Co-Create: Children as Dramaturgs is Imaginate's new project collaborating with children in North Edinburgh, supported by our partners North Edinburgh Arts (NEA) and Spartans Community Foundation.
Summarising what a dramaturg does in a single sentence is no easy task. They are often described as an 'outside eye', the first spectator, the first audience, offering feedback and asking probing questions about a performance as it takes shape, with close attention to how audiences might experience and emotionally respond to the work. In shows made for young audiences, who better to offer that perspective than children themselves?
The idea for Children as Dramaturgs grew directly from the interests and aspirations of children and young people we worked with during Creative Encounters. Two participants, Aimee and Raahill, were particularly inspired after watching a friend perform in a professional production. The experience sparked a desire to explore professional theatre more deeply and to collaborate with artists in meaningful ways, ways that could genuinely shape the work being made.
Over the coming year, children and young people will take part in dramaturgy workshops, attend the Children's Festival to critique performances and host Q&A sessions with artists, and have opportunities to co-lead workshops and rehearsals. They will also explore the performance-making process first hand through our interactive workshop The Show That Kids Make, where they will direct professional performers and musicians live on stage via earpiece, experiencing the immediate, real-time impact of their creative decisions.
Children as Dramaturgs is a joyful, curious and social project that celebrates children's ideas and perspectives. It creates a space of mutual respect between young people and professional performance-makers, rooted in the belief that we all have much to gain from meaningful and creative time spent together.
For more information, please contact our Children's Rights and Participation Manager, Lou Brodie.