our with a play against the sus laws.
Dominic: Wegot our first play. This Green and Pleasant Land, from a triend. It's a protest play against the sus laws, which we read and decided we wanted to do, so we got some people together, including a director, and performed it.
The Forum Youth Theatre grew from this group and we now have about 20 members.
hoping rehearsals for three other plays fairly soon.
Michael: We've put This Green and Pleasant Land on at our school, Quinton Kynaston, in North-west London, and at a local community centre. Quite a few schools have expressed an interest in it.
Dominic: The headmaster at our school was very upset about the play. It's a liberal, trendy comprehensive and we've tried lor ages to lom a studen political group there.
For a while we seemed to succeed. We organised a picket of Paddington Green police station after one of our kids was beaten up there, and we protested about certain sexist incidents within the school.
But it became apparent that senior staft were institution alising the group, which made it completely ineffectual. allowed us to meet and even announced our activities over tannoy. Our meetings SPECIAL OFFER PRE-PUBLICATION You can get this history of the Fl for only £2.50 (normally £2.95) if you order it by 30 April (p&p add 30p).
Ink Links 16, and DOMINIC SHAW, 17, are founder members of Forum Youth Theatre, a newly-formed theatre group which began They are also members of the National Youth Theatre and the Cockpit Youth Theatre. They spoke to JAMIE GOUGH about their plans for the group.
seemed to be an extra part of We had a very different reaction when the sus play. We invited along the police community relations officer from St Johns Wood. I was playing the policeman who the black kid.
The head became start agitated and seemed to feel a lot more threatened than he had Deen wien we formed student action group. I think it was because the play wasn't connected with the school and therefore couldn't be Michael: The next few be doing will be that we'll written by ourselves.
I'm writing one about the conflict of minority groups the way in which a West Indian may discriminate against Asian; a Rastafarian against women; a black heterosexual against gays, and so on.
The way people victimise each other and what we can learn from it.
Dominic: My play is about how people get seduced into the NF It's the story of someone who has been sacked from his job and is a reject for reasons which are the fault of They the state.
He lashes out at minorities and has dreams of glorious suicide, sword in hand. He's a SPECIAL OFFER FEBRUARY ONLY Joseph Hansen's the eariv vears revolution and its analysis by the Trotskyist movement. Only £2.00 (normally £2.80) (p&p add 30p). Pathfinder quite comic, but ultimately he's a pathetic character. In the end he takes an overdose - the easy way out.
We want to put the plays on with the theatre group, but it seems pretty impossible at the moment to get a place of our UWIL Michael: Just where we could rehearse. clapped out theatre that we could do up - anything!
Dominic: And, of places to perform. What we need is contacts; people who would be willing to join us and we performed generally help us.
What I really want to do in the long term is to provide an alternative to the three main fascist vouth theatres. Al the moment beats up there's the Cockpit, and quite Children's That's just about it in terms of getting into the acting world the and doing something with it.
They ve got the monopoly.
Michael: We don't want money insti- from the Arts Council because that puts a limit on what you can do. They can turn round a year later and tell us they don't be like what we're doing.
Dominic: We'll try to survive funds from like the All London Teachers an Against Racism and Fascism who have helped us, and loca groups which are interested.
But it needs funding on a larger scale. from the ANL.
Michael: Perhaps we could get financial support from trade union branches affiliated to anu-lascist groups. want opportunities to do what various we want.
Dominic: This is a cry for help. And if you can, then contact Michael and Socialist Challenge.
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