With schools across the world on lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Horsecross Arts, the creative organisation and charity behind Perth Concert Hall and Perth Theatre, is working to battle the impact of isolation and anxiety on teenagers’ mental health – and providing a space to express what the lockdown is like for them.
Young people from Horsecross Arts Join In groups including Perth Youth Theatre, Glee and Perth Youth Dance Company are working alongside groups of teenagers across the world to make their own Coronavirus Time Capsule, a week-by-week video record of the pandemic through the eyes of teenagers.
The Coronavirus Time Capsule is created by London-based youth theatre Company Three and made available to groups of young people across the world. Groups create new videos every week responding to different topics linked to the lockdown.
Groups involved include youth theatres in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and in Ireland, Kenya, Brazil, Australia, Croatia, the Netherlands and the USA. The Horsecross Arts Creative Learning team is working with the young people to publish new videos every week, exploring topics like home life, school, exercise, and friendship. Each video is a window into the worlds of the participants in the project, showing them at home, with their families and in their rooms.
By the end of the lockdown, the group will have created a cumulative time capsule for anyone to watch – and for the participants to look back on and remember this extraordinary time.
The Coronavirus Time Capsule is available for free to youth theatres, educational institutions, student drama groups, amateur companies, and community arts projects everywhere. It includes a blueprint document, online working resources and other online materials. Groups can start now or join later in the process.
Lu Kemp, artistic director for Perth Theatre said:
“At this time where we are personally able to travel no further than a couple of kilometres from our own homes, our Creative Learning team have been stretching their arms across the globe - making new work in conversation and collaboration with young people across the world, through the brilliance of Company Three’s Capsule.”
Horsecross Join In member Bethan Macdonald (17) said:
“I wanted to take part in this project because it provided me with a chance to document what it was like to be a teenager living through a global pandemic so that I and future generations can look back on it. It is also a chance to be involved in a creative project and create something meaningful and worthwhile during this once in a lifetime (hopefully) experience.”
Millie McIntyre (14) said:
“I got involved with the time capsule project because I thought it was really cool to actually do one, also to still be able to continue my acting work with my friends.”
The Coronavirus Time Capsule has been created by Company Three, published in association with Nick Hern Books and developed in partnership with the National Association of Youth Theatres, Scottish Youth Theatre, Youth Arts Network Cymru, the Unicorn Theatre and Central School of Speech and Drama.
The Artistic Director of Company Three, Ned Glasier said:
“We are so excited that Horsecross Arts has joined with this huge network of youth theatres, schools and other youth groups to create their own Coronavirus Time Capsule. We know that the shutdown is particularly difficult for teenagers, living with all that the pandemic has brought and missing out on key rites of passage in their education and emotional development. So we wanted to provide something to provide support, connection and a space to be heard – and a chance to connect with teenagers in similar situations all over the world.”
The Horsecross Arts Coronavirus Time Capsule is available to view on the Horsecross Creative Learning Facebook and Twitter pages and on YouTube.
Horsecross Arts is supported by Creative Scotland, Perth & Kinross Council and The Gannochy Trust.
Friday 24 April 2020