfect example of why Stagedoor’s course is ideal for young performers with serious ambitions. We spent the entire week working with Ailin Conant, Artistic Director of Theatre Temoin. Theatre Temoin’s mission is to collaborate with a diverse range of people, companies, and communities in the creation of quality theatre which creates change because it is personal, not because it is didactic. Our week had a number of aims – Theatre Temoin is a company which specialises in non-naturalistic, physical theatre, and therefore offered us the opportunity to learn new skills and to further develop existing skills, to develop devising skills, and also for the Stagedoor group to have some kind of input into the development of Theatre Temoin’s latest performance – Feed – which addresses issues surrounding social media. It was really exciting to be part of the development of a real piece of professional theatre, and, from day 1, it was clear that Ailin was as keen to learn from the Stagedoor students as they were to learn from her.

On Monday, Ailin explained the basic story of Feed – which uses, as its structure, an old Russian story about a three-headed dragon terrorising a village. It soon became clear that this was an excellent metaphor for social media, and we spent some time exploring the idea of the dragon and how it could be presented on stage, before meeting two of the actors involved in the project and being involved in an open rehearsal which focused on characterisation. It was fascinating observing and being involved in the process of creation and development.

The rest of the week involved a variety of activities, focusing on the ideas, themes and style of Feed, and culminating in the development and performance of original pieces stimulated by this. Stagedoor students took the elements of Feed which interested them most and created short performances using these. Each of the performances made clear and interesting points about social media. The final performances were both non-naturalistic in style, and we were able to make use of props, sound and lighting to enhance the effect. The first performance used image of a young person being drowned by the constant and unavoidable stream of bad news stories on social media, whilst the second group made full use of the idea of social media being a dragon which has to be slain before its victim can escape its clutches. Both pieces were visually strong and made fantastic use of physical skills. Paul Milton, Creative Director at the Everyman, came to watch the final performances and praised the students for their strong ensemble work and the clear messages within the pieces.

This week was fantastic, and the Stagedoor students approached it with their customary open-minded attitudes. They got a huge amount out of the week, and we are very grateful to Theatre Temoin and to the Everyman for giving us the opportunity. We cannot wait to see how Feed ends up!