Show and tell 2024

Can you believe we’re nearly at the end of 2024? 

It’s been a busy and exciting year at Mortal Fools. We’ve had some big milestones including touring Inevitable? with our Ensemble Young Company, piloting our Future Ready Project: a creative approach to employability and getting MELVA into over 100 schools!  

We wanted to take a moment to reflect on the fun, small moments of connection with our young people, colleagues and community – the true highlights of our 2024. Moments like, watching young people bond over a shared interest, or noticing how someone's face lights up when they come up with a great idea. Or when folks watch their ‘shy’ child perform for the first time and are practically bursting with pride.  
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In this blog post, we’re sharing 7 unassuming objects that represent different memories for our young people and staff from 2024; small things that have had a BIG impact.  

Photo from Inevitable? show. Photo Credit: Von Fox Promotions

Photo from Inevitable? show. Photo Credit: Von Fox Promotions

1.  Harvey the Mouse 
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​​Kicking off with Harvey the toy mouse, who played an important role in Inevitable? 
Inevitable? was a bold and exciting show which explored a universal part of life: becoming an adult. It was devised and performed by our wonderful Ensemble Young Company members alongside our team and associate artists and this spring we toured the show to venues across the North. 

When our character Damien gets lost in the woods as a child, his toy mouse Harvey helped them feel calm and less alone. Now, as a young person on the cusp of adulthood, Damien is pressured to get rid of his treasured Harvey and he’s unsure if he’s ready.  

Members of the cast shared that they often feel torn between wanting the freedom of adulthood and feeling forced to give up the ‘childlike’ things that make them feel the happiest. Harvey represented something really special to all of us; we’ve all had a Harvey at some point.  It was wonderful to see Harvey connect with audiences of all ages.  ​

"What a show! Unexpected and intriguing premise, and the ensemble worked really well together, complimenting each other in a diverse and convincing cast of characters. I had a lot of fun and felt I better understood young people’s experiences going into adulthood."

- Inevitable? audience member

Duke's Secondary School Showcase with Natural England. Photo Credit: Von Fox Promotions

2. Silent disco headphones  

During the Spring term, our practitioner team worked with a group at Dukes Secondary School to creatively explore their relationship with nature. We worked with Natural England on this project, and it was so interesting to hear young people talk about their positive memories and experiences in nature and what being outdoors means to them.  

The group decided to share their thoughts through beautiful audio pieces, including thoughtful spoken word poetry and intriguing music and sound effects.  

The young people shared their work through an end-of-term showcase, sharing their audio pieces with school friends, teachers, school staff, team Mortal Fools and representatives from Natural England.  

We used these silent disco headphones to create an immersive and personal experience that encouraged the audience to really focus on what our young people had to say, and we were able to get lost in the sensory worlds they created through sound.  
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Our silent disco headphones have become such an important symbol in our Creative Interventions work – something the young people absolutely love, and pre-recording some content for our showcases enables some exciting technical wizardry alongside taking away the pressure of live performance.  

“The sound installations took me back to my childhood and the positive elements came out; feeling reminded of being carefree, being able to live in the moment and reminded of the therapeutic beauty of nature and the environment. The sharing event was professional, heartfelt and true to the roots of the North East.”

- Gem Kilbride, Health and Environment Lead Adviser North East

Sounding Board Live performance. Photo Credit: Von Fox Promotions

3. The Picklezilla costume 

Sounding Board was an exciting Youth Theatre project, created to give our members opportunities to explore the expressive power of music. We worked with professional musician Callum Howard to create immersive soundscapes, and our members explored using their voices, sounds and music to communicate what matters to them! 

Some of our groups shared what they had created in a joyful community event - Sounding Board: Live! For this event, we transformed Riding Mill Parish Hall into a vibrant DIY Creative Music Hub filled with bold artwork and fun upbeat music. We wanted to reuse waste materials for costumes and set design wherever possible and the DIY aesthetic really matched the fun and expressive spirit of the show.  

That’s how we arrived at this crazy costume created for ‘Picklezilla’; a “scary” monster featured in our Highfield group's ‘Dream Factory’ performance. This performance was all about bringing imagination into your everyday life and it was so cool to see our groups explore fantasy characters and scenarios, encouraging the audience to be open-minded and creative. 
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Staff and our youth theatre members alike smile whenever we see photos of Picklezilla – they truly represent the outcome of young people’s creativeness and silliness. Long live Picklezilla! 

