Stories, Culture and Creativity at BLAST Youth Theatre
The autumn term at BLAST Youth Theatre has been a truly special one, as we began work on our Arts Council England–funded project Gather & Tell. Over the past few months, our young people have immersed themselves in storytelling, creativity and collaboration, exploring folk tales from cultures all around the world.
Through a series of devising sessions, the group explored how stories are passed down, shared and reimagined. Using a range of drama techniques — including freeze frames, narration and physical theatre — the young people brought traditional tales to life in imaginative and expressive ways. These sessions encouraged curiosity, empathy and confidence, while creating space for everyone’s voice to be heard.
One of the highlights of the term was our feast days, where children brought in special food from home to share with the group. These moments became powerful opportunities to celebrate heritage, learn about each other’s cultures and build a strong sense of community through shared experience.
We were also delighted to welcome Hannah Brailsford, performance storyteller, who performed stories for the groups to inspire their own storytelling journeys. Her visits encouraged the young people to explore stories from their own backgrounds and cultures, and to think about how they might share them with others through performance.
Alongside the drama work, the group took part in design sessions, visualising the worlds, characters and atmospheres of their stories. These creative sessions helped the young people think beyond performance alone, developing ideas about space, design and how audiences might experience the stories in an immersive way.
As we look ahead to next term, the focus will shift to bringing all these devised elements together. We’ll begin shaping the material into rehearsals, working towards creating an immersive and interactive performance experience that will be shared with audiences in the summer.
It has been a fantastic term full of imagination, connection and cultural celebration — and this feels like just the beginning of what Gather & Tell will become.
