Theatre project by Melksham Oak students with Bristol Old Vic

A THEATRE collaboration between Melksham Oak Community School and the Bristol Old Vic Young Company will produce a timely performance about the positive influence change and new people can bring to a community.

The project forms part of the public art strategy produced by Ginkgo Projects to develop a unique sense of place and identity in the new development on the land east of Melksham town.

For the final stage of the project Ginkgo has instigated the collaboration to produce a performance inspired by the history, stories and landscape of Melksham. Directed by Katie Storer, the piece is a creative collective effort by young people aged 11-14.

The project aims to explore new ways of working with young people across two locations using the same starting points as a creative catalyst. It aims to raise aspirations, understanding of the theatre sector and to develop cultural capital in young people across Melksham.

The project has entailed three and a half months of casting workshops, rehearsals and visits to the Bristol Old Vic and Pound Arts Centre in Corsham, where the Melksham group were given a tour of the arts facility and participated in a workshop on ‘improvisation and non-verbal communication’ and ‘the use of space’ in dramatic theatre to develop skills for their final piece.

Katie Storer also ran a careers workshop with the group, equipping the young people with skills for a career in the arts and beyond, and instilling in them the importance of community and support networks.

The project will come to a head with the performance of the theatrical piece devised by the group on the 1st April at Melksham Oak Community School. In front of friends, family and guests of Ginkgo Projects, the young people of Melksham Oak will reveal the result of their creative collaboration with the Bristol Old Vic Young Company. After the performance, a film of the piece, edited by the Bristol Old Vic, will be distributed to the local community.

Titled ‘The Tracks’, the piece is framed as a festival of celebration; the story performed is the lasting legacy of a fictional town, with all its quirks and oddities. The immersive performance will guide the audience through the town’s journey that changed its community from a one of fear and monochrome colours (inspired by the atmospheric, dilapidated old barn on Melksham Oak School premises) to a town of community, colour and positive change (inspired by the community, history and identity of Melksham).

Timely and apt for our current political climate, this performance is about embracing change and the positivity it can bring. It is a captivating tale of community, change, and colour.