Art Scene festival - Ghent

Last month I was very lucky to go to a theatre festival in beautiful Ghent, Belgium, to showcase a play that I directed. A few months ago, I wrote a post about the fact that I had the opportunity to be the assistant director of a show for the national theatre connections competition, talking about how much of an exciting opportunity it was, and how you should push yourself to do things no matter how little they are. 6 months down the line, and this role has given me more than I could have hoped for, being performed at many different venues all leading us to this wonderful youth theatre festival in Belgium.
The Art scene festival was four days long, and was comprised of youth theatre groups from all over the world coming to perform a short 40 minute show, performances of which were spread across the few days.
There were workshops run by professionals every morning for the kids to take part in, and after lunch, we would all watch about three/four shows. The amazing thing was that the festival is held in a beautiful theatre in Ghent called the Tinnenpot which has multiple theatres within the building, for example a standard tiered seated auditorium, a circus space with seating in the round, black box spaces, balcony theatres, and most interestingly, an all while theatre space. This meant that we could see the shows in all different spaces, and experience so much in a day without even leaving the building. At the end of the day there was then a huge forum where everyone sat and asked the cast and directors of each show all about the rehearsal period the general creative process. It was such a wonderful thing to see so many people from all different countries coming together through theatre.

It's not just the wonderful experience of the festival that made me want to write this post, but actually the fact that I was given this experience because I pushed myself. This all began with me trying something a little different by becoming an assistant director at my local theatre group, which wasn't massive. But slowly, I began to take on a bit more responsibility within the group, teaching them ensemble exercises and establishing ensemble workshop rehearsals. The main director and I became very collaborative in the process, until I was running rehearsals on my own . Sixth months from when we started the project, we have performed in many different venues, finishing our run at this festival in Ghent. Whilst being there I met with a lot of the other directors and organisers of the festival too who found what I do with the group very interesting, and now I have even been asked to come and work on the English equivalent of the festival to be a workshop leader. When I first started directing, I wasn't sure I had enough experience to be of use, yet once I started to set my mind to keeping track of all of the ensemble exercises I was taught at the National Youth theatre, or at drama school auditions, I realised I could construct useful workshops of my own, taking exercises from different places, or adapting them in some way. As long as you deliver everything with absolute confidence, and a strong idea of what you are trying to achieve, you are set. I think this festival was the pinnacle in me realising this, and the capabilities I had when speaking with different directors. I also found myself teaching a lot of the kids attending the festival lots of concentration games, and after two days, I has all of them playing them in the breaks of their own accord, and really enjoying them, all because I was confident enough to believe they could be of benefit. 

I thank festivals like this, that can enrich young people by allowing them to travel to different countries and showcase their work, and help us to realise that theatre has no language. It was so much fun to see the kids in my group experiencing different cultures for the first time, and mixing with young actors of all nationalities, who were all united through their work.