Porthleven hosts international youth theatre festival
3:00pm Saturday 4th August 2012 in News
Porthleven hosts international youth theatre festival
THIS year’s Porthleven Youth Theatre Festival has seen teachers and young artists from around the world come together to learn about theatre and experience different cultures.
Running from last Saturday until yesterday (Tuesday), the festival gave students and teachers the chance to create a piece of theatre on the theme of lighthouses. Their piece could be “sinister or comic, contemporary or historic, fact or fiction,” said Jo Parish, business director of the International Schools Theatre Association (ISTA), which organised the event.
The theme of lighthouses was chosen because of its versatility and the fact it had been inspirational to many artists such as Virginia Woolf, whose classic novel ‘The Lighthouse’ was based on the lighthouse in Godrevy. Mrs Parish said: “‘Lighthouses’ [as a theme] has such a rich potential and is a starting point full of stories – and a good story is at the heart of any good piece of theatre.”
The festival saw 42 young people from local primary schools, Calderdale Theatre School in Yorkshire (which also had three associate artists involved) and the Jigsaw Theatre group in Cheshire taking part.
One student was from Dresden International School in Germany and two students were from the Miras International School in Kazakhstan, emphasising the international focus of the event.
Workshops were provided by the associate artists, along with Jo Simms of the Ocean Academy of Dance and local artist Melanie Ratcliffe. The younger group worked in the Public Hall and the older group worked in the Lifeboat Art Studio, with the actual festival taking place in a marquee on the Harbour Head in Porthleven.
The ISTA produces over 40 international art events each, encouraging youngsters between the age of seven and 19 to be “part of something truly unique.”
