Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Evan Placey’s play, Scarberia, coming up next month (May 24-June 2) at York Theatre Royal. It is part of the rather inspired TakeOver Festival, now in its third year.
TakeOver is a scheme in which every role at York Theatre Royal is taken over by young people under 26 years old who are then mentored by their equivalent staff member. The outcome is a three week youth-run arts festival.
This year Forward Theatre Project has collaborated with TakeOver to run a residency through which they have created a new piece of theatre specifically for an under 26 audience in York - Placey’s Scarberia.
The play had five weeks of research and development which involved working directly with young people to ensure that the piece is relevant and truthful.
The plot links Scarborough in UK with Scarborough in Toronto and is a crime/thriller. A woman’s body is washed up in Scarborough UK. A woman has disappeared in Scarborough Canada. Two boys are being questioned - on both sides of the Atlantic.
Producer Caroline Bennett is a Yorkshire woman and Placey comes from Toronto so there were plenty of links and scope. Development work included a trip to Toronto and the setting up an of an international pen pal system via email between sets of young people to look at how they interact.
“The play is about the move from childhood to adulthood, friendship, loyalty and looks at how far where you come from and grow up affects who you go on to become, ” Bennett explained.
Definitely one to look out for, I think. And what a lot the participating young people in two continents must have gained from it - as well as the ones who are running York Theatre Royal during the TakeOver festival.
Scarberia
Can an event on the other side of the world affect a town an Ocean away?
Scarborough, North Bay, England - Two teenage boys discover the body of a woman.
Scarborough, Toronto, Canada - Two boys are questioned after the disappearance of a woman.
As two boys try to keep the secret of what happened buried, and two boys try to solve the mystery, urban city meets beach coast when two countries collide and fours boys lives are changed forever.
Scarberia is a new play about the fleeting moment when we cross the line from child's play into adulthood.
This new play by Evan Placey has been inspired by working directly with young people in York and Scarborough England and North York and Scarborough Canada and is generously supported by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the John Thaw Foundation.
By Susan Elkin for http://blogs.thestage.co.uk.
2012-04-27
York, UK: Evan Placey’s play “Scarberia” to be part of York’s TakeOver Festival May 24-June 2