Post by Leanne on Jan 4, 2011 3:35:23 GMT -5
4 Jan 2011
www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/stage-visual-arts/hard-act-to-follow-1.1077733
This should be obvious from the second series of Gary: Tank Commander, the military based BBC TV sitcom co-written by the RSAMD-trained actor and stand-up comic, the first episode of which aired last night.
Playing the title role, McHugh is happy to explore the lighter side of army life by way of his fictional Iraq veteran. However, back in 1997, he had other things on his mind.
McHugh and others in his class had been invited to take part in Class Act, the Traverse Theatre’s innovative education project which sees students mentored by professional playwrights as they develop a script to be performed in public by actors under the guidance of directors. He and his peers were put in the care of David Harrower, whose debut play, Knives in Hens, was a major hit at the Traverse that year, and continues to be produced around the world.
Harrower’s spare writing style would later be applied to the equally devastating Blackbird at the Edinburgh International Festival. However, rather than fall into the youthful trap of slavish homage, McHugh came up with something completely different.
Whenever you speak to anyone involved in Scottish theatre, everybody knows about [Class Act], because everybody’s worked on it.
Noelle O’Donoghue, head of Traverse Learning
“It was about a guy who thought he was in a computer game,” he says, looking back on his formative early work. “He was having a nervous breakdown, and looking for a purpose in life. It was poorly written and full of bad ideas, but then the actors came in and it became something different. I remember not entirely agreeing with some of the ways they interpreted the text, but didn’t have the confidence to say so, so quietly let it go. But, to be honest, it was impractical as a script, so they probably did it a favour.”
Now it is 13 years on and Class Act has come of age as it celebrates its 21st year with a special gala night taking one play that encapsulates each year of its existence. As the scheme’s most high-profile graduate to date, McHugh is to play host.
The head of Traverse Learning for the past four years, Noelle O’Donoghue, inherited an already thriving state of affairs that by its very nature has already affected several generations of young people.
“I was really excited by it,” she recalls, already in the thick of preparations for Class Act 21. “A lot of education and outreach programmes are brilliant, but the difference here is that we treat the writers exactly the same as we would a professional writer, developing drafts over a long period of time rather than just a couple of days.
“Whenever you speak to anyone involved in Scottish theatre, everybody knows about it, because everybody’s worked on it. Kevin McKidd did it when he was starting out, so it’s as much about actors and directors gaining experience as it is for the young writers.”
Professional writers on board this year include Gregory Burke (Black Watch), Alan Wilkins (Carthage Must Be Destroyed) and Nicola McCartney (Lifeboat). Together with 24 actors, directors for the gala will include Traverse alumni including longest-serving former artistic director Philip Howard and ex- associate director Lorne Campbell.
Such a retrospective will give those in attendance the chance to see the changing mores of young people. Thematically, while the 1990s brought about a slew of post- Trainspotting, in-your-face style miniatures, more recent preoccupations are with technology. This year one piece is set in a smoking room. Stylistically too, there are differences between age groups.
“We often find the fourth-year students are quite fearless,” O’Donoghue explains, “so they’re the ones writing about aliens, talking animals or inanimate objects that come to life. The sixth-years can be a bit more angsty and tend to write about teenage pregnancy, abuse or much bigger issues. But they’ve reached an age where they know what they think about the world and they want to tell everyone what they think, so that’s OK.
“It’s interesting talking to the young people involved, because we’re working with English and drama classes, and what you find is that not everyone wants to get up and act. They are much more interested in what goes on behind the scenes than they are in getting up in front of everyone.”
Jane Ellis was the Traverse’s education officer in 1990 when she and Leith Academy drama teacher Jenny Wilson initiated Class Act in the theatre’s old Grassmarket home. “We used to have lots of school parties who would come in and have tours around the theatre,” she remembers. “Some would ask how to go about writing a play, so that was the start of what was a little experiment, and we just ran with it after that.
“The first year was really successful, or we wouldn’t have done it again. I suppose we were trying to get more young people into the theatre as well. It was always quite easy to get teachers interested in Shakespeare, because that was on the curriculum, but not so much in new work.
“So by getting both the English and drama departments involved, we could tap into the curriculum as well. After that the teachers were mad for it, and we ended up with 28 schools in the Lothians involved.
“We developed it and took it out to the Borders, but at the beginning we weren’t aware of anything like Class Act, so initially had no idea what we were doing, and I think it’s incredible that it’s still going.”
Since O’Donoghue took charge, Class Act has expanded operations to cover Glasgow schools via a link-up with the city’s Tron Theatre. There are even more developments ahead.
“For me,” she says, “the interesting thing would be to get more young people in each school involved. I think there are other theatrical skills people could learn. Also, one of the things we want to look at is the different ways of making theatre that isn’t strictly about writing.
“But, whatever they’re interested in, if only one young person involved in Class Act comes back to the theatre or follows some kind of professional path in theatre, that’s a testament to its success.”
McHugh is living proof. While he initially studied business at Stirling University prior to drama school in Glasgow, he admits that, without the experience of Class Act, it’s unlikely he would be doing what he does today.
“Until then we’d had people who talked on various subjects,” he recalls, “but this was a whole lot more real.
“Just to be able to talk to someone like David Harrower was great. The whole process fascinated me, being in the rehearsal room, seeing how things work and learning how to be objective about your work. Being able to ask questions and see what actors and a director do with these words you’ve written on a page. It was a real project.”
Class Act 21, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, January 27-28, visit www.traverse.co.uk.