Performance company for young people comes to Easton

Ahead of their regular sessions beginning at the Easton Community Centre this November, I caught up with Alice Wrench from Threefold Theatre, to find out how more about the catalyst for the three-stranded company, and what it will offer the young people of BS5.

“I’m on a mission,” she explains. “It’s to do with play.

“All children play. They are in flow, in their bodies and imaginations. But at what point do we stop? I think a lot about that moment when kids decide that imaginative play is not cool anymore. I remember the distinct moment it happened for me on my first day of secondary school. I think drama saved me a bit as it gave me a place to play which I still desperately needed at that time.”

For Wrench, that realisation was the foundation for a maxim that not only gave rise to Threefold, but permeates the entire organisation ethos:

Never. Stop. Playing.

“In Company 1 (ages 7-10), exploration is key and we really want young people to engage with their incredible imaginations. Company 2 (ages 11-13 ) is all about creation, devising, and honing skills in the craft, and Company 3 (ages 14-17) is all about enrichment, calling on practitioners from Bristol’s vibrant cultural scene to deliver meaningful mentoring and tuition that will enable young people to create their own work.”

The decision to structure Threefold across three separate companies and age groups was born of the desire to be there for young people through that momentous shift from child into young adult, where so often the perceived freedom and impetus to play can be lost. “I think it happens to people to different degrees at different ages but hitting puberty is definitely a big shift,” Wrench reflects. “The brain and the body is going crazy and we’re trying to work out what kind of adult person we want to be and how we fit in to it all.”

Citing the “structured play” of sports, art and music, Wrench emphasises the impact on lifelong wellbeing that play can have. But she readily accepts that creative space can be hard-won, as her eight years’ experience as a secondary school drama teacher proved. “It’s incredibly rewarding and you have the privilege of really impacting on your students’ lives and trajectories. But it’s not easy. It’s hard graft. A lot of my best projects were done in my after school (and unpaid) clubs, which was fine, until I had my own children. It takes a lot to have the time and head space to be creative and innovate when your workload is so relentless.”

Yet the demonstrable benefits to carving out these opportunities for imaginative expression are both inspiring and transformative. “Over time, this type of work has the ability to transform young people’s confidence in so many areas. I reassure the kids I work with that no one is born confident. You earn it bit by bit every time you put your truth out there and have the courage to make yourself vulnerable. My job is to cultivate a culture where everyone knows that people have their back and they feel 100 per cent safe to express themselves.”

Threefold Theatre founders Manu and Alice Wrench – photo: Threefold

Perhaps the biggest and most complex barriers that Wrench faces as she seeks to engage more young people in drama are around representation. “If you look at the demographic of young people already involved in youth drama in Bristol, it’s generally white middle class families that are engaged and people of colour and working class families are still massively underrepresented,” she notes. So how to change that? “Youth is a good place to start.

“We want to go and talk with young people and families where they hang out and let them know about what we do and how they can get involved. Easton and Lawrence Hill are two of the most diverse neighbourhoods in the city. We’re committed to creating a real community theatre company that reflects the diversity of the community we live in. We want our youth to explore issues that mean something to them. We also need to remove economic barriers, which is why one third of the places at Threefold are fully funded to families who are less economically advantaged.

As part of their launch, Threefold are offering free immersive theatre workshops, set around some disconcerting goings on at an eerie, abandoned house, all too close to Halloween. Fully booked on October 21, extra sessions for Company 1 and Company 2 have now been added on October 28, allowing young people to get involved in the creative, narrative-driven drama experience of Black Thorn Manor.

“It will be a taste of the Threefold experience, some immersive role play and a story that drives their curiosity,” explains Wrench. “They will have a chance to develop characters, meet some new people and make a short performance. The workshop will centre around some suspicious sightings at a strange old house, and to ignite their imaginations we’re sending each participant a letter in the post from the East Bristol Investigations office to personally invite them to come and help us uncover the story.”

‘The fairy light tales’ – photo: Srivatsan

Ending our conversation, Wrench is as unequivocally positive in her conception of what Threefold can achieve in the future, as she is energised by achieving that goal.

“My vision is that Threefold becomes a home to the beautiful energy of our young people in BS5. That it becomes a bouncing board for everyone involved. That with some courage, joy and connection we will all learn something, both about ourselves and about others. And that we can take something away from that experience that will propel us into the next stage of wherever life takes us.”

Spaces on the free workshops for Black Thorn Manor can be booked now at https://www.threefoldtheatre.co.uk/freeoctober.

Regular Threefold sessions will begin at the Easton Community Centre in November, with fully funded places offered to young people from lower income families. For further information and to register interest, go to https://www.threefoldtheatre.co.uk/registerinterest.

Main photo: – Josh Calabrese

Read more: 12 Communities 1 Bristol podcast – Easton