Twenty South African teenagers hailing from all four corners of Gauteng, gathered excitedly in front of a laptop at the NSA Theatre at the National School of the Arts in Braamfontein. Their purpose as they sat in quiet anticipation? To connect live with another group of teenagers at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, UK.

This was the very first session of Connected, a playmaking exchange project designed for young people and digital times. The seed for Connected was sown as far back as 2012 when Kyla Davis, director of Johannesburg-based theatre company Well Worn was introduced to the producers at Told By An Idiot theatre company in London. Told By An Idiot had already piloted the original version of Connected locally within the UK and were on the lookout for an international partner to take the project global. After some initial conversations, both companies found that they shared similar aims and objectives in terms of how they like to create and perform work and an online friendship was born.

Well Worn is a small but independent theatre company based in Johannesburg, who are passionate about responding to the most pressing cultural, social and ecological needs of our time in order to help transform our society. Told By An Idiot is a well-established UK theatre company, known for their collaboratively created productions that draw on the power of physical play and humour to tell stories. Well Worn are delighted to be working alongside and learning from this highly-acclaimed company with whom they share so many theatre ideals.

Connected focuses on two groups of young people between the ages of 13 and 19, gathering together each Saturday in October to connect via a live, online rehearsal room, with an emphasis on devising a new work. In each session, artist-facilitators from both Well Worn and Told By An Idiot Theatre Company will lead the participants on a creative journey: playing games, instigating improvisations and working on a shared story in preparation for a final performance on Friday, 13 November.

Davis says; “Part of the brief was that we were looking for young people with little or no previous experience of either theatre or the digital sphere. Over 60 participants applied and we could select only 20. So what we have now is a fantastic cross-section of Gauteng teenagers with a very diverse set of skills and experience, all working together with the UK group to create a shared vision for their story. It is a very exciting experiment in theatre-making.”

The storyline and themes for the play are driven by the participants and shaped by the facilitators into engaging pieces of theatre bearing the signature devised and physical theatre styles of Well Worn and Told By An Idiot. While the production will have a strong local flavour, the final play will be threaded through with the influence of each casts’ virtual foreign exchange rehearsal process. The entire devising process will be shared via an online rehearsal room and through on-going, online dialogues between the young participants.

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