southwark theatres' education partnership

Last Thursday evening, STEP and theatre local teamed up to transform the Bussey Building in Peckham into a film and music venue, as part of the STEP Festival 2011. It was the first time STEP had co-hosted such an event, so we thought this week we'd write about how it went.

Because this year's STEP Festival: STEP Out Loud! is our biggest and best festival yet, we wanted to think about ways that STEP could create out-of-school opportunities for young people across the borough, alongside our school-based projects. We also wanted to challenge ourselves with the project, by experimenting with social networking to see if we could run a project entirely through Facebook. STEP then arranged a meeting with some of our Theatre Partners who were interested in contributing to the development of the project, including Adam Annand from London Bubble and Jake Orr from A Younger Theatre, and we decided to design a project that encouraged young people to make a short film lasting no more than nintey seconds on their mobile phones, set somewhere in Southwark. Films were then to be submitted to our Facebook page, and then screened at a Film Night during the Festival.

We received the following entries on our Facebook page, all of which can be watched below:

Ciarra Nevitt - Hmm Doughnuts

Jade Dowsett-Roberts and Hasan Raza

Nora Tawfiq and LB+ members' video entry can be watched here

STEP teamed up with theatre local, the Royal Court's pop-up Theatre in the Bussey Building, Peckham, to co-host the screening night. As well as the submitted films, we programed short films by professional and emerging filmmakers and screenmakers from Southwark, including The Last Piece by Bola Agbaje, the award-winning short Tight Jeans by Destiny Ekaragha and Pensieve by Kemi David.

After the screening, we organised a Q&A with professional actors, writers and filmmakers who could answer young people's questions about their careers, as well as the differences between creating work for screen and stage. The panel included award-winning playwrights Roy Williams OBE and Bola Agbaje, award-winning filmmaker Destiny Ekaragha and actors Luke McEwan and Ivanno Jeremiah.

The evening was attended by a hundred young people, and Rae Levine and Beauthy Sery-Lou from Harris Academy Bermondsey compered the night and chaired the Q&A discussion.

The panel gave some brilliant advice for the young audience in attendance. Roy Williams advised for the young people to 'write what's in your heart rather than your head' and Bola suggested that young people start writing about 'what you know'. Destiny Ekaragha gave some practical, realistic advice about the nature of film and theatre: 'In this industry, rejection is part of the business. You'll get more rejections than yeses, but be persistent, and don't doubt yourself too much.' Actor Luke McEwan agreed: 'don't wait. Don't hang on the coat-tails of other people, waiting for them to give you a leg up. Look around you for the contemporaries you want to work with, and take the initiative to make your own work.' Finally, actor Ivanno Jeremiah gave an inspiring piece of advice: 'write the art you want to see.' 

The Film Night ended with a screening of a short film exploring different camera techniques made by emerging filmmaker Ella Be, which can be watched here:

STEP has had some brilliant feedback from the young people who attended the night, and it is something we'd like to repeat for the next STEP Festival.