"I loved the show it was vibrant and colourful. I liked the interaction at the beginning. It was really great how democratic and non-hierachical the performance is structured that instead of lead roles everybody takes the lead! I really liked that it had meaning and relates to today rather than a remake of something old. Great work!"

- Sounding Board Live audience member​

Photo showing a Sounding Board devising session. Photo Credit: Von Fox Promotions

4. Our essential portable speaker – we use it for everything! 

An underrated hero across our projects is our trusty portable speaker. Young people often come to their first session not knowing anyone else in their group, but they soon make new friends; sharing their favourite tunes is a great way for them to connect and find common interests.  

During the winter term, we’ve been working with our Ensemble Young Company to create their version of ‘Brainstorm’; a fantastic blueprint play, all about the teen brain. As part of the devising process, we’ve been exploring how music can capture the energetic and complex feelings and experiences of being a teenager. Our portable speaker has been turned up LOUD in sessions!  

The group have created this cracking playlist inspired by what it feels like to be a teenager:

Click here to listen to our Brainstorm playlist

Keep an eye on our social media for some Brainstorm behind-the-scenes highlights and to hear about our upcoming performances in Spring 2025.  ​​

I Love Spreadsheets mug from Future Ready

5. The ‘I love spreadsheets’ mug 

This year we launched a new pilot employability project Future Ready – all about working with young people to develop workplace skills alongside exploring career paths through creative activities.   

We asked one group to create a video about all the positive skills and attributes young people bring to a workplace. They used an ‘I love spreadsheets’ mug to represent an employer initially stuck in their ways and sceptical about hiring young people and a red solo cup to represent the young enthusiastic job seeker. Through these comical characters, they explained that young people are often more aware of trends, value authenticity, and are quick learners- all excellent attributes!  
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We thought their selection of the mug to represent working adults, to be a very tongue in cheek (often correct) assumption of corporate office life. It really made us giggle! 

​Click on the video below to watch:

Projections from our overhead projector made during a Light Up devising session

6. An overhead projector  ​

​This term we’ve been working with our youth theatre on Light Up – a project exploring light, imagination, creativity and joy! Our groups have been experimenting with theatre lighting as a production tool to bring different characters, environments and memories to life. 

One thing that got our members creativity flowing was an old-fashioned overhead projector that they’ve been using to create landscapes, characters and patterns all with simple shadows. This basic bit of kit comes is lots of fun to play with and our team has really enjoyed how it’s got us to look back on our own school days! Pure 90s/00s nostalgia!  
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We’re busily planning Light Up events in Ashington and Tyne Valley in early 2025, to showcase short performances, all created and performed by our youth theatre members! 

Click here to find out more and book your tickets

Melva model created by Associate Artist Lily Mae Kreose

7. MELVA: the model 

It’s been a fantastic year for our MELVA project, with 110+ schools now using the package to support their student's wellbeing through creative storytelling. 

Behind the scenes, we’ve been working on an exciting addition to our MELVA programme; a hilarious and heartfelt book continuing the story of the lovable character of Melva. Our Artistic Director (CEO) Kiz has been working with writer Danielle Burn to write the next stage of her journey, whilst animator and illustrator Lily Mae Kreose will bring this story to life through beautiful illustrations.  

Lily created this little model to help her in the creative process, to enable her to draw Melva from different angles; we’re obsessed with how she’s captured her fun personality and signature red boots. The model has grown to represent the next chapter for the MELVA intervention alongside, the exciting possibilities that have emerged from inviting creative freelancers to join our associate team, bringing with them their energy and creativity.  
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We can’t wait to share the book with you all in 2025 so keep your eyes out for that.  

You can join our mailing list to get the latest MELVA updates straight to your inbox

We hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about our year! These little moments of inspiration, empowerment and joy really do add up to big changes in our young people’s lives. 
 
We can only continue providing these important moments and creative opportunities for 1000s of young people, with the support of our Mortal Fools community. This year has been particularly tough for Mortal Fools; funding is scarce, costs have increased, and we’ve got more young people than ever before relying on us for support.    
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So, we’d like to ask a favour.....if your child has enjoyed a session, if you’ve taken part in some training, watched a piece of online content, or attended one of our performances - please consider becoming a regular donor to Mortal Fools. Or donate to our work as a one off! It would truly make the world of difference.  ​

Click here to donate

We understand that times are tough, and we want to reassure you that our youth theatre will always be free of charge and all our events will remain affordable for everyone to enjoy.  
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Have a lovely festive season and we’ll see you on the other side! ​