Jackass Youth Theatre and the Ramayana Project

Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham

“With Jackass, I have achieved many things, from musical performance to script development for film. I have appeared in two films and written and recorded a CD with other members of the youth theatre. This led to me being asked to be on a youth forum and also to write a column for the council’s newsletter. One of the major things that I learnt as a leader was to enlighten younger children about racial minorities and encourage them in this.” Tom Burton, 14.

Jackass Youth Theatre is now involved with running three regular after-school drama groups, catering for young people aged from 4 – 25. We have about 75 paid-up members but our outreach work during the school holidays, working alongside our parent company Jack Drum Arts, means that we come into contact with hundreds of young people. Our work is inclusive – we do not audition but welcome everyone through the door to join us having fun playing co-operative drama games, learning new creative skills, devising plays and making films.

The youth theatre began in 1999 as a result of a half-term theatre project working with actors from Jack Drum Arts. We didn’t just want to do drama in the holidays – we wanted to do it all the time! Seven years on and the founding members are now in their late teens and early twenties. Some have gone away to study at colleges and universities in other parts of the country but they are still members and take a lead running new projects in the holidays.

Jackass offers an important social space for young people who are often isolated through the geographical and poorly resourced area in which they live. The Durham Dales are a long way from cinemas, sports facilities, arts centres and so on so Jackass offers friendship, fun and the chance to be creative. It’s like a big family and the friendships forged will last a life-time. People join because in Jackass you can be yourself and nobody minds if that means being different.

In 2006 we undertook our biggest project to date. We were lucky enough to be chosen to participate in an international youth theatre project called Contacting the World. As well as having contact with 11 other youth theatres all around the world we were allocated a specific twin – Massive Youth Theatre from New Zealand. One of our members went to New Zealand on an exchange visit for 3 weeks and we hosted a New Zealand South Pacific Islander in Co Durham for a week. All the youth theatres created new shows which were performed in Manchester in July. We also shared skills and ideas by running workshops for each other. It was so much fun teaching the Brazilians about traditional British mummers plays and we had a great time learning stage fighting with the Rwandans.

We spent time getting to know Phakama, the group from Pune in India, and learnt even more about The Ramayana and the importance this story holds for them. We hope to work in collaboration with Phakama over the next two years as part of a ‘New World Parliament’ project. Meanwhile, one of our members has gained a Churchill Fellowship to study Gamelan music in Indonesia and another has become a Youth Ambassador as part of a European training project. Another two have represented us at international young people’s film festivals in Montreal and Finland.

Even though we live in an isolated forgotten bit of the country we feel very connected to the rest of the world. The Ramayana led to us winning The Philip Lawrence Award and that in turn gave us the credibility to participate in Contacting the World. Next stop Pune, India! The sky’s the limit!

Contact Julie Ward, c/o Jack Drum Arts

43/44 Gladstone Terrace, Sunniside, Bishop Auckland, Co Durham, DL13 4LS

Tel: 01388 730574

Email: julie.ward@jackdrum.co.uk