Crossing Boundaries

Young people from Oldham, Rochdale and Bolton have been exploring the meaning of diversity by staging a modern day freak-show.

Characters including the girl with many eyes, the boy with a melon for a head and the girl who turns into a bed – based on the poems of film director Tim Burton – will be brought to life through music, dance and drama.

The thirty young actors, all members of north west youth theatres, came together to create the work on a residential week called Crossing Boundaries.

The free performance will now tour north west theatres for one week, calling in at Rochdale, Bolton, Oldham and finally Manchester’s Contact Theatre on Thursday 24 February. Teenagers, aged 13-18, from M6 Youth Theatre in Rochdale, Drama Workshop Youth Theatre in Bolton and Oldham Theatre Workshop spent half term week in North Wales getting to know each other and working together to devise a dynamic piece of theatre.

M6 Youth Theatre member Tony Grogan, 17 and from Queensway, Rochdale, said: “Difference is good. People can be labelled as freaks if they are different, but we are all the same underneath. It’s been great to come on this project and meet people from different areas.”

Hollie Harthern, also 17, who attends Bolton’s Drama Workshop Youth Theatre said: “We’ve had a great time been exploring how people can be different, but still be the same underneath their differences. And we’ve all made loads of new friends from all over the place.”

Oldham Theatre Workshop member Shireen Ashton, 16, from Middleton said: “All sorts of people can be labelled as freaks, even for simple things like having a different accent. On this residential, we’ve met people from different towns and seen that we are all the same really.”

M6 Youth Theatre Director Rowan Davies said: “The Crossing Boundaries residential project has been a fantastic opportunity for everyone involved to make friends from different areas and to start crossing their own boundaries.”

“New friendships have really flourished under the banner of diverse youth arts and it is hoped that this is just the beginning of new collaborative partnerships,” she added.

Theatre director Mal Smith from Splendid Productions, who has led the workshops said: “The project has been a huge success even before the performance is shown. Not only have boundaries of geography and familiarity been crossed, but also those of age, performance- style, methodology and experience. Both the creative team and the young performers have learned from each other. In a result-driven society, it is too easy to dismiss the value of such a rich process.”

Crossing Boundaries is an Arts Council and AGMA funded project that aims to bring together young people from the diverse communities of Oldham, Rochdale and Bolton.