For the past twelve years I have been a part of a few youth theatre groups. From the age of five my journey with drama and acting started. When I was seven, I joined Dundee Rep Youth Theatre and stayed there for ten years which really helped build my confidence in myself and my abilities and we were always focused on creating quality pieces. During this time I learned a lot about drama and acting, and also gained friendships that are still important to me today. The transition from The Rep to hidden route was one of the easiest for me as I knew most of the people that were already going to be there and I was excited to begin a new chapter in my drama world.
During our first ever hidden route term, we experienced making theatre in a completely different environment. Going from performing on stage to an unconventional place is a transition that has been fun and creative, the different ideas we have all had have been unique and in some little way always connect to our surroundings. The pieces we made last term were always driven by a focal point, such as, having to find a way to bring the audience into the performance space and how to get the audience to feel a certain emotion. When making the piece surrounding an emotion, my group was chose ‘empowerment’ which led to our first thought of a march or protest trying to empower people to stand up for themselves.
For the future of hidden route the chance to perform in other unusual space and the ability to let the public see our work will be incredible and also to expand on what we can do in the space that we have. To explore different areas of theatre, how movement and dance works in different pieces and also how music would play into them is really exciting. But overall, I’m looking forward to creating an even stronger company and connections with each other, so that we can make hidden route the best it can be. We also hope to keep working towards the goals and ethos that we created over our first term. These goals being to expand hidden route, build a bigger reputation and also hopefully one day perform in events like the Edinburgh fringe.
Faith Murray, 18, hidden route young company member