Youth Leadership in the Arts Conference

Mousetrap Theatre Projects’ annual Youth Leadership in the Arts Conference sets out ‘to provide a direct communication between industry professionals and future creative arts professionals; to provide young people with the opportunity to learn about many different aspects, skills and processes of some behind-the-scenes and leadership roles in the arts.’

In principle, this is an excellent idea: and not far removed from what TheatreCraft does on a much larger scale each year. In practice, I had some reservations. The attendees at the conference ranged from 15 to 23. When one speaker asked them to raise their hands, half were aspiring actors, and half considering paths as creatives or in the administrative aspects of theatre.

The sessions I attended, therefore, had shortcomings in terms of their applicability to the audience present. A panel on ‘Rebranding’ with a representative of Mandy (which recently subsumed online CV and job-listings sites Casting Call Pro and Stage Jobs Pro), and Indhu Rubasingham of Kiln (formerly the Tricycle theatre) was very interesting for me but it was difficult to see the relevance for a group of young people who haven't even a first brand, let alone a need to consider a ‘rebrand’. Likewise, though I didn't attend a workshop on Festival Planning and Programming, a young delegate who had remarked on her struggle to see the use of having planned an imaginary festival. And a 40-minute workshop on ‘Hosting a Q&A’ seemed extraordinarily specific in its application. It seems to me that the content is running before it can walk – a far more practical and useful programme would be one in which an inspirational young person who has recently emerged in some of the fields covered: directing, producing, and so on, gives practical advice to those coming up behind about what steps to take to get into a similar field. To an extent this was done on the subject of marketing – but since there was also a panel on social media marketing, this really happened twice.

Having said all this, two keynote speeches, by Jacquie Malcolm of Creative Platform Academy and Emma Rice, were utterly inspirational, motivational, positive and encouraging. The whole day was worth attending just to hear Malcolm and Rice speak for twenty minutes each.

This is a very worthwhile enterprise from an excellent organisation, but it's a missed opportunity. If content were tailored more carefully it could be of much greater real practical value to the young people who attend.

www.mousetrap.org.uk