Devising Theatre and Making a Film During a Constantly Changing Pandemic Landscape: Ensemble Young Company Member Izzy Shares Their Experience…..

Social media is once again flooded with theatre companies, venues and organisations cancelling or postponing shows, projects, happenings and events. It’s so sad! At Mortal Fools we’ve had our fair share of cancelled performances, indefinitely postponed tours, and projects that have been reworked a million times in response to the ever-changing environment - with a Plan A, B, C, D and E to cover any and all eventualities.

A huge amount of work goes into making theatre happen, but folks outside of the cultural sector may not understand the amount of effort it takes to cancel, postpone, unpick and support people through that process. For the creative folks behind cancelled creative work, it carries a lot of emotion and a huge amount of energy to pivot. In the blink of an eye, everything has changed and it’s jarring. A member of our team recently compared the feeling to writing an essay for school, and working so hard on it, only to accidentally delete it just before you hand it in, and having to start again.

To humanise some of this, we thought we’d invite Izzy, one of our Ensemble Young Company Members, to write a blog post on their personal experience devising a performance against the backdrop of uncertainty. Izzy has experienced many project pivots, adaptions and cancellations as COVID restrictions have evolved over the last two years. Like with all our young people, their bounce back and creative resilience has been amazing in the midst of navigating the wider COVID landscape.

So, Izzy is going to take us behind the scenes of My People and what it is like devising performance during a pandemic with Mortal Fools…… Over to you, Izzy!

(The following words are Ensemble Young Company Member Izzy’s with small edits from Team Mortal Fools)

Given The Circumstances

The way we devised My People was incredibly different to anything Ensemble Young Company had done before. COVID has made things very difficult and very different for many people. However, as Ensemble, we were determined to not let it stop us. Therefore, this meant working in ways we weren’t so used to, so that we could still work together during this time.

Working creatively through a global pandemic was not something that anyone would have expected. However I think that our group really did the best they could to get something of importance out of the time spent at home behind a screen.

​On Zoom

Since we couldn’t meet in person due to the government restrictions at that time, we had to use Zoom to meet, instead of our normal in-person sessions. At first, this was a challenge for everyone, but we soon adapted and were able to use it to our advantage; putting ideas together using recordings and gathering ideas in breakout-rooms.

However, one of the major setbacks was the fact that we were unable to play Ensemble’s favourite ball game 'Spooner', which involves a court of four or more squares. Unfortunately, we were not able to adapt this over Zoom, but we were able to adapt many of our other favourite games - and ended up playing an intense game of 'Angels and Demons' at the start of every session. These games are not only good fun, but also great for team building.

It was very important to me to maintain these Mortal Fools’ Youth Theatre devising sessions, even during such hard and unpredictable times. From my perspective as a young person, it gave me something to do with a group of people I could enjoy time with—even whilst isolated from the rest of the world. It also really felt like I was contributing to something important; we have managed to devise something great with meaningful - interesting stories - and we did it solely on Zoom! Using Zoom has been really helpful; it has opened up new ideas for the future and helped us explore different ways to do things, out of peoples’ comfort zones.

Introduction to My People

My People was going to be a theatre show to tour. Then a theatre show that would be filmed but devised in person. Then devised instead on Zoom. Then we had our filming weekend cancelled, then postponed and finally, we filmed it in November together! It has been a journey!

My People is about friendship and that was the main theme we seemed to explore across our online devising sessions. Everyone felt that this was a relevant theme to explore, as growing up as a teenager or young adult is a time where friendships change and develop, and is something that almost everyone can relate to. We felt that it was important to do something unique that didn’t involve COVID; giving us a break from constantly hearing about it, and something else to focus on.

Throughout the sessions, we built up our storylines and developed our individual characters; depicting different types of friendships. This all sparked from thinking about all of the different ways and why people become friends/are friends. For example, those you’ve known forever so feel like you still have to be friends with; those you meet outside of school, but never talk to inside; those who you have to be friends with because your parents are; and those you can rely on for advice. Each of our characters picked a different type of friendship to build the story around, creating lots of different stories about lots of different friends, making it more relatable and inclusive.

All Change Again!

Coming back to working in person when we were allowed was a bit of a shock to the system for everyone; a good one, however. It was great to get everyone back together and use the limited time we had to refine ideas and really pull together My People. It brought a massive sense of relief to see people in person and not behind a screen; it was just really good to see everyone again.

One of the major drawbacks, however, was having to maintain the government’s social distancing rules. This made making a performance and performing together a lot more complex as we had to take this into consideration when making scenes and discussing ideas. BUT one of the definite advantages was being able to play 'Spooner' once again, all together and seeing how competitive people really get over the games we play.

A Film

Because of the restrictions, we were unable to make a piece of theatre to tour across multiple venues - that’s what we’d normally do! Therefore, we decided to perform it once at Northern Stage in Newcastle and film it. This way, we could get different shots and close ups, which would mean we could maintain social distancing throughout the performance without it appearing messy or difficult to see and hear. A large part of our performance is the digital aspect, which relies heavily on phones and technology as a means of communication. Much can be done in terms of that because of the way we are performing it. Things such as voiceovers and green screens can be added to enhance the performance, as well as the opportunity to redo shots. It has been very interesting to explore a new means of theatre that is more complex than the traditional ‘perform it once on stage’ scenario.

Sad News :(

There was a lot of uncertainty leading up to the point of filming at Northern Stage as to what would happen, as COVID cases in the area were rising. Unfortunately, it turned out that a member of the cast tested positive, meaning that everyone had to self-isolate during the week that would have been filming week. Therefore, we had to cancel the performance we planned to film. This was obviously very disappointing news for everyone.

Good News :)

We thought it would be a shame for all our hard work to go to waste, and believed My People had the potential for adaption. And adapt we did! We relooked at our stories, worked really hard and My People evolved into a film short that will be released in Spring 2022 for everyone to see. This project definitely has a close place in our hearts, so despite the upsetting news of the original cancellation, we are hopeful that people will like what we’ve made and excited for the future and where it will take us.

My Experience of Making and Devising My People in a COVID Landscape

I think that it was very important for Mortal Fools Youth Theatre and Ensemble Young Company to keep working and creating things during the time of COVID. The Mortal Fools’ practitioners have been great at supporting the wellbeing of us young people, and it was a positive experience.

I think that because of the circumstances, it managed to draw us even closer together, and the fact that we were able to create something so good whilst being locked down and distanced really gives a lot of hope for projects in the future; where we can take them and what we are capable of. Devising and putting a film together is certainly not easy, especially given the stress of COVID. However, I think that we did a great job. Although it was difficult, it was great for opening up new ways of making theatre. And if this project hadn’t been affected by COVID, we probably wouldn’t have experienced what it was like to make an actual film with Meerkat Films, AND different ways of adapting our performance. It also ended up containing a lot more tech related stuff, making it something fresh, new and exciting to everyone involved.

Thank you Izzy for taking the time to share your insights and experience with us - of pivoting, adapting, devising, evolving, making, growing, performing, and (of course!) playing Spooner during a pandemic!

Ahead of the launch of My People this Spring 2022, please subscribe to our YouTube Channel and/or sign up to our mailing list to be kept up to date with all things Mortal Fools.

If you’re curious about our Ensemble Young Company, right now is a great time to find out more! Mortal Fools’ Ensemble Young Company offers young people from Northumberland the experience of making theatre in a way that is as close to a professional process as possible. We are currently open to new members and the next project runs from January – April and is open to anybody aged 14 - 19 (School Years 10+). You don't need theatre experience to get involved - just enthusiasm and commitment! You can find out more on our website. ​