Frozen Pretzels: Responding to Youth Concerns During a Global Pandemic

By: Mark Pluckrose*

This blog is part of a series documenting the progress of the Pretzel Theatre Collective, a project within the Incubator for Creative Impact.

Since introducing ourselves to fellow Pretzellers around the globe a lot has changed and our world is a very different place now.

Our original introductions, pre-conceptions and dispelling of myths about ours and others cultures and societies are a far cry from our current situation of self-isolation and social distancing. This, unfortunately, has lead us to put the Pretzels in the freezer for the time being but we intend to defrost them in the future. In the meantime I’d like to take this opportunity to let you know what the young people were exploring here in the UK and their thoughts.

WHAT ARE YOUR PEOPLE MOST CONCERNED ABOUT

Ironically we decided to start by looking at ‘what our young people were most concerned about’: firstly, in their own lives and; then secondly, what concerned them globally. The hope was that both of these would translate easily to other Prezellers from very different countries, cultures, and backgrounds. Alas, we didn’t get to that point but maybe by reading this blog you might consider, we are all not that different from each other.

When asked about their own concerns, the students focused on friendships and self-image. However the subject matter, when asked about global concerns, were far harder hitting; climate change, global pandemics, extremism, body image and social media.

They were asked to explore these in more detail and then I gave them the hard task of ranking them in order of most concerning to least concerning. This really did spark some interesting debates about the level of concern and threat that we face from these. They felt climate change was the most concerning and affected all of us the most. They even stand by that now even as we approach the peak of COVID-19 here in the UK.

What our young people were most concerned about (In descending order)

  1. Climate change

  2. Global pandemics

  3. Extremism, radicalisation and terrorism

  4. Body image

  5. Social media, cyberbullying and trolling

The performance started to take shape after exploring found news articles concerning these both here in the UK as well as globally. When looking at climate change, for example, students explored both a fishing village in Wales which was dealing with the devastating effects of rising sea levels as well as the unbelievable effects of the fires that ravaged Australia earlier in the year.

BUILDING A THEATRE PIECE

From this we identified some key words, concepts, themes, characters, locations, sound bites and dialogue and began to piece together something that would have theatrical intensity which matched the subject matter.

We started with a series of commands to find space and create imagery;

  • Walking around the space. Find the empty space

  • You can slow down, you can speed up. You CANNOT run

  • You can stop and own the space. Stay as long as you want before moving again

  • If you see a gap between two other actors you can dart between them quickly

  • The leader then uses the following commands;

  • Centre - Actors converge in the centre of the room

  • Side - Actors stand at the side of the space facing in

  • Cross - Actors walk from one side of the space to the other. All should arrive at the same time

  • Magnet - Actors make contact with the closest actor (Do this multiple times and label them Magnet 1, Magnet 2, etc)

  • Theme – Actors create an image based on one of the 5 themes identified earlier (climate change, global pandemics, extremism, body image and social media – again do this multiple times and label them Theme 1, Theme 2, etc)

As the students get more confident get them to pick up the pace and demand a higher level of focus and tension in their images. This activity works best with subtle atmospheric music.

The images the students created we used to create a whole cast picture which they then built up gradually as they entered the space, littering it with key words they’d picked out from the found news stories. The level of focus was intense and the piece already felt like it had weight.

After this we used some mirroring techniques to enable the students to really pay attention to how they move around the space. In pairs, one student would be the leader and pick 3 points around the space and start a journey between them. They would repeat this journey over and over while the follower watched and observed every detail. When did they stop? How long for? Did they slow down or speed up? Where was their focus? What was they posture? What gestures did they use? As the follower got more confident they would become a shadow, copying the actions 2 or 3 steps behind. After a while they would copy the journey identically in time with the leader. Again, I find this works best with music and no verbal communication.

We used this as a basis for how students would move around the space. Creating repeated motifs that would link the piece together.

GOING DEEPER

As students would begin to create their scenes based on the found news stories I introduced a series of rules for their performance work

  • Limit your piece to 60 seconds

  • Use the 5 key words

  • Add 5 asides 

  • Add 1 very short soliloquy

  • Add 3 still images / tableaus 

  • Add 2 moments where all of the actors move (siting to standing, SR to SL, etc)

  • Add 1 movement of slow motion 

  • Add 2 moments of stylistic movement in unison

  • Add 3 moments of Chorus speaking

  • Add a moment of conflict

They could then keep 5 and throw out 5 of these

AN EDUCATORS REFLECTION

As the students built up this performance and became more aware of the skills and techniques they could use I wanted to get to the point where we were able to explore a world without concern or worry and share this through a thought provoking piece of theatre. The real world had other ideas though as Coronavirus spread across our continents, strangely bringing us all together in a way which Pretzel set out to achieve. We just wanted to do it in a much kinder way.

It seems that the symbol of the pretzel is quite appropriate during these difficult times. The crossed dough which represents crossed arms in prayer could not have been better chosen. Look out for those around you and stay safe. As we enter a very different world one thing will remain the same; the need for empathy and to understand each other. Theatre gives us that in abundance.

*Mark Pluckrose

Mark Pluckrose is Subject Lead for Performing Arts (Drama and Music) at Great Torrington School. He is also the Director of Pike and Musket Productions, a theatre and film company for young people. Since taking on his current role 12 years ago, Great Torrington School has seen an extensive overhaul of its Performing Arts provision. Purpose built studios and rehearsal spaces along with a professional recording studio and dedicated team of staff have led to the Performing Arts being the highest achieving and most successful department in the school. This was recognised in 2019 as GTS were shortlisted as School of the Year by ‘The Stage’ publication. As a result Mark was invited to represent National Drama UK at the WAAE in Frankfurt where Preztel Theatre was founded.