Generation 1997 Theatre Project

Life-sized puppets of an elderly person and a youth were used to fascilitate discussion and detect attitudes toward the ageing and young people. Indeed, the youth puppet "inspired very lively participation and was a successful tool for gaining insight into a snap shot of opinion". SWT explored each group using the puppets and established feelings, attitudes and key issues for further development. The 'River of Life' was one communication method used for the elderly group where they drew a river on one long piece of paper and added 2 bridges. Each member of the group drew/wrote about their experiences in the 3 stages of life and how they perceived others (older/younger) at that time. A spokesperson was chosen to tell the story of their collective 'river of life' to the youth group. The youth group used poetry to express their feelings and opinions of the ageing which reflected a narrow perception of what the lives of the elderly are like. It was felt that poetry would target the truth more successfully than a questionaire, which often gathers information perceived to be correct. Other story making ideas and participatory theatre techniques were used to come up with key issues for an intergenerational performance for the Ely Arts Festival. The performance stimulated discussion amongst audiences of all ages and helped to build a greater mutual respect and understanding.

Ageing, Population, Youth, Rights.

Ely, outside Cardiff, is one of the largest housing estates in Europe. "It suffers from a wide range of modern urban complaints and has become a dumping ground for 'problem' families". Poverty and unemployment are commom with a full spectrum of social problems and criminal activities. "Car crime by under age drivers, muggings & a lack of respect for the elderly by gangs of young people have been identified as problems for the older residents of the estate". Following the success of the 1995 intergenerational theatre project in elementary schools by SWT, it was felt that the 1997 project should focus on secondary schools where gangs of youth were involved in anti social activities. Ely has a strong performing arts tradition with a local arts festival every summer. Small World Theatre was approached by Community Education, Healthy Wealthy & Wise and Age Concern, Cardiff to implement a project using the performing arts to bring the generations together. One primary school and two secondary schools were chosen to work with pensioners over a period of 9 months. Themes emerged during the participatory theatre research process which were integrated into the intergenerational theatre performance for the Ely Festival.