BOP Young Artists is a new artist development initiative from Birds of Paradise Theatre Company, supported by The Robertson Trust.
Lead by BOP’s Development Officer, Morna McGeoch (go to BOP staff), from April until August 2019 the Young Artists will take part in a range of workshops and events that will develop their skills and knowledge in a range of performance based areas. These experiences will also contribute to furthering their professional development by aiding in the development of professional networks with organisations and individuals from across the sector in Scotland.
Some of these events include:
Access to Acting workshop led by Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA), at Scottish Youth Theatre, in April 2019
Observing rehearsals of Birds of Paradise and National Theatre of Scotland’s ‘My Left/Right Foot: The Musical’ at NTS’ purpose-built home: Rockvilla, April 2019
Attending performances of ‘My Left Right Foot: The Musical’ at Dundee Rep, May 2019, and ‘Purposeless Movements’ as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, August 2019.
Stay tuned for further information of what the BOP Young Artists have been doing.
BOP Young Artists is for any Glasgow based (or who can get to Glasgow) young person who has ideas in the performing arts or skills they would like to develop. It could be that you have not been able to access other projects or it could be that you are involved in other things but are interested to meet other disabled young people in an accessible environment to explore ideas together.
The selected group of young people will meet to take part in regular group workshops. The initiative will be organised by a Development Officer and they will work with you to plan projects and workshops based on what you want to learn together and the direction you want to go in. We will shape the programme around the specific areas of interest of everybody involved. Some ideas of what the workshops could focus on are: storytelling; movement; playwriting; using music on stage. These are just ideas – we are very open to exploring any fields of interest that have a connection to performance. We hope that once a year you there will be a performance or event to share the ideas you have been working on.
We understand that some disabled people experience barriers preventing them from taking part in creative opportunities, so because of this we do not expect you to have taken part in previous creative opportunities. However, we do expect you to have a passion for creating performance – perhaps you love creating short films with your friends, or maybe you enjoy writing or taking photographs – all we are looking for people who have an interest in making creative work as part of a group.
BOP Young Artists is an artist development opportunity aimed at people who have experienced barriers in taking part in other artist development opportunities due to an impairment. We want this project to provide a space where young people with a passion for the performing arts can learn skills and develop their own creative practice, so they are better able to apply and take part in future creative opportunities. BOP wants to help nurture the future generation of talented disabled creatives.
BOP Young Artists is free for all people to take part, you will however have to arrange your own travel to and from the fortnightly workshops in Glasgow.
BOP will always work to whatever your access requirements are and we have a specific budget set aside to overcome any barriers that may have an associated cost – we do not want an individual’s access requirements to be a barrier that prevents them from taking part in BOP Young Artists.
BOP uses the term ‘disabled people’ or ‘disabled artists’ to refer to anyone who self-identifies as disabled. This includes people who are D/deaf or have a mental health condition. To see the full definition we use, please follow this link.
