Empathy is the heart of Feel Me
An exploration of empathy is at the forefront of The Paper Birds’ stunning new show Feel Me.
Watch the trailer to see how their use of different forms of media combines to create a compelling experience.
With interactive technology used to creatively engage young people, Feel Me hopes to help the audience connect with the characters and build upon their own empathy. The show was created through a research and development study called The School of Hope, which generated positive statistics regarding building young people’s empathy through creative engagement. Read below to learn more about the show’s creation journey.
Book NowHow Paper birds created Feel Me
The School of Hope
‘Feel Me’s initial research and development occurred in the summer of 2021. The School of Hope was a digital arts project run with eight youth groups across five countries. Exploring the theme of empathy, young creatives took part in discussions and workshop exercises and were given artistic briefs to respond to. For the project, we worked with three academic partners to help us measure participants’ empathy levels. We discovered that participating in The School of Hope increased young people’s levels of empathy. From this point, we wanted to explore empathy more deeply through the creation of Feel Me.’
We wanted young voices to be at the centre of Feel Me, so working alongside the Theatre Centre, we assembled a creative team of exceptional young artists, all under the age of 30.
Different forms collide
‘We were excited to bring new art forms into the mix for this show by exploring film, dance and interactive technology within the show. We started by undertaking two weeks of creative exploration of the subject, exploring how we could not only make a show about empathy but put empathy at the heart of our process.
We then entered a more traditional devising process with seven weeks of making and two weeks of tech.’
Collaborations
‘We worked with many collaborators throughout the making of Feel Me, including Empathy Artist Enni-Kukka Tuomala, Artist and activist Ali Ghaderi from Babylon Migrants Project, participatory theatre expert Professor Rosemary Kiltch from the University of Essex, Dr Gemma Bird, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International relations from the University of Liverpool and Dr Jelena Obradovic-Wochnik, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International relations from Aston University and co-director of the Centre for Migration and Forced Displacement.’
Youth Creative Councils
‘For Feel Me, we worked with five Youth Creative Councils—a series of steering groups made up of young people aged 13-25, some of whom have experienced forced displacement. Throughout the devising process, we sent them a series of rehearsal videos and asked them to share their thoughts, opinions and constructive criticism as we devised material for the show.
We’re thrilled to have worked with young people from the New Wolsey’s Youth Theatres (Ipswich), Sherborne Boys School (Dorset, UK), Creative Youth Network (Bristol), Padepokan Seni Bagong Kussudiardja (Indonesia) and Babylon Migrants Project (London).’
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