SCOTLAND is said to be Europe’s fairest nation in terms of legal protection for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, but is this tolerance reflected in dance and theatre for children?
What about gender stereotypes or politically charged subjects like the refugee and asylum seeker crisis? Should children’s theatre be covering topics once thought of as taboo, and can Scottish artists learn from practices in other countries?
To find out, a new EU project is being launched on November 8 in Edinburgh. PUSH will bring together artists from Scotland, Norway, Denmark, Ireland and Belgium to focus on three topics which are “underexplored” in work for young audiences. The three are gender and sexual identity, migration and whether modern children are being overly protected.
During the two-year project, 42 artists from the five countries will take part in three separate “laboratories” to explore each topic in turn. Each lab will be linked with a local school and in Edinburgh it will be Niddrie Mill Primary School.
WHAT WILL THEY DO?
THE first lab in Scotland early next year will look at gender and sexual identity.
“We want to inspire artists to think differently about how we make work while taking responsibility for challenging portrayal of gender and sexuality,” said Fiona Ferguson, creative development director of Imaginate, the Scottish organisation behind the project.
“We want to look at visibility and representation, to challenge whose stories are being told. While many European countries now have progressed human rights for LGBTQI people, the world of theatre and dance for children is still mostly portraying traditional families and girl-meets-boy stories.
“We want to talk about making work that can speak directly to all children, including the gender-variant child, the queer child, the cis-gendered child who might feel constrained by the expectations inherent in being a girl or a boy.”
This lab will be led by Eilidh MacAskill and is inspired by her research project with Imaginate, Gendersaurus Rex. This ran for 18 months and looked at similar territory, concluding that artists in Scotland could learn much from interaction with international colleagues.
HOW DOES THE SCHOOL FIT IN?
THE first lab will consist of 14 artists and towards the end of the week there will be a “scratch” night open to the public when they will share ideas and pieces of work.
On the last day, At A Stretch, a new piece of physical theatre by Jordan & Skinner, which is already in progress, will be staged at Edinburgh's Lyra Theatre for older pupils at Niddrie Mill.
This features two women in love and was selected by Imaginate after an earlier version was shown at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre.
It was originally intended for teenagers but as work progressed it became clear it was more suitable for younger children, according to Ferguson.
“It is very funny and the fact that it is two women is incidental,” she said. “We are not trying to teach anything – it is just that they happen to be two women. Good-quality work is not there to instruct you on what to think but just offer more diversity in the characters.
“The unknown factor is the reaction of the children, but I think it is usually the adults around children who are nervous rather than the kids. I think they will find it funny and not see any controversy in it.”
WHAT IS THE AIM?
THERE is some evidence that artists are holding themselves back because of fears about how bolder performances will be received, according to Ferguson.
“These topics are being addressed in TV and film but somehow it is always more difficult in live performance,” she said. “I think people worry about what will happen if people are upset. It will be interesting to see how these topics are addressed in other countries and the hope is that the mix of artists and backgrounds will start rubbing off on each other. We want to create a community of people who are interested in making work that does tell a more diverse story. There is a lot of work made for adults that is quite directly political and related to identity but it is still tentative in work for children. We had to apply for funding around a year ago and even since then a lot of progress has been made.”
PUSH launches on Tuesday at 7pm at the Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh and will be attended by Cabinet Secretary Fiona Hyslop.
The project is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
For information (from November 8) go to www.Pushproject.EU
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