TwoCan even in lockdown!

TwoCan theatre have been working with arts awards for over 10 years and has supported hundreds of young people at all five arts awards levels. We caught up with Louise Partridge, one of TwoCans founders to find out how the group adjusted to life during lockdown and how they used arts award to recognise and celebrate the creative output of the group through ‘lockdown challenges’.

Keeping connected during lockdown

As soon as TwoCan Youth theatre realised that the world was unable to meet in the same way as it had before, the group, like so many people, looked to Zoom to enable them to remain connected and creative. The youth theatre took to the screen to deliver its week-long Easter ‘All for one and one for all’ programme and to meet every Monday for their usual weekly sessions. 

How did the young people respond to meeting virtually?

Not only did the young people appreciate the opportunity to stay socially engaged with each other, but they also seized the chance to take part in TwoCan’s ‘Lockdown Challenges’.

Tell us more about your Lockdown Challenges and Arts Award

We started setting the young people weekly creative challenges to offer them an outlet for their talents while in lockdown. The company soon realised that the standard of work that was being produced needed to be celebrated and decided to register as an Arts Award centre and to use COVID Funding grants from Barnwood Trust and Gloucester Community Foundation to allow their work to be more formally recognised. The weekly challenges lent themselves to the Arts Awards structure and it soon became clear that all of its members could start to collate evidence for either an Explore or Bronze certificate.

What did you do for Arts Award? 

The group were very adept at creating performances and all their work was recorded through zoom and shared to live audiences and through a Vimeo link. They explored arts organisations and chose two of their favourites, The Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham and Gifford’s Circus as their focus and were thrilled when Tweedy sent them a video message to help them with their research. Each week the young people would send their findings and creations via a What’s app group for everyone to enjoy and feedback to one another. Then in their weekly session they would elaborate on what they had produced, share skills and discuss their arts inspirations with one another.  

How is it working?

One example of the group is Will, who is 14 years old and attends Alderman Knight school in Tewkesbury. He has been attending TwoCan Youth theatre for a year and a half and sees it as his “happy place”. He felt that Arts Award “would inspire me to be a more ambitious and creative artist”. He chose Simon Pegg as his inspirational artist as he, like Will, came from Brockworth and used his artistic talents to teach the group how to do a magic trick, draw a dog using a story telling method and created a tick toc film to show us how to sketch a portrait. He found out some background history of the Everyman Theatre as well as sharing his experience as an audience member there when he went to see Peter Pan Goes Wrong last October. All the video evidence will go towards Will’s personal Bronze Arts Award portfolio and he hopes to complete his log book when the group can once again meet face to face next term. 

Why take part in Arts Award?

Will said “It has been hard for everyone during lockdown but we all get together via zoom every week which has given me something to look forward to. We have also been working towards the arts awards which is fantastic as it means I will get an award for doing my favourite thing.”

What are you doing next?

TwoCan is not only supporting its own youth theatre members to complete arts awards but it is also working alongside the National Star College and Active Impact to provide further opportunities for other young people across the country both during and out of term times. 

How can we find out more about the Lockdown Challenges?

Some of TwoCan Youth Theatre Lockdown challenges can be seen on our webpage 

http://www.twocantheatre.org.uk/youth-theatre/

For more information about the youth theatre and company, contact louise@twocantheatre.org.uk

TwoCan: a theatre company without barriers

Louise Partridge PGCE, MEd has had over thirty years’ experience of working inclusively in both Theatre and Education. She joined forces with Rebecca Andrews and Nicola Miles-Wilden to set up TwoCan Theatre Company in 2014 when they became so fed up with the constant barriers placed in the way of disabled artists. They decided the only way to overcome the barriers in the arts was to create a theatre company that did not have any and so TwoCan was born.

TwoCan education and community supporting disabled artists through Arts Award

As well as supporting disabled artists, TwoCan education and community is a very important part of the company and it aims to provide many creative opportunities for people living with a disability no matter what age they may be. Louise has been working with the arts awards for over 10 years and has supported hundreds of young people at all five levels. She knows only too well how valuable a platform it can be to inspire young people to develop their creativity and leadership skills.