Provocation #2

Secondary School  

Washwood Heath Academy & The Barbican, London
3rd June, 2014

Stan’s Cafe were invited to be Artists in Residence for the Warwick Commission into the Future of Cultural Value this prestigious group of cultural leaders were investigating the place of culture in our society and when they came to consider the role of young people and education in this equation it seemed appropriate that some young people should go down to meet them.

Four brave volunteers Key Stage 4 agreed to work with James over a few lunch hours to put together a three minute long presentation about the need for young people to gain experience of all kinds of cultural activity in order to be able to choose what interests and excites them.

All too soon the day arrived, everyone travelled down to London on the train, first to the V&A in order to look at the theatre collection then on to The Barbican where Cinema Number 1 was available for some last minute rehearsals.

There were lots of people in the audience, including many VIPs. The team did a good performance and got hearty applause. Once they had gone the image of them on stage was an important memory informing the discussions that followed and a couple of the panelists picked up on the key message from the Washwood Heath Team: “who is going to tell us what we don’t know what we don’t know?”

Stan’s Cafe could have gone to a drama school to find young people that could have dazzled the audience with their exceptional training, but it was more important that the word came directly from Washwood Heath, all children deserve a rich cultural life, not just those who go to drama school.

Credits

Performed by:Aminul, Eeman, Sana and Saeed
Led by: James Yarker
Photographs: Graeme Braidwood
Thanks to: Ms.Barlow in Drama for helping make it happen
and Sadie for looking after everyone on the London trip.