Summary

During April to July 2016, this teaching, learning and research project will aim to:

  • Provide The Belgrade’s Canley Youth Theatre participants with an opportunity to create an oral histories performance in collaboration with Warwick students
  • Enable recruited Warwick students to gain experience as ‘student researchers’ and contribute to an international research project
  • Create an online learning resource with excerpts of the process, the live performance and relevant materials for use by Warwick students, Belgrade participants and other users interested in oral history performance and applied theatre.

The intention of the process is to explore lived experiences of 'hope', 'care' and 'civic engagement'. The pedagogical process will invite participants to explore their past and recent memories of being a youth theatre member of The Belgrade. It will ask to what extent they associate their participation in youth theatre as an act of ‘civic engagement’. We hope to open up questions about the role of The Belgrade as a key site of 'civic engagement' and a source of 'hope' and 'care' for young people across Coventry. For Warwick ‘student-researchers’, we hope to evoke questions about their perceptions of youth participation and civic engagement by drawing on their international experiences.