Our Young Creatives group teamed up with hilarious physical comedians Le Navet Bete to learn new performance skills and put together a new piece of theatre this spring.
We tagged along to one of their Wednesday evening workshops to see what they were getting up to.
The theme for the night was improvisation. Le Navet Bete kicked things off with some light warm-up games before diving straight into some on-the-spot scene creation. They asked our Young Creatives to split into small groups and come up with scenes based on increasingly surreal prompts – a chilly day at the beach; a bank robbery; a zombie invasion at a garden centre!
Le Navet Bete wanted to show the group how to balance their energy when performing. It’s tough to start a scene with tons of energy and then add more energy, but it’s much easier to start with a normal situation and add some absurd energy to make it funny.
“I’ve really enjoyed developing my ability and willingness to leave any inhibitions behind and commit to a role, no matter how silly or unnatural. I’ve never had so much fun!” – Young Creative
In the second part of the session, the group played a game where small groups had to sell a household object like they were on a cheesy TV infomercial, always building on each other’s ideas to make their pitches more preposterous. This exercise helped our Young Creatives understand one of the most important rules of improv comedy: always say ‘yes’ to keep the scene moving.
“This is our second time working with the Young Creatives. We absolutely love helping them develop new skills and techniques at the beginning of their theatre making journeys. The enthusiasm they have is infectious and we always have a great laugh.
It’s fantastic that the Northcott is able to create opportunities for young people to work with professionals and give them confidence going forward in their lives, whatever route they may take.” – Nick Bunt, Co-Artistic Director of Le Navet Bete
We also invited our Young Creatives to take over our Instagram page throughout the workshop so that they could capture the creativity in the room and share their thoughts on working with Le Navet Bete in their own way.
Watch the Highlights
Are you, or is a young person you know, looking for exciting opportunities to explore creativity and develop performance skills in a supportive environment?
Join our Northcott Young Company (ages 7 – 17) or Young Creatives (ages 17 – 21) groups and get hands-on theatre experience, make new friends and learn from industry professionals like Le Navet Bete.
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Our specialised programmes transform the lives of young people in Devon, supporting their creativity and helping them to explore and understand issues that are relevant to them. Please support us to continue this vital work.
