Women to the front, people of colour to the front, LGBTQIA+ to the front!

Performing Arts students showcase an original “sheroes”drama piece to artist, writer and producer Rachael Young in response to her explosive new performance in ‘Nightclubbing’.

NewVIc Performing Arts students have been working on a project with Stratford Circus Arts Centre around a show called Nightclubbing, exploring themes of “sheroes”, cultural icons, intersectionality, female and broader femme representation and celebration of diversity. Students have had a workshop with the creator of the show Rachael Young and have been devising their own piece around the themes. They showcased their piece to Rachael and other production staff at Stratford Circus and got feedback on their work last week. Students also had the chance to see Rachael perform in her piece at Stratford Circus.

Rachael Young makes theatre, live art, interactive installations and socially engaged projects. She likes to work in the spaces between disciplines and discover new languages for performance through collaboration.

The sheroes project, paid through and organised by NewVIc’s student development team has given students an opportunity to create connections in the workshops, to plan and devise their own piece on the themes of the main show. The students will now take the feedback from the professionals given after their performance to develop and create their final piece. This will be performed in the winter showcase.

Student performers Eboni, Loren and Nuria added:

We felt we could relate to the story of being misunderstood. It voiced many of our own opinions on society today and the forgotten generations. Rachael covered areas of feminism and race and spoke about topics no one wants to talk about. We strongly felt she spoke our mind which contributed to our own response piece. The entire student performers watched Rachael’s show and loved the different aspects of how she performed bringing in different textures of black, it was lovely. From watching her show we now see things differently, it really has opened our eyes on gender, feminism, race and inequality.

Eboni, Loren and Nuria
Level 3 Performing and Production Arts and Music Technology Year 2 students

For me, making art is about creating a platform from where I can shout about the things that matter to me, it’s about uncovering hidden narratives, reading between the lines and attempting to explore that which is often brushed under the carpet. I love the response to my show that NewVIc has shown. The musical choices that students have used and the constant theme of endure, endure, endure are brilliant. I feel the whole piece has been brought together so well, some of the themes covered are super strong especially the parts on ‘I am sorry’ and the motifs of the facial expressions. I would like to see how students now take my feedback and explore bringing in more textures, building a mad crescendo and using more vocals for their final piece later in the year.