Danny Braverman: A career centred on collaboration

So many to choose from! Picking just one, my time as head of Education at Theatre Royal Stratford East had many highlights. Stratford East is my spiritual home. It has a wonderful history as a genuine community theatre, putting learning at its heart since Joan Littlewood took it over in 1953. I would often meet older actors who told me they'd been in Joan's youth theatre. I wonder how many artistic directors of theatres today run their youth theatres? A great youth theatre show does many things, but perhaps the greatest is to celebrate community. I wrote and directed Summer Night's Scream, alongside a brilliant artistic team, and a group of young people with extraordinary talents and dynamism. We adapted the original Shakespeare, delighting in how the poetry of the original chimed with the everyday poetry of hip-hop and East London vernacular. The result was a show that lifted the roof every performance. That group of young people, now into their thirties and forties, keep in touch with each other. Yes, the show was a huge success, but, perhaps more importantly, it represented a celebration of the youth theatre's unique collective identity – something they cherish to this day.