byron@byron
Mental Health Month performance
FRIDAY 25TH OCTOBER : DRILL HALL THEATRE 6.30PM, TICKETS ON THE DOOR ( under 18’s FREE)
This powerful and thought provoking production exposes a range of mental health issues which can affect young people’s lives. BYT’s use of song, slam poetry, dance and performance provides a dynamic platform to break down stigma and enable discussion. Followed by a presentation by renowned local psychologist Peter Chown. Recommended 13+
https://www.facebook.com/events/677286002475764
High School Prinicipal
“Each year our students are so excited to see what Byron Youth Theatre have to offer. They never disappoint and our students benefit from learning through the arts”
Byron Quest
Grab some friends, make a team, register online at
www.byronquest.com
for just $5, work out some nifty outfits ( optional but hey lets have some fun!!)
and come join us on October 14th in Byron for the best morning of fun, meeting whacky characters, undertaking strange challenges, solving riddles, collecting evidence from various shops in town in this amazing scavenger hunt. Ending up at the Byron Flea Market to celebrate and see who wins the great prizes!!
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Video project
Photo: Tilka Fosmale, Honey Jade, Antonia Canosa, Lisa Apostolides Director of Byron Youth Theatre and production crew.
A Byron Council Small Change Youth grant is enabling Tilka Fosmale, Byron Youth Theatre members and other local youth create a short video which will expose what it’s like to grow up in Byron Bay.
“There are many young people doing amazing things here” comments Tilka “and there are also many specific issues we have to deal with which some adults don’t really understand”.
Part of the inspiration for the project came from BYT members being interviewed by Antonia Canosa, a PhD graduate of Southern Cross University for her dissertation about the effects of growing up in a tourist destination.
“Having grown up in a tourist destination in Italy I was interested to explore how young people in Byron Shire negotiate a sense of identity and belonging amidst the continuous flow of visitors.”
Findings from Antonia’s research suggest that young people have a strong sense of connection and belonging to their community, including the natural and built environment, which is challenged by the transient nature of tourism activity in the region. There are several key challenges that young people face growing up in the Byron Shire including feelings of alienation at peak tourist times. Young people have also talked about the perceived lack of safety at these times and of the impacts of tourism activity on the natural environments in their community. Transport and events in the North of the Shire are also problematic with the latter currently being addressed by Byron Youth Service.
Honey Jade, who is involved as part of the production crew recognises that it there is little opportunity for young people to voice their opinions in the community in a constructive way.
“We’d love to see Youth Council come back, apart from all the great projects that they organised, it was a way of us having a say”
To get involved in this production please contact Tilka via byronyouththeatre2481@gmail.com
World Suicide Prevention Day Event
September 10th marks World Suicide Prevention Day and BYT are organising a special event at the Youth Activity Centre in Byron Bay thanks to some funding from North Rivers Community Foundation (NRCF)
The afternoon will see us presenting a short video of our Here Today Forum Theatre production which toured local high schools in June this year followed by a community forum with guests speakers discussing how best to support and protect our young people.
Please come join us in raising awareness, sharing strategies and building great community safety nets.
Cakes and refreshments will be on sale as a small fundraiser for BYS who we want to thank for supporting this event
Mind Made Me Vox Pops – Christine Gobbet Freeman
We spoke to Christine straight after the Lismore City Hall show.
Here Today
Performed at Shearwater Steiner School, Mullumbimby.
This is our second forum production.
Forum theatre was developed by South American dramatist Augusto Boal, who originally called it Theatre of the Oppressed.
Theater of the Oppressed is an arsenal of theater techniques and games that seeks to motivate people, restore true dialogue, and create space for participants to rehearse taking action. It begins with the idea that everyone has the capacity to act in the “theater” of their own lives; everybody is at once an actor and a spectator. We are “spect-actors!” — a term which Boal coined.
Boal points out that when we are simply passive audience members, we transfer our desire to take action onto the characters we identify with, and then find that desire satiated as the conflict resolves itself on stage, in films or in the news. Catharsis substitutes for action.
Boal, following Brecht, calls this bourgeois theater, which functions to reproduce elite visions of the world and pacify spectators. He says bourgeois theater is “finished” theater; the bourgeoisie already know what the world is like and so simply present it onstage.
In contrast to bourgeois theater, “the people” do not yet know what their world will be like Their “authentic” theater is therefore unfinished, and can provide space to rehearse different possible outcomes. As Boal says: “One knows how these experiments will begin but not how they will end, because the spectator is freed from his chains, finally acts, and becomes a protagonist.
Celebration Time!!
Many thanks to the Santos Organics Staff Charity Fund grant. This grant will enable BYT to create a new production on health and well being on 2018. We’re looking forward to creating a fun informative production and teaming up with health organisations as well as Santos. Thank you thank you thank you!! We love Santos Organics.
The Brain comes out again!
Broken
A four minute promo from the public show at Byron Community Centre in November 2016.
After each show we circulate a one page, anonymous survey to all our audience members, requesting feedback and suggestions for future topics to cover. Domestic and family violence featured highly in the surveys and this request was met by BYT cast and Director Lisa Apostolides by the creation of their first, linear play called “Broken”.
Funded by Northern Rivers Community Foundation and a donation from Splendour In the Grass festival, Lisa wrote the play which was then workshopped by BYT cast members and actor Sam Hemphill.
“ I decided to play a lead role of Lily in this production” shares Lisa “ as I didn’t feel it appropriate for the majority of the violence to be directed at a young person. I engaged Sam to play the role of my new partner who has difficulties in dealing with my teenage son, Daniel, played by Seth Freeman, from a previous relationship. Both Lily and Daniel suffer verbal, emotional and physical abuse.
The work shopping and rehearsal period were intense and fruitful in creating an extremely moving and powerful play which highlights the complex problems in such situations and how to access assistance. Other characters of Daniel’s girlfriend and her friends played by Serren Glenn, Tilka Fosmale, Kia Walsey and Brynn Davis-Hay created a fantastic supporting subplot adding to the tension and drama.
The Women’s Resource centre, the Men and Family Centre, Ontrack community program, headspace Lismore, ACON Lismore, local Police and Community housing were all consulted during the development of this play as well as feedback from an online survey.
Performances were held at four local high schools as well as community performances at The Drill Hall, Mullumbimby and Byron Theatre with outstanding response from young people and adults.
