Playing Up for a Brighter Future ; Young Londoners On the Margins of Society Are Being Given a Chance to Turn Their Lives Around by an Enterprising Youth Theatre Project, Says Sarah Richardson

Summary

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HOW can drama transform the life of a teenager with no qualifications or permanent home, on the edge of the criminal justice system, and help him or her secure a place at university within 12 months? This is the ambition of the National Youth Theatre's Playing Up project, which provides excluded young people with an opportunity to learn and secure a meaningful qualification to progress to higher education.

The NYT is the national charity responsible for helping to produce some of the UK's best acting talent, including Daniel Craig, Dame Helen Mirren and Little Britain's Matt Lucas and David Walliams (who first started to develop their working relationship here). But it also uses drama to help young people at the margins of society turn their lives around. Last year the NYT worked with 20,000 young people in schools, prisons and young offenders' institutions, for example, giving them the chance to fulfil their potential.

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Extract

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Playing Up for a Brighter Future ; Young Londoners On the Margins of Society Are Being Given a Chance to Turn Their Lives Around by an Enterprising Youth Theatre Project, Says Sarah Richardson

Playing Up is aimed at 14- to 25-yearold Londoners "at risk" (including the homeless, those living in hostels, exoffenders or those at risk of offending, due to social economic disadvantage and "NEETs" -- not in employment, education or training). It gives them a value framework, with clear standards, positive role models and a team spirit, helping them to achiev...

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